What Makes Being Poor in The United States Suck?

[DivinePaladin]

sc94597 said:

DivinePaladin said:

sc94597 said:

So what are the poor missing out on in the U.S that makes people from other countries so scared of being poor here? I find the poor live a life of luxury to be honest. The only thing I feel I missed out on was a real, cohesive, and intelligent upbringing. But I figured that out for myself. 

It sounds like you lucked out honestly, as messed up as that sounds. Poor isn't just a static thing, and not very many poor people are "lucky" enough to have all the government benefits that you did growing up. I grew up poor but my mentally impaired mother and caring stepfather had to pay out the ass for rent, we went a couple different year long periods without Internet or cable, electricity was high, et alia. When my stepdad tore his rotator cuff(s) he lost his job within six months despite being there for 15 years and after months of struggling with it we finally got on food stamps. Not very many at all - something like $150 or so between two people (my mom briefly moved away). And my entire child support and a week of pay went to help rent. He maxed out everything he had in this period and my brother by chance had to come live with us because he's also poor and lost his apartment because he couldn't afford paying $400 a month for what was no more than a 30 square foot apartment, and that helped pay the bills. My mom was always lucky enough to have full insurance because she absolutely needed it (asthma, copd, etc.) and I was on my dad's insurance plan but I haven't had dental for a good decade. My stepdad is now dead, I didn't have the credit or a cosigner to help get the college loans I needed, and I'm living with a friend while I transfer to a community college where (thankfully) I'll likely be paying nothing. Most of this was last year, and I live in PA as well. 

Every person that i knew who fit the requirements got the same/similar benefits, so I don't see how my family was special in that regard. Now that isn't to say that people who didn't receive the benefits didn't struggle, just that they didn't fit the arbitrary, but strict, requirements. I had many lower-middle class friends whose parents pinched much more and struggled a lot more than my "impoverished" friends and my family. It is a shame, and it is one of the reasons why I support a negative income tax rather than the welfare system we have now that only rewards people who work just enough, but not too much. 

Did you not qualify for federal loans? The requirements for those are much more lenient than the requirements for welfare. There is no cosigner required either, and half of them are subsidized until graduation. Especially since you have certain circumstances involved, if you mention that to your school of interest and on the FAFSA they will work with you independent of the number that you got for your EFC (Expected Family Contribution.)

I went through every route I could with the FAFSA side of things. Tried the DirectPlus loan, tried working through my uncooperative college, everything. Explained every little issue. I even outright asked before I committed whether this would become an issue (I chose a fairly expensive college, but with what I was given through the aid I did get and scholarships, it was no more than a state school), and I was told it would not. Essentially my extensive research and inquiries during junior year lied to me about how that process worked, and now I technically owe five figures to that college because of it even though I had loaned ten grand from my grandmother to pay that off just to be able to do my second term. 

 

As for the first part of your reply, there are big caveats to those requirements. We didn't qualify for food stamps for so long because my mother being on medicare somehow interfered despite that not even being a real issue as far as I've researched. It depends on who you are and who you're working with even though it is supposed to be impartial; some sects will hold firm on "rules" like the one that screwed us above until you fight for a long enough time that they cave in. Hell for a while they even kicked her off medicare because there was an issue with our food stamps! I never followed that specifically enough to give better details honestly - I was more worried about being a teenager at the time and having fun while I could. Trust me by experience when I say it doesn't always work like it should.

 

And for the record, I'm white. No discrimination by race going on or anything with any of the above issues, just the state being inconsistent as all hell at times.