Poverty Threshold

I was reading Robert Bells article “How Poor is Poor” this morning. Borrowing from his thoughts:

“Since the inception of “the poverty threshold”, the definition of poor (an arbitrary government measurement) continues to be adjusted upwards. By any reasonable comparison to developing nations, the presumed poor in America have little to complain about. Moreover, the US economy has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the industrialized world. In light of the facts and just a little common sense, one might conclude that “poverty” is more of a political distinction than a literal state of impoverishment.” (emphasis added)

I was immediately reminded of a story related to our congregation at church. It was a while back and many of the details escape me; however, the information is worth sharing.

There was a family coming from Eastern Europe to a particular town in America after having lost everything during WWII. They had nothing except the clothes on their backs and it was Christmas time. The local Bishop had only a short notification that the family would arrive, a day or two tops, as he arranged for them to stay in a vacant room; either a cellar or above a garage, I cannot recall. In either case the room was barren except for a single light bulb hanging by its electrical cord from the ceiling, a make shift bathroom in one corner and nothing else.

The local Bishop called his Elder’s Quorum leaders and the Relief Society leaders over to see what could be done to make the place more livable. He left it in their care hoping that a little cleaning, maybe a shower curtain could be obtained to lend some privacy; after all, on such short notice and so close to Christmas it would be difficult to get much done. With the war being over, times were not easy for anyone and asking for help from those without much to begin with would be doubly difficult.

These folks went about building a walled partition for the bathroom area, painting the walls, putting in a light fixture, putting curtains on the lone window, carpeting the room, providing furniture to include a bed, a sofa, a small dining room table and chairs, a small refrigerator stocked with food and many small articles that we all take for granted.

The Bishop went to the bus depot and drove the family to their new home, unaware of the efforts that had been completed in his absence. Upon opening the door and entering, the room appeared as a gift from heaven. Instead of a cold and foreboding storage area, it was now a home ready for a small family. Instead of poverty these folks had managed to secure wealth beyond monetary comprehension. The quality of life that was provided did not cost a fortune; a sofa from Joe, a set of curtains sewn by Betty, a bathroom wall built out of a few scrap pieces of lumber and painted walls did not cost that much. There was no way to express the joy felt by all that night other than to say that nobody expected such a fine home to be made available.

When I hear about the poor, those who have little or nothing I have to ask myself what it is folks expect; for it is in the expectation where poor and rich is decided, not the cost. When Lucy and I got started as a newly married couple we lived in a one bedroom apartment, had a car to drive and had no idea we were poor; at least not by the quality of life we had. Our rent was $ 175 a month, car payment was $ 62 a month and we lived within our means; meager at best. We both were working for bare minimum hourly wage, roughly $ 2 an hour. There wasn’t a lot of money to paint the town red at the end of each week. We had no television to watch; much less the time to watch it as we both worked as many hours as we could. It never dawned on us that we were poor because we had sufficient for our needs. We had no credit card debt because we had no credit cards. If we couldn’t pay cash we did without. When I joined the police department it was a huge jump in pay for me; that should tell you how little I was making.

I have to wonder about arbitrary conditions assigned to classifications such as poor or wealthy. Robert mentioned the idea of a new Theory on Relativity, and that would be an interesting venture. Everything is relative to expectation and so poor is a state of mind, not a state of existence. If it were not for politicians constantly telling us how bad things are, how much better off we should be, how much they can do for us ( with other people’s money ); maybe life would be so much the better. I have to pinch myself once in a while as I look around and appreciate the many wonderful blessings I have at my finger tips. Being grateful for what I do have rather than complaining about what I don’t have is the difference between being poor or wealthy. Learning to appreciate the fact that if I want more I can learn how to improve my situation and thereby obtain more is the legacy of America, not the class envy prescribed by so many of our politicians.