Plights of Poor Not Poverty Part 2/ Everyone Isn't lying about Their Lives

   In my previous post explained the inexplicable people have for both people in poverty and for poor people for not fully being in poverty nor able to coupon clip their way to a comfortable living situation. Asking people (entire groups of people) to live paycheck to paycheck and never have a sense of financial comfort is not an acceptable solution. One because it shows that you lack basic empathy or compassion for your fellow human. That should always be at the top of the list because it is the most disturbing. That is not a standard of living, it is especially not one you can demand of other people. Other people who had different circumstances than you which worked out in your favor.. Secondly, it is an invalid argument so retire it. Lastly, not only is it an invalid argument and an inconsiderate thought process it is physically damaging. It is damaging to a person or family to live in perpetual state of fear of becoming destitute. Not only are people in poverty, and poor people more likely to get sick as a result of their lack of nutrition, their inability to stop working long enough to relax and allow their body the time necessary time to build its immune system instead of constantly depleting it the constant worry adversely affects your body. This is not hyperbole. This is proven fact. This is not even taking into account that they can not afford to receive medical attention. I know someone who ended up in the hospital because they were unable to see a doctor and attempted to power through until they couldn't. The inability to afford a doctor extends past having insurance, or the ability to pay the doctor but also the ability to miss work to get better. You can not ask that of someone to subject themselves to that because the reality that the system needs to be fixed is uncomfortable for you.

    My husband has one of the coveted full-time jobs, that provides health insurance for him and pays around twice the minimum wage. (7.25 is the national minimum wage by the way, seven dollars. There is not a job that is only worth that; there is not a person that is not worth more than that. No where in the country can you rent a two bedroom apartment for that working full time. People are not not asking for much.) This is after years of both of us working and only being able to get part time jobs because no employer wanted to provide the coveted "benefits" that are legally attached to a full time position.Employers would post jobs for one hour less than the requirement for a job to be deemed "full time". One employer he interviewed with told him that he would actually be working full time but part of his time would be under a different title and payed with other funds as to deny him full time benefits due his job. Does that sound legal to you?
   Now he has the coveted full time job, the "skilled" job that he went to school for. The job we were promised would end all our financial woes because it was full-time job with (limited) benefits. Not just a job, a career with a Master's degree. This is what we've aimed for. This is what people who have already benefited from the way the system worked so they can comfortably ignore that the system has broken and is crushing people's lives. Careers use to be able to pay for homes and provide for entire families. They use to provide adequate health care for entire families. My husband earns a few dollars more than twice the minimum wage from his government job and we qualify for government assistance. Let that sink in. The government agrees that the government doesn't pay his full-time above twice the minimum wage job.
   More than an entire paycheck goes to rent. More than one paycheck. We get paid twice a month. So we are living off one paycheck a month. Except that we did the math and after bills we have less than 200 dollars a month. Less than two hundred dollars a month after covering the basics. We have no where to "cut back" as is so helpfully suggested by others who have not had so little in their account since sophomore year of college. We don't but the expensive daily coffee everyone suggests omitting will  magically turn into an influx of cash. (Do people really think a cheap comfort really can make the difference between poverty and affluence?) We live in a small apartment where you can hear the neighbors outside, and it has bugs. We have one child and don't feel like we can afford another one. If we tried to bring a baby home there would likely be more bugs because we couldn't use an chemicals to get rid of them and I'm terrified that bugs would crawl on my child.This is the world that you contribute to when you argue against raising the minimum wage despite the  radical hikes in rent prices, student loans and general cost of living, when you tell people that should just "pull themselves up by your bootstraps" and create alternative narratives than the ones that thousands of people tell you.