Reflection on the Poverty Challenge

This reflection on the Poverty Challenge experience comes to us from Erin Meegan, staff member for Buffalo Common Council Member Michael Kearns.

I pride myself on being a person who isn’t into money. I don’t wear designer labels or even shop at malls for clothes (Goodwill and Target are fine with me). I don’t care about cars or jewelry. I have been to Central America and India and seen how my choices and the choices of other people in developed nations often enslave the poorest and most vulnerable. I believe in living simply so that others may simply live. And I work for the city because I believe what I do helps make Buffalo a better place to live, even though I could be making more in the private sector.

And yet, I couldn’t make it on the poverty budget either day! Tuesday was my father’s 68th Birthday. I couldn’t say “Sorry, Dad” to a fancy family dinner out, so I went. And I brought my WWII-buff-Dad his gift: “Atonement” by Ian McEwan ($15). Today, Wednesday, I was determined to make it. I had toast for breakfast and was planning on a cheap dinner and lunch to compliment taking the bus. But today I had my hearing for the parking ticket I got last month. Despite my well-reasoned argument I was told I had to pay the ticket- $35!

I can rationalize to myself and say that these were days that were atypical, that living on poverty level wages isn’t impossible….but isn’t every week and month full of “atypical” spending days for us? This week we have to spend more because it’s somebody’s last day at the office, the front steps need new paint, we have to go to dinner to celebrate an anniversary. There is always something, but for those who really live on poverty-level wages, these budget-busters are luxuries. What really shocked me is to see how little wiggle room there is in a budget like this- no room for money for a doctor’s visit, a security deposit on an apartment, car repairs, or anything else.

As I reflect on Devan’s post and my time in poor countries, I know that I, too, am a child of astounding affluence, which we call “the middle class” in America. I, too, had cheap rent and a great landlord during college because of a connection through a roommate’s family friend. I have had two computers and two cars given to me by my parents. Granted, they were all very used by the time I got them, but they were simply handed to me nonetheless. I am left thinking that I need to do more….because there are too many who are living on too little.