Coping
This post is about not coping financially in a Western economy.
Consider this quote (NZ Catholic: Jan. 24-Feb.6, 2016) from an article by Stephen Olsen:
“If you’re at the ‘bottom end’ then your income (flowing [out] like a river) isn’t going to accumulate into enough personal wealth sufficient to open up opportunities, or provide security in tough times, or give you something to borrow against, or act as a basis to foster a larger stake in society from.”
I doubt that politicians and the comparatively well-off can truly understand that situation.
As a volunteer citizen adviser working in a poorer suburb of Greater Wellington I can put human faces to a quote like this.
Take just one client I’ve seen: She had to use her old car to get to work at night as a cleaner. To drive it legally it had to have a current warrant of fitness. If she got caught by the traffic police with an out of date warrant she would not have any money to pay the fine. To renew the warrant on her car she first had to buy two new tyres. She had no money for that either. If she couldn’t drive her car she would lose her job.
This dilemma reflects reality for the lowly paid in any Western economy. That’s not to deny that it’s much better than starving in the Third World.
Consider this quote (NZ Catholic: Jan. 24-Feb.6, 2016) from an article by Stephen Olsen:
“If you’re at the ‘bottom end’ then your income (flowing [out] like a river) isn’t going to accumulate into enough personal wealth sufficient to open up opportunities, or provide security in tough times, or give you something to borrow against, or act as a basis to foster a larger stake in society from.”
I doubt that politicians and the comparatively well-off can truly understand that situation.
As a volunteer citizen adviser working in a poorer suburb of Greater Wellington I can put human faces to a quote like this.
Take just one client I’ve seen: She had to use her old car to get to work at night as a cleaner. To drive it legally it had to have a current warrant of fitness. If she got caught by the traffic police with an out of date warrant she would not have any money to pay the fine. To renew the warrant on her car she first had to buy two new tyres. She had no money for that either. If she couldn’t drive her car she would lose her job.
This dilemma reflects reality for the lowly paid in any Western economy. That’s not to deny that it’s much better than starving in the Third World.
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