A mix of illness and technical difficulties has led me to this late blog post about Kristof’s article, “U.S.A., Land of Limitations?” Consequently, my post this week ended up as a sort of extended comments/argument post hybrid after our discussion in class (I hope this is okay? I’ll do another of each post type in the future!).
Kristof’s article raised a question of blame, and our class was somewhat divided in how to respond to that question. He discusses a personal story of his friend, Rick, who was born and died in poverty, arguing that he was set up to fail by the system. Some classmates disagreed, claiming that Rick made several personal choices that led to him staying in poverty, such as dropping out of school and committing crime. This argument also raised the point that many people “rise up” out of poverty, and there are opportunities to do so if you work hard enough (in school and otherwise) and make good choices. This may be true. Kristof argues that this climbing of the social ladder is a statistical oddity, and likens it to short parents birthing a future NBA star.
Kristof’s article raised a question of blame, and our class was somewhat divided in how to respond to that question. He discusses a personal story of his friend, Rick, who was born and died in poverty, arguing that he was set up to fail by the system. Some classmates disagreed, claiming that Rick made several personal choices that led to him staying in poverty, such as dropping out of school and committing crime. This argument also raised the point that many people “rise up” out of poverty, and there are opportunities to do so if you work hard enough (in school and otherwise) and make good choices. This may be true. Kristof argues that this climbing of the social ladder is a statistical oddity, and likens it to short parents birthing a future NBA star.
In my opinion, these opinions are not mutually exclusive. The fact that one make person may make individual choices that further their cycle of poverty and disadvantage, while another person born in poverty may make personal choices that break that generational cycle and expose themself to new opportunities, does not discredit the fact that both of those people were disadvantaged compared to a privileged person born in a wealthy family. A person who “breaks out of poverty” will have to work at least twice as hard without the resources, support system, and societal advantages that more privileged peers are given and offered. Whether they choose to do so, or whether a privileged person decides to take advantage of their privilege, does not mean that the inequality is not there to begin with. In fact, this info-graphic shows how the gap has a snowball effect, and if there is no interference to stop it at an early age (with preschool, for example), it can be nearly impossible for disadvantaged youth to catch up to their peers later on.
It should not have to be the job of kids to “strive to overcome” their situations, or to figure out how to navigate the system they never asked to be a part of. Most people would probably agree with me, but at what point in a person’s development do we decide to blame them for being behind or for living in poverty? Furthermore, in many cases, people have a family or community of loved ones who are of similar status. Do we expect them to abandon those people, or to take on their burdens too? I do not know if we can always say that someone is making bad choices when, like Rick, they are only faced with two that seem equally bad or impossible, and people who live in poverty are faced with a lot more of those choices than people who do not.
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