When will it stop?

I am currently interning at a major non-profit organization that has offices in every major city in the United States. At our branch we help anywhere from senior services to budgeting and networking classes. It is safe to say that there are a lot of clients in and out of those doors on a daily basis. I am assisting with starting a weekend feeding lunch program for high school students, working with new refugees in the resettlement process, and helping seniors receive funds to pay for their various needs. I am never bored and always busy. But, I was thinking the other day about why social service agencies exist, and if they will always be around. The existence of social services makes my current career plans, to become a social worker, possible. I was thinking about how people come into our agency and receive, lets say money to pay their electric bill. There is a whole process between the client, the electric company, and our agency to get this job done. It is not a fast process and it is not an easy process. And I would like to note that probably 60% of the people that come in for some sort of help have had an unforeseen circumstance come up. They might have lost their job, had a loved one pass away or had medical expenses they had to pay for. But, the other 40% of people have no income, except for maybe food stamps, and go to social service agencies for help on a monthly or weekly basis.  I was trying to put myself in that situation and could not imagine a harder life. Why do they need to go from agency to church to family member constantly for help? Was it something they did? What is paying one bill going to really help their situation? Nonetheless, most of these people do not know how they are going to find food to put on the dinner table and need help from somewhere, but where? We come across these people everyday. They are living amongst us and contributing to our society. How can we help them?

I cannot imagine how many people all over the United States live like this and what they go through on a daily basis. I was trying to think of what the agency I work for is doing, and how it only provided temporary support. What if we changed the whole system so people could live on a long-term basis, not a short-term one? I’m sure I am not the only one, no I know I am not the only one that has thought like this before.

                                                   Image Credit: Productive Flourishing

The first thing that came into my head was the cycle of poverty I learned about in school, and how if we do not break this cycle then people will be eternally in poverty. There are some people that have the will and the way to overcome the terrible situation they were born into and to say good-bye to poverty. But, this is very hard and maybe impossible to do by yourself. How can we make it easier for people to be forever helped and escape the life they were “given”?

In David K. Shipler’s article, "Total Poverty Awareness", he talks about how poverty is closer to an ecological system than a culture. He brings up great points about how every person in this system needs to work together to help get people out of poverty. He states:

But poverty is not a culture. It's more like an ecological system of relationships among individuals, families and the environment of schools, neighborhoods, jobs and government services. Professionals who aid the poor witness the toxic interactions every day. Doctors see patients affected by dangerous housing, erratic work schedules, transportation difficulties and poor child-rearing skills. Teachers see pupils undermined by violence at home and malnutrition.

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He then brings up that we need to change the system and make services interlinked. I completely agree. People go from one agency to another and have to fill out application after application. Apparently, there were community action centers that did just this. These were developed under a program in the War on Poverty. Shipler talks about this in his article and says that politicians disliked these centers because they “were doing something very good.” The money eventually ran out. This goes to another reason I was thinking on why people are still living in poverty. Maybe, there are people that do not want the system to change and think that the class system is not only fitting, but also essential to keeping the world as it “should be.” Messed up as that might be, I cannot think of another overarching reason why there are still people living this way in the richest country in the world. 

An interview with David K. Shipler talks about his book,The Working Poor, Invisible in America, and more about the ecology of poverty. In this interview a quote jumped out to me that went along with this blog subject. He said, "We can afford a lot of things that we could not probably afford if people were paid a living wage, a much higher wage." This is a big motive for the system not changing because it will impair the middle and upper classes from living how they want to live. 

I also thought it was interesting to see where David Shipler came from and how he got involved in researching people in poverty. This blog gives a brief history of David Shipler and a time line on what he has been involved in during his life.


Links to go more in-depth in the issue:

The Shipler Report- David Shipler's very own blog updated frequently. This is where he shares some of his thoughts, ideas, and insights.

A recent interview with David Shipler by "Guernica" an art and political magazine. Very interesting interview about his thoughts on our current president, everyone having a right, and power.

A book review by the "New York Times" on David Shipler's book, The Rights of the People. Talks all about this book that Shipler has written and gives a good insight into the reviewers thoughts.