A Dream that Binds

By Karina Sanchez / Winter 2021

Ever since I can remember, my parents have always told me to work hard in school so I could go to college and receive a good education. As I grew older, I heard the same from teachers and peers who say that getting a degree and a good job is a way to make it out of poverty. In school, I remember learning about The American Dream, the notion that if you worked hard enough, you could be successful in this country. It gave me hope that all of my hard work would finally pay off and I can repay my parents for all they’ve given me to get them out of poverty. I was young at the time, not yet experienced the real world for myself. All of my thoughts and beliefs weren’t mine but were shaped by the beliefs of those around me and by what schools wanted us to believe. As I begin to open my eyes and experience and understand the world for myself, I now realize that the American Dream is nothing more than a false belief to keep people in poverty working hard and keep them chasing after something that is far out of their reach. The truth is, the system is designed to keep those at the bottom where they are and to keep those at the top in power. Poverty, wealth inequality and the way that the social class system is designed is actually a huge problem in this country.

First off, I want to begin by showing the true extent of wealth inequality in this country. According to the video Wealthy Inequality in America, they surveyed people and asked them how the wealth distribution in America is broken down and many of them were very far off. The video talks about how the top 20% hold 75% of America’s wealth and the top 1% have more wealth than the bottom and second 20% combined.  Even the middle 20% has a lot less wealth than they should have.  The rich are only getting richer and the poor are continuing to struggle and remain in poverty.

Now that we have seen the true extent of wealth inequality, I think the question that is not asked enough is what has led so many people to fall through the cracks into poverty in the first place. The problem of poverty and wealth inequality seems to lie within the systems of this country. Wealth inequality affects the lives of the poor from the start which is why it is so hard to make it out of poverty. Many people who are poor do not have the same opportunities and access to resources and connections as those who are wealthier. Research has shown that children born into poverty do not receive the same education as children born into wealthy families. According to the study,  “Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation,”  it found that 22% of children who live in poverty do not end up graduating from high school as opposed to 6% of students who were not born into poverty. 32% of students who spent more than half of their lives in poverty do not graduate from high school as well. Without a high school diploma, children are not able to pursue higher education where they could find a better paying job with a degree. Instead, they end up working low paying jobs that do not pay enough to live off of and they get stuck in this cycle of poverty. They are simply at a disadvantage from birth and throughout their childhood.

There exist many misconceptions as to why people are in poverty, many of which blame the individual himself. The first thing that typically comes to mind for most people when they see a homeless person is “get a job” which is something that even I am guilty of thinking because it was something that I would hear my parents say. People think that if the people that they see on the streets just got a job, they would be able to get off the streets. However, getting a job is not as easy for them as you might think. Probably the most common misconception that is associated with those in poverty is that the people are just lazy and do not work hard enough. The American Dream may contribute to this misconception because it gives the notion that if you work hard you can become successful. However, in reality, that is not the case.

If you look deeper into this issue, you can see that financial failure cannot be pinned on solely the individual. Something I have come to realize is that “getting a job” is not as easy as it seems for those who are homeless and even those in poverty. The article “Why Don’t Homeless People Just Get Jobs?” gives us a look into what jobs require that make it difficult for homeless people to get one.  Jobs nowadays require you to have access to a personal cell phone, and they ask you to provide a mailing address.  The irony is that “They can’t get a place to live until they get a job, but can’t get a job until they get a place to live”. The fact that jobs require mailing addresses make it even harder for homeless people to even be considered for the position. What do you do if you don’t have access to a cell phone? Employers would not be able to contact you about the job and probably would ignore their application. If you are homeless, you may not have a place to shower or nice clothes to wear to an interview. If you do not look presentable, employers are not going to want you. In addition to that, there are very few jobs that would actually hire someone with no experience. These jobs are not even good enough paying jobs to provide for yourself each day and get you off the street. Minimum wage is not a livable wage in this country when the cost of living is so high. How are these people expected to get off the streets when rent is an insane amount? Being homeless in this country is very difficult to overcome and the system was created to keep it like that and does not provide enough support for those in need.

