Poverty used to mean a lack of food and means to protect your body while dealing with long hours of hard, unpleasant work. Today, most of those living under the official poverty line are well fed to the point where they are more likely to be obese[1]. As far as work goes, the well-to-do people work more than those in low-income households.
Poverty is nowhere near as widespread as it once was, but at the same time, life at the bottom is no picnic, more often, it is a nightmare.
“A recently published book Life At The Bottom paints a brilliantly insightful, but very painful, picture of the underclass---its emptiness, agonies, violence and moral squalor.” This book is about the British underclass district where the author, Theodore Dalrymple, practices medicine. He is an emergency specialist that sometimes treats children that have been beaten severely because they tried to do well in school. This happens in American slums where victims often get accused of “acting white” for trying to get an education. Occurrences like this happen in areas where both the victim and hoodlum are white.
Dalrymple’s own father was born in the slums, but not under the same conditions as today. His father received a high education from materials that would be considered, by our present day Teachers Union, as too tough for the dumbed-down education system.
His father was given the tools to rise out of poverty while today’s under-class are denied them and excused for being in their present state. They blame their plight on others who they continue to envy and resent. The result is a poor generation that has trouble spelling simple words or doing elementary math, with no intentions of building good job skills.
At the same time, their needs are being met by the Welfare State, while they are left with “A life emptied of meaning,” as Dalrymple says. Indeed, if they cannot take pride in providing for themselves because they have no sense of responsibility, that is what they are with left.
A summery does not do justice to vibrant examples and sharp insights in Life at the Bottom. It must be read--- with the knowledge that its story, is our story[2].
[1] Thomas, Sowell, The Thomas Sowell Reader, (United States of America: Basic Books, 2011) 16.
[2] Thomas, Sowell, The Thomas Sowell Reader, (United States of America: Basic Books, 2011) 17.
Sowell, Thomas. The Thomas Sowell Reader. United States of America: Basic Books, 2011.
Proverbs 24:30-34 “I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. .... A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.”
Proverbs 21:25 “The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.”
Proverbs 28:27 “Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.”
Matthew 26:11”For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.”
Matthew 25:35 and 40 “For I was hungry and you gave me food…I was a stranger and you welcomed me…Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
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