Poor people deserve respect

There’s no shame in being poor.

That shouldn’t need to be stated, but unfortunately many people are ashamed when they fall on hard times — when they lose their homes, when they can’t provide enough food for their children without help from the government, when they are forced to rely on charity. They believe, as do their neighbors, that it’s their fault, or that somehow they are less valuable because they are poor.

The stigma is, at least for those who have enough, that poverty comes from laziness, irresponsibility or even a desire to cheat others out of their hard-earned money. We have many words we use to cast this blame — bum, loafer, deadbeat, beggar, derelict, vagrant and so on. By contrast, we have few words that carry the idea of someone who works hard, but is poor anyway. Even the places these people live are stigmatized — “bad neighborhoods."

This attitude pollutes our politics. Food stamp recipients are painted as leeches, people who want a free ride on the dime of the virtuous hardworking Americans.

It’s true that laziness and irresponsibility are a great way to become poor, and so a number of poor people do have these defects. But our insistence on focusing on these cases (and how often do we have all the facts?) leads us to overlook some basic facts.

You can work very, very hard and be poor.

You can work hard and lose your home.

You can be responsible and still not have enough food.

On the other hand, rich people can cultivate all the vices that we attribute to poor people — drug abuse, laziness, chronic irresponsibility, a desire to leech off others — and get away with it, because they have the income to live that way, and because their powerful families have the legal resources to protect their reputation.

Are such people really more worthy of our respect because they wear designer clothes and drive great cars and have the last names of senators and movie stars?

Some of these myths may come about because poverty raises some very uncomfortable questions.

Why are so many people poor in our society? Why are so few rich? Is it possible that only a small minority deserve wealth, while millions are lazy?

If you have enough to live well, by which I mean you have pleasant shelter and food and clothing and don’t require assistance to get them, it’s comforting to say, “I earned everything I have. I deserve everything I have. If someone doesn’t have what I do, they must not deserve it.”

Comforting, but at best, only partly true. No matter how hard we work, our lives are greatly impacted by forces outside our control — family status, life events, racial attitudes, international politics, the economy and so on.

I’ve been addressing myths about poverty. Here are some truths about poverty.

You can be poor in possessions, but rich in faith, love, family ties and tradition.

You can be poor and still have resolve, determination and a work ethic — putting loafers who putter away their lives on the golf course to shame.

I’m not picking on the rich, but on those wealthy and middle-class people who look down on the poor. They not only enjoy privileges the poor don’t have, but steal their dignity at the same time.

If we are going to have a system that allows a few people to amass incredible riches, while millions of people who create that wealth receive meager wages, then the least we can do is show some respect to the poor.

They’ve earned it.