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Poverty in America: Why we are to blame

I grew up in poverty.

I didn’t know it at the time, but at some point in my adulthood, I realized as a young child, my family definitely fit the government’s definition of poor, financially speaking.

We weren’t destitute by any means. But my parents made decisions, primarily, to have multiple children (three in fact), have my mother stay at home and raise those children, and have my father employed as a teacher that financially impacted our lifestyle.

We had the simple necessities. I have no memories of going to bed hungry, but I do remember lots of bologna, peanut butter, hot dogs and sometimes, meals with no meat. I remember powdered eggs and milk and never having soda because of the cost.

There were no childhood memories of Disneyland as vacations consisted of visiting family, and if I wanted to watch cable television or play on an Atari game console, I had to go to a friend’s home.

Many of our clothes came from garage sales and eating out was a luxury enjoyed once a month and featured nothing fancier than McDonalds.

And I remember “paying” for my lunch with a card that designated me as a recipient of the federally funded free-lunch program. Looking back, it’s a sad commentary that a teacher’s child qualifies for free and reduced lunches, but that’s a different subject.

Yes, we were poor; the result was I was shoveling snow and raking yards by 8, babysitting during the summer months at the age of 12 and lying about my age so I could be a bowling alley short-order cook at 14.

That work ethic followed me through high school and college, where I worked at an amusement park, tutored French, umpired beer-league softball, washed cars and when given the opportunity, started writing a column for $5 a week.

With those past experiences in mind, I recently watched “American Winter” a documentary chronicling poverty in modern day America. I was prepared, and maybe even wanting, to feel compassion for these families.

Instead, I left the theatre frustrated and a whole lot of angry.

I’m frustrated our economic system is killing this nation from within. We were once a country that made things. Now, we are a country that buys things. Throughout the last several decades, we have fatally embraced consumerism. We want as much stuff as we can get, as cheaply as we can get it. As a result, we buy goods made overseas where workers are paid pennies on the dollar and we buy those things from corporate giants instead of supporting locally-owned stores.

As a result of our consumer habits, we no longer make anything in America. So when the high school graduate needs to get a job to support his family, the factory he would have gone to 50 years ago is closed, leaving service-oriented jobs like flipping burgers or stocking shelves as the only option. And now, as a result, we see in the political realm a movement to pay that burger flipper the same living wage as a factory worker.

Capitalism is two things: consumer-driven and predatory. America, defined by this economic system, has been perceived for centuries as the land of opportunity. But what isn’t stated is while that opportunity exists, it’s just that, an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to succeed and an opportunity to fail.

Coupled with this economic shift away from manufacturing, the opportunities to fail are even more numerous today than ever.

Poverty is nothing new in America. People have always made mistakes and seemingly failed during periods of their life. But in the past, instead of counting on the government to provide a safety net, the community served that role, primarily through the church.

But that’s not possible today as the church in general has never been weaker in terms of attendance, participation and as such, outreach.

While the reasons for that decline are numerous, the result is closed shelters, less food on pantry shelves, fewer dollars for rent or utility assistance and shuttered charitable hospitals.

Now, as our society turns away from God, we want government to offer the relief once provided by the church.

And that makes me angry.

As a Christian, I try my best to use the Bible as a guidepost for my actions. The greatest commandments in the Bible are to love God and to love each other as Jesus loves us. As such, I feel it is my Christian obligation to care for others and show mercy and compassion whenever possible.

But that is my personal conviction.

For the same reason I can’t support Christians legislating their morality by banning homosexual marriage, I also can’t abide expanding social programs, establishing tax codes or minimum wage laws because it’s what Jesus would want.

Regardless of the reason, I want religion out of my government. The two should never mix. If we as a society no longer want to voluntarily support our fellow man, then government shouldn’t force it.

If as a society, we want to reduce poverty, we have three options: one, reduce the frequency and cause of bad decisions through education; two, stop buying overseas goods from corporate giants; or three, make church the priority it once was, enabling it to provide the support it once did.

Without one of those three, our American Winter is going to last a lot longer.

Gregory Orear is the publisher of The Journal. His award-winning weekly column, What’s Going On, has been published in four newspapers in three states for more than 20 years. He can be contacted at gorear@nujournal.com.

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