Musings on Poverty

I am reading ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’. It's about a young girl growing up in the slums of Brooklyn around the early 1900's. It’s interesting because it describes the way people lived at that time, and the things they used. Some of the objects they use are strange, like paper collars, which the father wears. They are like a fake white shirt made from linen paper that he wears under his tuxedo jacket, and buys a new one daily. I guess then he doesn’t need a shirt, and doesn’t have to pay for its cleaning. The people seem to be a lot poorer, judging by our poverty standards. They can barely buy any stale bread, and need to save by the penny, instead of the dollar, in order to buy some land. Buying the land is a future investment, that they want in order to change their status as landless, working poor. Part of it, the poverty levels, could be that inflation makes everything seem cheaper then, so people survived on what seems like less. But, I think the standards were lower, since even poor people have a TV now, and more material possessions in general. The poor back then barely can afford a white shirt or decent food. Plus, a lot of the way they do things is foreign to our times. One thing is that they know all the shopkeepers, and go to them to establish credit, so they can buy food before a paycheck arrives. In fact, they know everyone in the neighborhood. But they probably seem well off to third world inhabitants now, since they have food and access to water.

In some ways, reading the book is depressing, since it reminds me of how everything is a struggle; to find a decent job, buy a house or land, and to raise yourself above your class levels. And it is a never ending struggle, since there are always people who are being left out, and don't have even a remotely tolerable standard of living. Yet, there are other people who are just born into a rich lifestyle, and it doesn't even enter their conciousness that some people are barely managing to get enough to stay alive, much less improve their situation for their children. I think the class system and the unequal distribution of resources is one of the biggest problems facing our society, and the world, and this problem doesn't seem likely to change anytime soon, not without a huge revolt.