I have also come to realize that the assumption that people are poor because they are lazy is not true at all. In fact, some of the most hard working people I know are those who live in poverty, working just to get by.  Many people work two jobs just to care for their families and keep food on the table. Not to mention, the most strenuous and tiring jobs are those that these people in poverty take on. For example, the people who work in the fields work all day in the sun to make it possible for everyone else to have fresh fruits and vegetables on their tables and these people get paid super low wages. The jobs that these people take up are essential to our economy and it cannot work without them. They give so much to this country to keep it thriving and get so little in return.

In the COVID-19 pandemic, those who are considered essential workers are those who are working these low wage jobs and risking their lives to keep the economy going whereas the people who work good paying jobs get to work from the comfort of their own home. The essential workers have not even received extra pay or anything to keep them safe from this virus. Who makes up most of the essential workers in this country? Poor black and Latino Americans. The article The plight of essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, states that “In New York City, over 60% of COVID-19 deaths have been in black and Latino populations.”  The poor are risking their lives, but no one seems to care because they are not of high “economic value”. They cannot simply quit their jobs either because then they won’t be able to provide for their families. Our government has only given out 2 checks for a total of about $5,000 since the start of the pandemic a year ago, whereas other countries have done so much more for their citizens. We see here that the promise of the American Dream is not being withheld. If these people are so hardworking and essential to the economy, why are they being rewarded with poverty? The answer? The American Dream notion is broken and no longer attainable for all that occupy this country.

Along with the  systems of this country being flawed, the neoliberalist ideals that this country holds are also to blame for people falling into poverty. Neoliberalism has corrupted us to put profits over people. Companies treat employees as if they are just another number and easily replaceable, not even caring for their wellbeing. You could be working for a company for 10+ years and if another option comes around for a cheaper price, they will do what saves them their money. With this ideology of neoliberalism, competition between people is glorified so that people can be more efficient. However, that is hurting our society and contributing to the growing wealth gap. Those at the top are still competing for more and more wealth because they want to be the best while leaving the lower classes with nothing left. Neoliberalism has even affected higher education. In the video, “Wendy Brown on Education”, she explains how neoliberalism is beginning to reduce people to their economic value and nothing more. She explains how students are now seeking higher education because they want a higher paying job instead of wanting to fulfill their desire to expand their knowledge or studying subjects that they are truly passionate about which is what higher education was intended for.  Neoliberalism not only influences competition and the desire for more wealth, it also pushes the notion of individual responsibility which is probably why we believe that if we fail financially, it is our own fault. This can discourage those at the bottom and keep them thinking that they will never make it out; therefore, they accept a life of poverty. Neoliberalism is only one factor to blame as to why there is such a huge wealth gap between the wealthy and the poor.

We can also blame our government. It seems as though there is also little support for the poor and even the middle class from the government. In the article “Falling Through the Safety Net: Off Welfare but Not out of Poverty”, it explains that financial stability is actually hard for most families to attain because being financially stable means to have a job that pays a livable wage, affordable child care, health care coverage and affordable housing. Families who do not qualify for government assistance seem to have it the worst because they make enough not to be considered part of the lowest class however, that is still not enough to live comfortably. The same article also reiterates this by saying “Families who have left the welfare rolls without long-term support in these areas experience marginally increased income but are likely to remain in poverty.” Even if you are not a part of the lowest class, it is still pretty difficult to be financially stable. Not to mention, the situation that you are in can change in an instant if you lose your job or you get sick and do not have enough money to pay for the medical bills. During this pandemic, as a patient was dying from the virus, his last words were “Who is going to pay for this?” No matter who you are, those should not be your last words. That patient knows that his family that he is leaving behind is going to get the burden of paying for his expensive medical bills that he knows they probably cannot afford. The fact that someone has to worry about this in their last moments of life shows the true horrors of being poor in America.

