I once spent three days living off only a bagel, an apple and tea because all my accounts were overdrawn and I literally had no money for food. I have walked into stores and looked at items that cost £2.50 and decided it was too expensive for me. I have begged for emergency money from people who could barely afford to give it to me because I literally had none. 

I would not consider myself someone who has lived in poverty. I had no money because I was spending all my income on a university degree. I worked my ass off, sometimes working over 70 hours a week in order to make ends meet, and it was hard and I’m not denying that, but I was literally buying a better future for myself. I was buying options. 

Poverty is not just about a lack of money. Many people are very fond of pointing out that the poor in the United States, for example, have hot water, electricity, homes, even TVs. We have this Victorian image of poverty, that if a poor person isn’t standing on a street corner crying “please sir, can I have some more?” they’re not really poor. 

Poverty is a lack of options. Poverty is the fact that Black Americans living in Harlem have a shorter life expectancy than Bangladeshi men, even though they earn considerably more and America has a much higher GDP.(1) They are impoverished by the years they will not have.

Poverty is the achievement gap. The fact that children raised in stressful homes, who are exposed to violence on a daily basis are at a considerably greater risk of developing fatal health conditions later in life. That they are 32 times as likely to have a learning disability, and 12 times as likely to attempt suicide.(2) That are automatically classed as “problem kids” in schools, and are set up to fail in a system that recognises only cognitive development and standardised testing as success.

Poverty is the kids who are allowed to drop out of school because they’re “problem kids”, who are statistically less likely to do well in life, even if they get their GED. 

Poverty is living in government housing, and having your house infested with bedbugs, or neighbours who deal drugs, or gangs on your street, and being unable to move house or ask your landlord for help. 

Poverty is living in a food desert, and being judged for your eating choices. 

Poverty is a complex issue. It is not just about income. It is not possible to solve by pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps. You can only pull yourself up if you have somewhere to go. People who are denied freedoms, denied options and are confined to a system that perpetuates poverty, compounds their health difficulties and literally shortens their lives can’t solve their problems by “working harder”. We need to stop thinking about the poverty line in terms of GDP – economists, particularly those studying the third world, have largely adopted Amartya Sen’s concept of poverty as a lack of freedom. Why hasn’t political discussion? 

(1) Sen, A. 1999. Development As Freedom. OUP. Pp. 23-4. 
(2) Felitti, V. J. 2002. “The Relationship of Adverse Childhood Experiences to Adult Health: Turning gold into lead”. Zpsychsom Med Psychother 48 (4): 359-369.

(Cross posted to my LJ)