First, if you believe that poverty is simply the result of our decisions in life, you are very narrow in your view of this issue. You may need to take social sciences courses to broaden your horizons in a systemic and multi-dimensional problem.
We have political and economic systems: local, national, regional, and global. It is true that as human beings, we have the ability (agency) to change our situation or our society itself. But it is still limited by our social class. Of course, our access to power and wealth also depends on the social class.
This is why even if a tycoon sleeps for a whole day, his investments will still grow. As a saleslady or construction worker, she has to fight eight hours of duty just to receive the minimum wage.
Therefore, not everything happens to us, we hold, or we just choose. Are farmers, fishermen or factory workers just lazy so they are poor? Think about that first.
Perhaps, your answer: "that's why they have to leave their place." Again, there are many factors before they get out of poverty, especially if they have been in that situation for generations. But isn't it easier to climb the social ladder if you already have properties from the beginning, if your parents are educated, if they have foresight and means to educate you in respected schools to prepare you for life?
Second, it’s easy to fall into the trap of triumph-over-adversity romance. It's so easy to say "why me, we're also poor but I tried ..." I'll admit when I was young, I kind of thought like this. In my father's lineage, I was the first to graduate from college.
For generations, none of my relatives have graduated. The pattern is easy to see: whether in my father’s or my mother’s lineage, they had to stop studying to work early. If men, they are often carpenters or messengers. If a woman, domestic helper or factory worker. They left school to help their parent feed their family.
Back then, I was full of pride that I worked hard for everything I had. In fact, I have a little more to contribute to those before me. I said then, if they had just founded before, we wouldn't have had to go through hardship just to get an education.
Its explanation of the root of poverty is very simplistic. Poverty is a deep and complex issue, the subject of countless researches in various fields. No matter which social scientist you ask - historian, anthropologist, sociologist, economist, or political scientist, they will tell you "it's not that simple" about poverty.
The impact of the pandemic and the different versions of quarantine on us is not the same. There are people who still have to get out of the house and take risks to feed their family.
For those who have worked hard and life is gradually getting easier, we are not deprived of the posts we have worked so hard for that say "there are people who are more comfortable living even under the pandemic." This is reality. I think this is more of a reminder for us to be understanding and helpful to our countrymen who have nothing.
To the true middle class and to the feeling middle class, let us avoid being poor. Let us sympathize with our countrymen who are really reeling from this pandemic. Let's not underestimate the fact that "they chose to be poor." Let's be human.
Remember: you are more likely to go back to being poor than you are to become a billionaire. Only a relative can have a serious illness, hopefully, we may lose everything we have invested and go back to poverty.
Finally, if social class is just a choice, why did you choose to be middle class?