Raise the Hammer

I would say that the definition of poverty includes a lack of choices, lack of respect, constant judgments about worthiness, and a general hopelessness about the situation.

My husband is 71, and came of age in a thriving Hamilton, where a young barely educated man could walk along Burlington Street in the morning and apply at any of those factories, and have a well paying job by noon - and if you didn’t get one, you were lazy, the manufacturing jobs were that abundant (granted, these jobs were for men who were strong and able-bodied, so I don’t know how women fared in that era. I would think that the jobs paid so well and the prevailing notion was that women stayed home, so one income was enough for a married couple). In this golden era, there were still people who struggled, and they were the physically or mentally disadvantaged ones, who did not yet have the benefit of the social safety net that was to come in the 70’s (and then get dismantled in the 90’s, but that’s another story). A Hamilton without poverty today would include a thriving economy, good jobs that pay well, (so that people have money to spend and add to the robust health of the economy overall); choices about employment that do not include working in a recycling plant or at Tim Horton’s; and a robust social safety net that was federally funded, and not draining the municipality. In this new Hamilton, there would still be people who choose not to work (I grew up in the 70’s where there were lots of people on welfare who appeared to have extra money for beer and partying, but in the North End where I am from, we tended to mind our own business, and not nickel and dime each other – it was obvious that a better life could be had by working, and jobs were easy to get).

Just one point about your beef with welfare recipients who own satellite dishes: they don’t actually own them, the landlords do. There is a guy on Barton & Hughson who sells satellite dishes cheap – many people have taken advantage. And all people on Barton Street are not on welfare, so I guess they “deserve” to smoke under their canopy and watch satellite TV.

And another point about poor people choosing to live in squalor: don’t you watch Hoarders??? There are plenty of rich people living in squalor. That is more related to a mental condition. And mental conditions in our society equal poverty.

And another thing: don’t be looking in “apparently poor people’s” grocery carts in Ghetto Basics – I have said it before, and I will say it again: you cannot tell the health of a person by their (fat) outward appearance – you can’t always tell who is poor and who is rich either – I know many wealthy people who dress like bums. I don’t like this idea that people who live off of public money need to account to the public at all times for their very personal choices. Do you wonder if they are buying Tampax or no name tampons too? PS I am one of those fat shoppers who puts chips in my cart at Food Basics, and I happen to be a well employed vegan. You never can tell.