The American ideals of greed and individualism are also obstacles to solving this problem. In the documentary, Requiem for the American Dream, Noam Chomsky states, “the inequality mostly comes from super wealth”, referring to the top 1% of the country. He goes on to explain how this one percent only cares about what benefits them and leaves the rest of the population to suffer. They have too much power in society and they only push for policies that are going to benefit them and bring them more wealth. Their greedy and individualistic ideals are causing them to hoard their surplus amount of wealth and leave nothing left for the rest of the country.  The events that are happening today are much like what we have seen in the Gilded Age with greedy industrialists enjoying an abundance of wealth meanwhile treating and paying their employees poorly. Chomsky says that this time it’s even worse and the wealth gap is farther than ever before.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon is the richest person on Earth, part of that 1%, yet he does not pay his employees a livable wage. He is paying them minimum wage when they are the reason that his company has been so successful. Because of these low wages, these employees turn to government assistance and they rely on food stamps, Medicaid or even public housing to survive which means that the middle class is actually subsidizing these wages paid by Bezos. There is no reason why the middle class should be the ones making up for those low wages when Bezos is worth $168 billion. According to the article, “Responsibility for Poor Health Status of Lower Income People Must Account for Morally Blameworthy Decisions Made by Employers Who Exploit Them”, his wealth comes from the exploitation of workers, “who have been repeatedly prevented from unionizing, while forced to meet such high productivity demands that workers in some warehouses actually feel compelled to urinate in water bottles or trash cans to avoid repercussions from taking breaks”. His employees are essential to his business, yet he does not even seem to care about them and takes advantage of them. He is abusing his wealth and power and exploiting the poor. Amazon isn’t the only company that underpays their employees, most large corporations like Walmart are also guilty of the same thing. To top it all off, many huge companies do not pay a single penny in federal taxes, despite the fact that they make billions of dollars. They are continuing to take and take from this country without giving anything back.

What can we do to solve this problem? Throughout history we have seen change happen through solidarity and fighting battles together. From the Civil Rights movement to the Farmworkers Movement to even today's Black Lives Matter movement, we have seen that we are more powerful when we stand together as one. There is a campaign called The Poor People’s Campaign that is a movement whose goal is to not only overcome poverty but also racism, ecological devastation and the war economy. We can support their campaign and join their fight to support the common good.  We can try to overthrow the ideology of neoliberalism and individualism by working together instead of competing against one another. We can go out and vote for someone who will tax the rich their fair share. We can call for education reform in disadvantaged areas to improve the quality of education. We can change the ideology that profits should be put over people. Employees of underpaid companies can go on strike to demand a higher pay. These corporations rely on them to keep their business thriving. Even customers can boycott these companies until they pay their employees more as well. We need to realize that we, the people, have more power than we think if we all come together as one. Rose Chernin put it perfectly in the article “Organizing the Unemployed in the Bronx in the 1930s (1949)”, “Life changes when you are together in this way, when you are united. You lose the fear of being alone. You cannot solve these problems when you are alone.” Standing in solidarity is the key to this issue.

As we can see, poverty and wealth inequality is a huge problem in today’s society. The system is unfair to those at the bottom who are left with nothing to work with because most of the country's wealth is being hoarded by the top of the class hierarchy. It is unfair that America considers itself to be so great when they don’t even care about the employees that keep this country running. It is unfair that people who work the most strenuous jobs and give their all to this country get nothing in return. It is unfair that the top 20% of America holds 75% of the nation's wealth, some obtaining their wealth by exploiting the poor. We need to rekindle the American Dream and make it attainable again so everyone can have a fair shot at being successful in life. Whether you are part of the bottom classes or not, we can all benefit from distributing the wealth in this country more evenly and taking the power back from that top 20%. We need to come together and help those who keep this country running and give them what they deserve and what America promises.

Works Cited

“10 Common Misconceptions About the Poor.” Social Work Degree Center, 19 Nov. 2020.

“Falling Through the Safety Net: Off Welfare but Not out of Poverty.” University of Michigan School of Social Work.

“Organizing the Unemployed in the Bronx in the 1930s (1949): Rose Chernin.” Organizing the Unemployed in the Bronx in the 1930s (1949) | Rose Chernin.

“Responsibility for Poor Health Status of Lower Income People Must Account for Morally Blameworthy Decisions Made by Employers Who Exploit Them.” Taylor & Francis.

The Lancet. “The Plight of Essential Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Lancet (London, England), Elsevier Ltd., 23 May 2020.

“Why Don't Homeless People Just Get Jobs?” Backpacks For The Street, 5 June 2020.