Living With Poverty

Being born into poverty does not logically necessitate that one will remain in it for life, but the full extent of how difficult it could be to climb out of poverty is not always recognized.  Life circumstances are already stacked against someone in this situation, and not only is a poor person just trying to survive among the easiest targets for underpayment and overworking (they might be so desperate as to overlook or tolerate them just to get by), but they would also have to face potentially devastating mental health ramifications of their struggles and be at the mercy of a sometimes apathetic or cruel culture.

Almost everything in life poses difficulty for the poor.  For the extremely poor who have no family members not beside them in this trial, it can seem even more hopeless.  The ways poverty can entrap people are many.  For instance, someone would need a car for many jobs (many jobs can be done remotely, but the bubs postings might be misleading or the employers might be pressuring an asinine "return to the office").  A car that runs safely and that probably has a lot of use left can be expensive even aside from rampant inflation.  Beyond simply purchasing a car, someone needs gas, sporadic maintenance or repairs if they can afford them, and insurance to spare them from perhaps having to pay much greater amounts later on.

Food needs to be regularly consumed, safe water needs to be ingested, and then there is the increasing cost of living when it comes to renting a place to live.  Entire times of year could be difficult to weather for those without economic resources to spare; winters, for instance, can be expensive to survive because warmer clothing (atypical clothing in regions warm for most of the year) needs to be bought and and because electrical heating rises in price due to increased usage and demand.  Because smaller emergencies or other sudden problems require larger proportions of a person's regular income, what could be a trivial expense for some people is a major setback for others, taking away money that could have gone towards long-term, more expensive needs that in some instances avert the lesser problem (for example, pressing things such as buying new clothes required for a job, the source of money, might mean a person has to postpone a dental or car repair.

Whatever money is put towards resolving a given health, car, or other issue often means something else must be given up or delayed.  Just abstaining from unnecessary expenses is not enough to stabilize the financial standing of someone like this, as they literally could go without food or be without functioning personal transportation if they were to spend money on a non-necessity.  They are already having to spend too much of what they have or perhaps more.  Overdraft fees, workplace exploitation, and the recurring need for gas, water, food, shelter, and clothing (at least in the sense of fitting in with general society) could hold a person in poverty no matter what they do short of having multiple jobs, which then sacrifices their time and energy.

It is the case that once a person has some amount of secure wealth that they do not need to tap into, it becomes far easier to continue gaining more wealth, be it in the form of money or miscellaneous possessions.  It is also true that a great deal of luck could be involved in whether that initial wealth that facilitates the expansion of wealth is ever achieved.  Chance, oppression of others by theft (by "wage theft" or by "ordinary" theft), and hard work are all possible means of obtaining money, but hard work is the most unlikely of them all to succeed in a culture where the wealthy are given opportunities they do not even need and those who would benefit the most from outside support might be told to just work harder.