*Originally posted 9/19/15*
There's been an enormous amount of talk about "poverty" here in
America as of late. Our President mentions it every time there's a
riot. Candidate Bernie Sanders has said something to the effect that no
one who works forty hours a week should live in poverty. People cry
out that we should bring an end to poverty, to level the playing field -
that our government should bring an end to poverty. But here in America, I think we forget what poverty actually is.
And as a result I think we have forgotten what luxury is, too.
Now,
I understand there are people who work hard - sometimes two or three
jobs - have very little, and still wonder how they are going to make
rent this month. If that's you, I'm not talking to you today.
There
are single mothers who simply can't afford to send their children to
special clubs after school, and so they don't. I'm not talking to you,
either. All across this nation, there are people who are homeless, who
have next-to-nothing, and it's not their fault. I'm not talking to
them, either.
I'm talking, instead, to those who waste
money and claim poverty. And before people start telling me that this
is a Republican lie, let me shut you down now: first, I'm NOT a
Republican. Second, I witnessed this firsthand. In my half-a-decade as
a banker, I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of people who fit into one
(or both) of these two categories.
I had a woman come
into the bank, in tears, because her rent check bounced. Well, yes, it
bounced, because she had spent that money on booze, a big screen
television, and a $120 nail job. None of this, of course, was her
fault, because she just had to have these things, and wasn't
there anything I could do to - I don't know - manifest money out of thin
air so she could have a place to live? She didn't ask that, but that's
what she wanted me to do. She wanted me to make sure her check got
paid, but she wasn't willing to put money in the bank in order to cover
it. She was - her words, not mine - too broke.
This
isn't poverty. Getting your nails done is not an essential of life.
Having a television is not even an essential of life. And a fifth of
whiskey - though it might make you feel better temporarily - won't pay the rent.
Here's
an idea: go without a television for a while. If you have to choose
between providing a roof for your children, or watching your favorite
show on a 60-inch screen, I'd go with the roof. Besides, how are you
going to watch that t.v. when you're homeless?
This
woman wasn't poor because some business owner was a jerk. She wasn't
facing eviction because some Republican refused to pass a law preventing
it. She wasn't even poor because of her ethnicity. She was poor
because she wasted her money on luxuries, thinking they were
necessities.
Then there was the man who couldn't feed his kids for the next two weeks. Poor starving kids: Daddy works night shift and still can't feed you! What a horrible company he must work for!
It
was either that, or the $1,500 dollars he spent the week before at a
popular resort. For a two night stay. Yes, four people, $750 a night.
Look,
if you have to choose between groceries or an expensive weekend
getaway, go with the groceries. That's not political, folks, that's
just common sense. If you are at a point where you skip vacations for a
while, so what? Stay home, take the kids to the zoo one day, maybe go
to a FREE park another day, and, guess what, that will still leave you
$1,400 to feed your kids for the next two weeks.
But, Charles, what if he hadn't taken his kids on vacation in several years? Wouldn't that be unfair to make them wait? No, it wouldn't. Vacations are a luxury. Expensive vacations are a big luxury. Eating is neither.
Let
me clear something up real quick: I am against neither vacations, nor
stuff. I'm not against televisions, or movies . . . I'm not even against alcohol. What I am
against are people who complain about how they are too poor to support
their families, and yet they seem to find enough money to buy all of the
latest gadgets, all of the newest, trendiest clothes, the most
expensive car, and think nothing of dropping four dollars a day
on coffee. Folks, if you make enough money to afford all of that, then
you're doing a thousand times better than most of the world.
And
that is, ultimately, my point. In many parts of the world, a "home" is
a piece of tin over a couple of plywood boards. Literally. I have a
friend who is from Bangladesh and I've seen pictures. Do you own a
car? Then you are "ahead" of roughly 86% of the world's population (according to a 2007 paper from NYU). In the same paper, America makes up roughly 28% of total car ownership in the world.
Our
definition of poverty is skewed. We have this attitude that we are
entitled to whatever we want, whenever we want it, and it's been going
on for decades. How's that working out for everyone? Yes, there is
poverty, yes, there is homelessness, and yes, there is a great deal that
needs to be done to help people, but the majority of "impoverished"
people aren't really impoverished, they're just wasteful.
"But
I can't pay my mortgage!" Shouldn't buy a new video game system every
time it comes out. "But then my kids won't be like their friends!" I
know. Your kids will actually have money. Now your kids are just like
their friends: they all got broke parents.
"But Captain America's got a new movie coming out!" I know. And eight months after that, it'll be on DVD. You can wait.
"But
I gotta have my coffee in the morning." Yeah, you keep paying four
bucks a day. I'm going to keep drinking my $0.28 cup of coffee and keep
living in my home.
"But I promised them we'd go to Disney before 2016!" Shouldn't promise your kids something you can't afford.
"My phone needed upgrading!" Why? Because it wouldn't load your snapchat pictures fast enough?
We
need to wake up, folks. I'm just spit-balling a number here, but I
would venture to guess that about 75% of my "broke" clients weren't
broke, they just wasted their money on frivolous things. Phones are
good. I have a smartphone. Guess what? It's also the second phone
I've ever owned. I had the first one for nine years, and it was the
exact opposite of a smartphone. It was more like a Forrest Gump phone.
It sent and received calls. That's it - and it barely did even that.
Some of you who claim poverty are out there buying a new phone every
year. Stop doing that.
My wife and I don't have a
fancy cable package. We get local channels, C-Span, and the Home
Shopping Network. I don't need to watch Duck Dynasty, and we're not
trying to keep up with any of the Kardashians, so we don't pay extra to
get those channels; we've found other things to do.
My
last car was driven, almost, into the ground. It was rusted through,
burned through oil, and rattled when it idled (that part was actually
kind of nice, because it was like sitting in one of those massage
chairs). Why did I wait so long to replace it? Because it took twelve
years to save up for a new one.
I haven't bought a new
book in years, but my daughter and I go to the library every week.
Because, you know, libraries are free.
Now, none of this is meant to be a bragging session, as in, "Look how little we spend!" But it is meant to show that it can be done. Your kids don't need everything the world has to offer, but they do need to learn discipline and self-control.
Jesus
said, "Don't store up treasures on earth, where moths and rust destroy,
and where thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in
heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not
break in and steal" (Matthew 6:19-20). Sound advice. Of course, the
core of the issue is in verse 21: "For where your treasure is, there
your heart will be."
If we live for and worship the
things that are temporary, then when we stand before God, we're not
going to know Him. And all of our stuff, all of the vacations, all of
the frivolous things upon which we spent our money, will be long-gone
and we will have nothing left to show for ourselves.
And
then we will hear the most frightening words possible: the Creator of
the universe is going to look at us and say, "Depart from Me, because I
never knew you."
And, folks, you can't take your television to Hell.
