CRQ: Is hard work really all a person “needs” to succeed?
When considering a person’s future goals, it’s important to take their current and past living situations into account too. Poverty at its base level poorly affects the mental health of all people in the home because their basic human needs go unmet, and they have limited ability to break past those barriers no matter how much hard work they put into doing so. A person constantly worrying about never being able to catch up or get on their feet ends up creating a cycle of debt from trying to stay afloat. In households with children, this inevitably teaches the same coping habits and money management to the next generation who then perpetuate the cycle forward. In addition to poverty, this creates an environment for some mental illnesses to take root which inevitably make their situation even worse. If a parent is stressing about paying rent for the next month, they are less likely to be able to meet their child’s needs either. If a child is worried about the next time they’ll eat a hot meal, they are even less likely to excel in school, and the job force later on.
With everything each of us is facing today, it’s important to keep perspective. When you’re living in a constant state of anxiety or panic because you may be homeless next week, or unsure of how you’re going to feed your kids until the next pay day, the emotional labor that goes into seemingly simple tasks is greater for those with basic needs unmet. Suddenly, the ability to search for a new and better job is much harder, the act of trying to figure out a budget is close to impossible if there isn’t enough money coming in to meet basic needs to begin with before trying to save on top of that. When faced with these choices, families feel forced into borrowing money (whether from family, friends or banks) to make ends meet- another hindrance in getting ahead. Because of this seemingly never ending cycle of playing catch up, this inevitably results in a much lower quality of life and thus, much lower mental and physical health.
Impoverished communities have always had issues like these but now even more families are struggling because of COVID. When America went into lockdown, mass amounts of people were laid off indefinitely, forcing them to turn to public assistance programs for aid in the meantime. Because of the sudden influx of applications, people in our community are pouring all of their energy into simply surviving another month’s worth of bills and are quickly losing resources. This kind of devastation was a travesty no one could plan ahead for, but poverty was not an issue that also suddenly rose along with the case numbers. No matter how financially responsible and sensible a person may be, absolutely no one could have been properly prepared. People lost their jobs, entire businesses closed their doors for good and millions of people left with more bills than paychecks. Even if businesses were to reopen tomorrow, impoverished families will continue to feel the sting of this blow long after the economy starts to bounce back.
In response to this sudden increase in poverty stricken neighborhoods, our government has done things like release two stimulus packages and are now discussing a possible Universal Basic Income (UBI). The budget for these stimulus checks came from our government essentially giving IOU’s to the Federal Reserve Bank in which we’ll pay back with interest over time or funding from private charities and donations. While the idea for a stimulus was a great short term solution, it is not a great long term one. A UBI is a great alternative that would allow families to make better long term decisions without the stress of short term options. If however, a UBI cannot be agreed upon, our local and state government could better implement the budget elsewhere by giving those funds to public assistance programs. Programs that offer food, medical, rental, child care assistance and so on can help set families up for success and could give long term benefits to people that truly need them. Each person’s basic needs are met and so this is when the theory that hard work is all you need to succeed would stand true. A concern with public assistance programs as they are is how a family can get stuck in something called the “poverty trap”. This is in reference to if a family makes too much money to qualify for assorted state assistance programs (based on the current regulations and outdated poverty levels), they then lose the help they were getting with said programs. A family is then forced to choose between staying in their situation so that their family can qualify for health insurance, food stamps or help with childcare because losing any of that assistance would be even more of a hindrance. A single mother might choose a lower paying job because that’s the only way she’s able to get assistance with childcare to be able to work in the first place; having to make decisions like these are not going to allow a person to succeed. States with higher public assistance budgets and those that have already implemented test UBI programs have shown an increase in emotional, mental and community health. These avenues for assistance allow people to be able to make the decision between things like paying for and going to school or staying home to take care of relatives that otherwise can’t take care of themselves. This kind of safety net would also allow people to leave situations they would otherwise be stuck in due to financial insecurity, such as domestically violent households.
In discussing these ideas, the argument has been made that if you just give people money, they won’t be motivated to work and be productive members of society. In my experience, the people making this argument come from families that were at least financially well off enough that they never had to rely on a public assistance program and have a different experience for how they achieved their position in life now. Because their basic human needs were met throughout their lives, they truly believe that hard work is all you need to succeed because they were fortunate enough to actually have that experience. The other face to this two sided coin though, also gives that narrative that people that are poor and struggling are like that because of poor life choices, are lazy and unmotivated and don’t deserve handouts. In reality, this experience is only true for people born into a well off situation. Whereas it’s common place for one or both parents to have several jobs, simply to make ends meet, which cannot be classified as lazy or unmotivated. If those families were able to have basic needs met without having to work more than one job, the family dynamic would be healthier, they may be motivated to spend their time on more long term productive and useful things like furthering their education or taking care of family members.
We as a society are currently faced with an opportunity to decide how our world works going forward as we find “our new normal”, and better funded community resources is a great place to start. As a member of this community, I believe each other member deserves to thrive on their pursuit of happiness and public assistance programs can give impoverished families a fighting chance to do so too. Our fellow humans need far more to succeed than simply working hard. Every person deserves a home to call their own, food to fill their bellies and a place to feel safe.