Poverty Is Not a Choice

A recent trip to the emergency room because I couldn’t afford a doctor's visit highlights why escaping poverty is nearly impossible for so many

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

In 2014, I was running my own business until I had a stroke and could no longer work. What came after that we have yet to recover from. We lost our house, one of our two vehicles, our business, and all our funds due to hospital and doctor bills. Now, ten years later, we’re still struggling through poverty, teetering on the edge of homelessness, and my continuing health problems.

I went from being a federal government contractor in disaster recovery and infrastructure such as telecommunications, flood control, and whatever our contracted engineers felt they could handle while meeting strict compliance requirements to becoming a writer and later a journalist after taking courses online via Open Courseware offered by various elite universities such as Harvard, Yale, and the Poynter Institute.

This sudden and drastic shift in careers has been difficult yet fitting. As someone who has had to write dozens of reports that were hundreds of pages long documenting field survey results after disasters, it’s a complimentary experience. Knowing how to deal with red tape and battle the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) – under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – compliance requirements was also an experience that provided us with insight into just how the government works and how it gaslights people during crises.

Working in Louisiana days after Hurricane Katrina with countless bodies in homes and on the streets was not for the faint of heart. The initial requirements of the job required us to transport much-needed supplies to restore communications infrastructure while on our way into the worst stricken areas. The government did not allow us to transport food or water because the scope of our job was specific - telecommunications recovery.

That didn’t stop us from collecting Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) and bottled water from National Guardsmen stationed along Interstate 10 as it was closed to non-emergency traffic. I-10 was badly damaged and had power lines strewn across it for hundreds of miles. The drive from Houston to Baton Rouge and then New Orleans took nearly 13 hours for what is normally about a 6-hour trip.

What we saw when we got there were millions of people struggling to survive. Not only were they in dire straits due to the storm, but they were stuck there because most couldn’t afford to evacuate or had nowhere to go. Such is the case now for millions across the East Coast after Hurricane Helene devastated several states. People are suffering not by choice but because there is no other option for the vast majority of them.

I learned then, as I have learned since my stroke, that poverty is not a choice. Too often, poverty is more expensive because of these outcomes than it is for people with even the slightest bit of wealth or privilege. People with access to funds have access to resources not available to those of us who struggle every day with decisions that could mean we miss meals.

Recently, I had an infection on a lymph node just in front of my left ear. While I felt pain in that part of my face, I didn’t act on it for three weeks until I started to see a lump. I couldn’t afford an $80 doctor visit and am already running short on medications I can not afford to maintain my health after the stroke in 2014. These are the decisions that not only make matters worse for the impoverished but can also lead to death. So, I was forced to visit our local emergency room.

I didn’t know that it was simply an infection and at this point, I feared the worst. Luckily, an infection was all it was as far as the ER doctor could tell. He gave me a prescription for an antibiotic that was only $18. I’m about halfway through those. However, at what cost? I haven’t seen the hospital bill yet but I can assure you that it will likely be thousands of dollars. Another setback because I decided groceries were more important than an $80 doctor’s visit.

Too often, poverty creates situations that force us to stay where we are on the social ladder even if we were once successful. I came up poor. Despite having a single mom raising three boys who struggled to make ends meet, I managed to succeed to some degree only to have lost it all to a medical emergency. Everything I ever worked for was gone in a matter of months trying to care for myself so that one day I could again provide for my family.

Years' worth of treacherous work were gone in what seemed like an instant.

Millions in the U.S. struggle through circumstances like these and too often there are no bootstraps to pick ourselves up by. If it were that easy, poverty would have been abolished decades, if not centuries ago. Arguably one of the biggest reasons poverty persists is due to the mentality that anyone can escape poverty through hard work in this country. Yet, nothing could be further from the truth.

I and so many others are the embodiment of that reality.

---

I’m a freelance journalist for The Antagonist Magazine and Unicorn Riot. Find me on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support my work become a paid subscriber or donate on Venmo, PayPal, or CashApp