The working poor do
without a lot. I am defining the working
poor as those people who work and live paycheck to paycheck. Whether they have kids or not, they make too
much money to qualify for food stamps, but not enough money to afford
extras. They work and work and work, and
barely make enough to survive.
I identify myself as a
member of the working poor, and I have been since the age of 20, when I moved
out of my parent’s house. I’ve worked a
string of part and full-time jobs since the age of 16, but working for survival
started when I set out on my own. I had
a year of college under my belt, but no skills to speak of. Subsequently, I ended up only qualifying for
unskilled jobs in the customer service area and warehouse work. I’ve been a cashier, customer service rep,
vendor, and stocker for over 10 different companies. In 12 years, I’ve only been on food stamps
for 1 year. In this time, I’ve been
denied many things the middle and upper classes take for granted.
The biggest item is
food. The ability to buy whatever you
want at the grocery store is a foreign concept to the working poor. So is eating out at any type of
restaurant. Even getting Mickey D’s for
a family of 4 will cost over $10, and that is money that would be better spent
on gas. When money is scarce, like
between paychecks, my family will be living on sandwiches. And I know we are not the only ones. Some items we cannot always afford are in the
meat and produce sections, such as beef, pork chops, chicken, oranges, broccoli,
and grapes. Essentially all foods sold
by the pound. Cheese is also an
expensive item. Booze is an extension of
the food group, and it is something the working poor can rarely afford. Sometimes I just want to end my day with an
ice cold flavored beer or shot of chocolate schnapps. Does it happen? Maybe once a year.
An interesting side effect
of not having enough food is that when the pantry is actually stocked, the
working poor hurry to empty it. Thus, we
eat all the good stuff in a hurry, leaving the bare remains to last the rest of
the pay period. This is the same thing
we do with money: spend it before it’s gone.
It makes no sense to outsiders, but to us, it makes perfect sense. The cheese will be gone (eaten) in a day or
two. I can’t really explain this any
better- you have to live it to understand.
Entertainment is another
thing the working poor have less of. We
may have TVs and basic cable. We might
even have computers and the internet.
But do we go out to movies? Do we
go to concerts? To sporting events? How about taking a nice vacation? NOPE.
These are all too expensive. I
have to wait for movies to come out on DVD before I can watch them. I can’t even afford to buy my books- I get
them from the library.
