A facebook comment irked me a couple days ago from someone who said "there is no poverty in the United States." Another friend suggested "If you have money for cigarettes and tatoos you do not need welfare or food stamps."
Of course neither of these are accurate statements. They are ridiculous and easily dismissed when someone is willing to participate in a conversation The truth is Poverty has changed in the United States.
The breadlines and homeless families we remember seeing on grainy black and white photos which depicted the worst of the Great Depression are no longer common. The homeless we see on the street now are most likely mentally ill, addicts, probably a combination of both.
Where did everyone else go?
They moved. The government got tired of seeing families suffer, taxes were collected and programs created. The breadlines and soup kitchens moved from the street to the checkout line in Walmart. The homeless families moved from the back alleys to government housing. Those who were dying in the streets of America are now able to die in emergency rooms and cannot be turned away.
They moved but they are not gone.
The food stamp EBT card, which is making banks rich, is making families fat and unhealthy. Government housing is substandard, dangerous and is surrounded by gates and police. It is a soul-crushing place to live and raise your family. Education is little more than a lottery ticket. Medicaid cares for some of the poor but never the poorest of the poor. The consequences of poverty have shifted from physical harm to mental detriment. The suffering is hidden away behind a poorly locked door. Poverty no longer evokes our sympathy. Christ never saw poverty as a consequence for behavior. He never condemed the poor for being so. He never admonished the beggers. But we do.
Government programs are not the answer to eradicating poverty. Government programs greatest accomplishment has been to plant a seed of jealousy, justify our hate and permit our spit on those who suffer the most in our country.
I am grateful that my tax dollars go towards the *massive* 13% of our national budget to safety net programs (http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1258). I am thankful my government got tired of seeing hungry children in the street and babies dying of curable diseases. Thank God for these safety nets. However the unintended consequence of hiding poverty away from public view is that we created an illusion that poverty no longer exists in the United States.
Poverty is much more than a financial situation.
Poverty is abuse. Poverty is addiction. Poverty is madness. Poverty is depression. Poverty asks more of us than just a handout. It asks us to educate ourselves. It asks us to befriend and become uncomfortably involved in the lives of those we serve. It challenges us to find a higher level compassion, to see the poor as Christ...pure and blameless.
