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thoughts on poverty
Sep. 3rd, 2005 05:55 pmthis link on being poor posted by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dreamingcrow got me thinking...
(copying message)
reading the post...
actually I've been dreadfully poor most of my life. I'm constantly amazed by how much I DO end up doing.
Someday I'll be at or above the poverty line. That'd be cool....
My current car is $200. I have to sell the other one because it's too fancy. I'm paying for this car in odd jobs. Oh and I know how to keep it on the road.
Being poor is relying on people who don't give a damn about you. SOO TRUE.
Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so. - I flipping didn't. I don't know why I still am. ohh *sigh of frustration*.
My grandparents lived through war-era Netherlands and I learned how to survive reasonably well from them...
I live in a nice house. Sure I need two roommates to cover for things - but it's cheaper than living in an apartment and a whole pile nicer. It's a beautiful house in a nice neighbourhood too and I feel so lucky for making it here. I have one really nice roommate at the moment. hmm. I'll have to find another soon.
a couple of my own:
- being poor means learning basic medicine from your family because a couple studied medicine because you KNOW you can't afford to go to the walk-in clinic. And then finding out when you get too sick to do anything else that they've stopped billing everyone a basic fee who walks in *phew* that's how I survived the last month.
- being poor means learning how to fix EVERYTHING because you'll never replace it. One benefit is my last job was because of learning this.
- being poor means losing university because you can't afford the new tax... and that means you don't eat for 4 months. This is the final thing that threw me over the edge and I dropped out of university - they introduced GST and the tax cost me my food budget.
- being poor means being grateful the car you've got is cheaper to drive than taking the bus. And knowing how to fix it, even when really really serious things break. (I've got to do the driveshaft now. I just did another repair to the differential. I'm hoping that nothing else goes soon because I had to borrow to get the parts)
- and growing up: being poor is: Growing all your own food. Not having power or any other service you can't make of the land you live on. Seeing your family custom make tools from wood that grows there. Scraping through by selling most of the food you grow. And trading with other people in similar conditions so that everyone's got a little more variety. Living in a house your folks built because living on a land with no houses was much much cheaper than anything else.
- being poor is hoping you can finally get some real food as living on bad food has broken your digestive system. (hence my food sensitivities and allergies. Think about it). And looking forward to the once a week business meeting with (hopeful) business as that'll be your best meal of the week.
- Being poor is having too much pride to admit it and to do anything you can to not have that as part of your identity.
folks don't expect me to make any further comments this way. I don't like being poor - I don't like admitting it and I try to avoid having it be part of why I do anything. I'm now in debt to a number larger than 2 years of income in the hopes that I'll finally GET an income. I haven't actually been paid since February and have been operating under loans. I don't qualify for EI and thanks to the loans I don't qualify for welfare either. However I stand a reasonably good chance at making between 3 and 10 times my usual income (<$10K a year) if everything goes well in the next few weeks.
dreamingcrow got me thinking...(copying message)
reading the post...
actually I've been dreadfully poor most of my life. I'm constantly amazed by how much I DO end up doing.
Someday I'll be at or above the poverty line. That'd be cool....
My current car is $200. I have to sell the other one because it's too fancy. I'm paying for this car in odd jobs. Oh and I know how to keep it on the road.
Being poor is relying on people who don't give a damn about you. SOO TRUE.
Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so. - I flipping didn't. I don't know why I still am. ohh *sigh of frustration*.
My grandparents lived through war-era Netherlands and I learned how to survive reasonably well from them...
I live in a nice house. Sure I need two roommates to cover for things - but it's cheaper than living in an apartment and a whole pile nicer. It's a beautiful house in a nice neighbourhood too and I feel so lucky for making it here. I have one really nice roommate at the moment. hmm. I'll have to find another soon.
a couple of my own:
- being poor means learning basic medicine from your family because a couple studied medicine because you KNOW you can't afford to go to the walk-in clinic. And then finding out when you get too sick to do anything else that they've stopped billing everyone a basic fee who walks in *phew* that's how I survived the last month.
- being poor means learning how to fix EVERYTHING because you'll never replace it. One benefit is my last job was because of learning this.
- being poor means losing university because you can't afford the new tax... and that means you don't eat for 4 months. This is the final thing that threw me over the edge and I dropped out of university - they introduced GST and the tax cost me my food budget.
- being poor means being grateful the car you've got is cheaper to drive than taking the bus. And knowing how to fix it, even when really really serious things break. (I've got to do the driveshaft now. I just did another repair to the differential. I'm hoping that nothing else goes soon because I had to borrow to get the parts)
- and growing up: being poor is: Growing all your own food. Not having power or any other service you can't make of the land you live on. Seeing your family custom make tools from wood that grows there. Scraping through by selling most of the food you grow. And trading with other people in similar conditions so that everyone's got a little more variety. Living in a house your folks built because living on a land with no houses was much much cheaper than anything else.
- being poor is hoping you can finally get some real food as living on bad food has broken your digestive system. (hence my food sensitivities and allergies. Think about it). And looking forward to the once a week business meeting with (hopeful) business as that'll be your best meal of the week.
- Being poor is having too much pride to admit it and to do anything you can to not have that as part of your identity.
folks don't expect me to make any further comments this way. I don't like being poor - I don't like admitting it and I try to avoid having it be part of why I do anything. I'm now in debt to a number larger than 2 years of income in the hopes that I'll finally GET an income. I haven't actually been paid since February and have been operating under loans. I don't qualify for EI and thanks to the loans I don't qualify for welfare either. However I stand a reasonably good chance at making between 3 and 10 times my usual income (<$10K a year) if everything goes well in the next few weeks.
