What does Poverty Mean?

Poverty in the U.S. means an entirely different thing than other places on earth. For example, poverty in a 3rd world country might mean no clothes, no job, no food, no water (which is very close to death indeed depending upon where you are and the climate and whether you are physically safe or not right then). Whereas poverty in the U.S. might just mean that your house or apartment isn't very nice and the quality of your food might not be good and that you may or may not have a motorized vehicle of any kind. So, one must first define what kind of poverty one is talking about.

For example, while I was in India in 1985, I often met people who I knew would die within a weeks time if I (or someone else) didn't give them a little money for food. At that time people in most places believed in karma so even though people might go to great lengths to get you to buy something you didn't really want or run alongside of you or your horsecart or bicycle rickshaw with hands outstretched saying "Bakshish!" again and again until you put one or more coins in their hands so they might buy something to eat like a ball of rice or something that would keep them alive one more day.

But here in the U.S. poverty can mean anything from being naked and alone on the streets (literally) to living in a house that is being foreclosed with enough money to still eat and still have a nice car or truck (sometimes more than one). So, both here in the U.S. and around the world what "poverty" actually means can be a whole lot of different things.

When I was having the most problems making enough money to feed my family it was from about the early 1980s and then again for a short time around 1989 when I was trying to go to UCSC. Both times I found a solution because I was educated enough and a business man enough to not give up until my family got covered one way or another. But this isn't everyone and many people either have little or no education or are incapacitated in one way or another and have little or no work experience in any really useful trade. Whereas by the time I was 40 I had about 5 or more trades that I could work at or more that I had learned either through experience or in college or both. So, what someone's real life experience is as well as their education level must be taken into consideration when talking about poverty.

What I mean by this is that some of the factors in my life even when there wasn't always enough for my wife and older kids really didn't mean anything at all. Because our quality of life was just so incredibly high (i.e. we lived in a pure and pristine mountain environment that we loved and had clean mountain water for 10 dollars a month at that time unlimited that was direct off the mountain unfiltered and not chlorinated or fluoridated. We lived on an acre of land with fruit trees and even though the old house was built in 1925 and was pretty cold in the snowy winters, still we always had enough food and firewood to keep fairly warm and enough money to buy wool carpets from garage sales to keep the living room toasty as well. We had an organic garden with which we grew up to 50 percent of the food we ate which included 2 huge trees of organic black cherries about 75 years old, 2 huge black walnut trees, several apple and pear trees and lots of wild blackberries to make jams and desserts and pies. We had at one point about 5 bicycles 2 motor vehicles, skis for all the members of the family, sleds, warm clothes and we even insulated our attic in lieu of rent one winter. We also always had enough wood to burn in our wood stove to keep our house warm etc. So, were we poor? I don't think so. I think we were very rich there with our kids living in a mountain paradise with just enough to survive and be happy.

So, even though now I am retired on the northern California Coast in a position now where likely I won't have to worry about money the rest of my life, still I look back on my life out in the country with friends all around that I could ski with and hike with and talk with and be with as one of the richest times of my life. So what is poverty? There really is no one true answer. It is relative to the needs of each and every person worldwide every moment of every day.