Monday, March 20, 2017
Poor people in America often spend their money unwisely. I grew up poor until I was about 10. My father opened his own business and became financially stable, but we weren't well off enough to relocate, so I grew up in a low income area. I grew up around a lot of violence, drugs, and crime. I went to school with the children of poor families, but no one wanted to look poor. In high school, most people wore designer sneakers worth hundreds of dollars, designer belts, and gold chains but were dropped off and picked up from school in old rusty cars. There were also a lot of trouble makers in school, kids that were disrespectful to teachers and school staff, kids that were constantly getting into fights. I noticed poor people always had something to prove. I also noticed that these same people didn't know much outside of the area we grew up in. My peers didn't know how to act in formal settings, they didn't have good manners, many had never set foot outside of Texas, and some even had never stepped foot outside of our home city of Houston. "The Logic of Stupid Poor People", and "The Money" focus on different aspects of the behavior of poor people. "The Logic of Stupid Poor People" focused on the lack of presentability and knowledge that restricts poor people from upward movement, and how the authors mother invested in certain garments that gave off an aura of intelligence and respectability that put their family in a better position. "The Money" explained how the authors mother would send a lot of their own money to his grandparents and resulted in their own family struggling. His house was robbed and the money stash for the grandparents was stolen, and after a series of events, he got the money back. The author had a hard time returning the money to his mother, but finally did and he was surprised that he was not praised for it. In the end, both stories focus on the fact that poor people often put their money into things that have no return. Instead of investing in themselves in order to later reap the benefits, they put their money to no use.
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In both articles, "The Logic of Stupid Poor People" by Tressie McMillan Cottom and "The Money" by Junot Diaz, they introduce personal anecdotes of growing up poor and how it affected them. Focusing on how poor people use their money, I started to analyze what each author meant and how it applied to themselves. They both talk about how people who have less money tend to make poor choices when it comes to spending and choose how to use their money. This made me think of my stance and I personally believe that because poor people are only earning so much, they do the best they can with what they have. I think it's selfish that some of them take money thats handed to them and take drugs, but its ultimately up to them to decide whether or not they want to turn their life around. However, I think that giving food to poor people instead of money is a much better choice. The articles made me think of this because of "The Logic of Stupid Poor People", the article in which the author emphasizes how poor people often get misguided when it comes to spending money wisely. In the other article, "The Money", the author takes on the same theme but has a different anecdote about buying something you know you can't afford in the end. However both articles make good points and I conclude that if poor people are given money, they should be advised on how to use it as much as possible, so their choice on how to use it is really on them in the end.
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