Some people really are that poor through no fault of their own. And some people do make bad choices. I think the danger lies in making broad assumptions when sometimes each individual story is very different.
This isn't something people would choose. But it is something that can happen either because someone was very unlucky, or very badly organised. Or both.
We live in a society where so many messages being sent, by advertising, by subtle hints in various TV shows supposedly reflecting 'reality', how in so many ways we see depicted a lifestyle which is supposedly typical - the family owns their own home (with garden and white picket fence); owns a car per adult driver; has all the whitegoods they need; everyone is always well-dressed in the latest fashions and often coordinated fashion at that; can always afford to go out to eat regularly; always has home-cooked meals which resemble something a hotel chef would produce for a 50 seat banquet (unless they are ordering the takeaway meal of the moment); of course always has cable; etc. And it is always presented in a way to make you feel guilty or inadequate if you do not have this for your family.
It's not just America. We have this in Australia too.
husband & I used to sell party-plan house plants. It was a fairly expensive product, but a good one. Still, it was a luxury. We found that our best customers were also the ones on welfare (the Aussie equivalent). The ones on assisted housing (and who therefore had already been struggling with a lot of life's problems) as well as on single parent benefits, disability pensions, compensation payouts - we had to organise our deliveries to coincide with pension pay week. Because we were invited into their homes we saw how they lived - no expense was spared, in a lot of cases. These people lived the lifestyle they BELIEVED everyone else lived. "We may be struggling, we may be poor, but we have the same blasted living standard of the ones who aren't struggling." Only they didn't - they had more. They didn't realise that they had been conned by commerce and free enterprise. These people are where a large portion of the national credit debt can be found, as they desperately try to live as they are told they should be living.
husband & I would see the new big-screen TVs, the latest model of extra large fridge, the new car with extra trims, then go home to our small borrowed b/w TV, the second-hand fridge that needed defrosting every two weeks (we still have it), in our dented but much-loved and cared-for small sedan. Superficially, it looked like we were living a life of poverty. We weren't - but sometimes it seemed we were the only sane ones in a huge capitalist lie.
Some people can survive like this, some people (a lot of people) eventually find it catches up to them. But who is really to blame? These people are only living as they are told they should be living.
In Sydney, our rents have gone up 25% in the last 4 months. That's just a sample - they've been rising like this for the last few years. House prices are currently falling, but not far enough for a renter to afford. we lack enough roofs to put over people's heads, even those who can afford it. And moving away from the city to a cheaper area - not a good idea, because although it may be cheaper to live there, you need an income. Our welfare will move you back to where there are jobs. The city.
It's increasingly getting to the stage where only the most shrewd, independent, innovative individuals are not getting caught by the increase in debt.
I regularly get phone calls from people trying to sell me re-finance. A few years ago they were trying to sell me time-share. Now, the line is, "Invest the equity in your home, into more property. Negative gear it so you can claim the income from the newly-purchased rental property as a tax deduction. Become a property owner and make yourself rich by not letting your equity sit there idle."
In other words, if you have paid off a large enough portion of your home, no longer is it the ideal to pay it all off as fast as you can and then enjoy not having a mortgage. Now they want you to risk everything by taking out a mortgage, or a second or third mortgage, and sinking the lot on another property which you can rent. "Property values always rise," they say. Not at the moment they're not.
Or people are being advised to use the equity to take that world trip they'd always promised themselves. "You deserve it," we are told. Groups form - SKI - "Spending the Kids' Inheritance" is seen as the sensible way to behave in your middle age.
The idea is being spread to otherwise careful, sensible people that this is a safe way to manage your finances. So now, it's not just those on struggle street who are spending inadvisably, it's otherwise sensible, moderately affluent people who have worked hard to pay their bills who are being encouraged to be spendthrifts.
The market is the guide, as to the quantity. And I would get more calls now than I used to (maybe ten times the number) and these days, ALL trying to sell us another mortgage. When we refuse, we are told we are naive and foolish. But this is what is driving the rents up, driving down the availability of properties to rent, driving up the national debt, and in general doing so much damage in so many ways.
We believe we "deserve" a certain lifestyle and advertising and the media are responsible. It is unrealistic. We are being conned. And the less canny among us (or the less fortunate) are the ones who end up sleeping in their cars as a result.
It's winter here now. That's when, every year, we get the winter appeals for homeless people. Our TV advertising is full of it at the moment. We get documentaries on it. Saturation coverage. And still we get phone calls trying to sell us reverse mortgages.
Marg