Despite the events of the past four months, I still know that no matter how bad we had it during that time, it still wasn’t that bad. We still had our house, we still had food to eat, and we had resources to turn to when we needed them. We have been poor during this time, but we were not living in true poverty. (Yes, our income is beneath the “federal poverty line” but it has only been for a short period.) We also have good educations, making it easier for us to get past any bump in the road. Some never have those chances.
Whatever the reason, there are millions of people on this planet who are living in poverty, wondering each day if they’ll get a single meal, or where they might sleep tonight. Our situation of having no job has been tough, but not nearly as tough as what others live through every single day.
We have recently started cleaning out our closets, shelves, and garage to purge our house of more junk. Some of it was sold in a garage sale a few weeks ago. The rest of it is going to Goodwill, so that others may benefit from it in some way. This period of unemployment has helped me to more clearly see the poverty in this world, and how we all need to do what we can to help.
It sickens me to think that while those making more than $250,000 a year (and the rest of us) in the US are worrying if they’ll have more taxes levied against them with the new president, we have children in this country who are going to bed hungry at night. You know what? Raise my damn taxes. If that money will go to truly help end poverty – providing food, shelter and healthcare for those who need it – I’m all for giving more.
Because let’s face it – those of us who spend any amount of time on the internet are not truly poor. We have leisure time to spend surfing the web, which means we probably have access to food and someplace stable to live. If you were asked to give just $5 to help others, you could probably find it.
So if you ever find yourself feeling thankful for all you have, reward that thankfulness by doing some task, however small it may be, to help others.
To read some inspiring posts about poverty, please visit Blog Action Day.
No matter how tough it gets for my family as we go through unemployment and underemployment, we are wealthier than 99% of the people in the world. I could cough up $5. And I should. And I will try harder to make it more.
An eloquently written post.
Well said!
Such a great reminder. I’m happy to hear that things are looking up for you and your family… I need to think of this more often and remember just how fortunate we are.
well said.
over here, unfortunately, our government is infested with corruption, which is why i hope that more and more avenues more alleviating poverty will come up which don’t have to go through government.
my current online favorites are freerice, the hunger site, goodsearch, and kiva, although they don’t necessarily target my country precisely.
it’s great that you also participated in blog action day. 🙂
yes, exactly. The argument made from the opposing viewpoint has never been made well enough, to me, that is holds any water at all. It always just sounds like, “but it’s my money,” which may be true, but we all benefit when more of us are fed, healthy, warm, educated…and my list goes on. thanks for posting this today.
If the government would be effective and efficient enough to end hunger, homelessness and poverty by raising my taxes even higher then I’d be first in line to hand over my money.
However experience and history shows that more money in the government’s hands does not mean that the needy get food, clothing, shelter, healthcare and education. It gets thrown away on spa retreats for financial executives, one time rebate checks of a measly $300 to people who don’t really need it and just stuff it in their child’s education savings account, tax breaks for manufacturers of “certain wooden arrows designed for use by children.”
That’s why the complaints. It feels like throwing money into a giant black hole. It is MY money. I earned it and I would like to have some say over how it is spent. Plus if you raise my taxes then I have less to give to the local food pantry, women’s shelter, veterans’ funds and cancer research, etc.
I will happily give all I can to help those who truly need it (and do). However, I am leary of turning my money over to a government who tends to put money into its own bureaucracy rather than where it is really needed (Dems and Repubs both!). Luckily, I make less than $250,000, so I guess I will still have control over deciding where my money goes.
Of course, the small business that my husband works for brings in more than $250,000 and does help to keep us fed, healthy, warm, etc. Hopefully, the increase in taxes won’t cost anyone there their job.
*standing and clapping*
Well said.. you certainly have a pretty positive attitude considering the adversity you’ve been dealing with lately. And so true about who really “has it bad”.
This is a great post. I said the exact same thing to my husband the other day – I don’t CARE if my taxes are raised, I don’t care at all, as long as the money is used for something I believe in and not on some dumb war or something! Nice Job.
Great post. I am in total agreement with what you had to say about taxes and our country.
Nicely done!
…though I really am not for raised taxes…the gov’t continues to prove time and time again that they are not good stewards of our money (look at the bailout and AIG). We all need to give more, if we all took that extra 4% and gave directly to organizations that help feed the needy, it would go much further than giving it to the gov’t and asking them to handle our money. They’ve NEVER been good at it (no matter who was in office)
Amen! I was watching ‘Extreme Home Makeover’ this weekend- never watch that show- and the family had a daycare that helped those in need- mainly single parent families who could barely provide food and clothes to their kids. This family was so inspiring that it just makes me feel like a glutton.
We did the same thing when H was out of a job this summer and we have really stuck to our guns about using and consuming less. And giving way more.
Great post!