Why Poor People Are Offensive (to the rich)
Universal Health Care. Affordable Care Act. Obama Care. Call it what you like, the central idea is very simple. How does a society take care of its most vulnerable?
This could apply to education just as easily as health care, it’s just that you die quicker from being poor in the absence of health care - restricted access to education takes a little longer.
It is appalling the degree to which Australian, British and American governments have waged a war on the poor in recent decades. It’s not just a matter of bad policy, it’s more than that. As one person asked me today, “I just keep wondering why the blatant truth is not seen by our politicians?”
The reason is very simple and it has nothing to do with those in desperate need of universal health care. It’s all about the fragile egos of the wealthiest, who are ignoring that voice in the back of their brain that wonders if their entitlement is unjustified and obscene. Instead of asking themselves a few hard questions, it’s easier to attack those less fortunate.
It’s really just Psych 101. How much credit do we take for our own success?
If you believe that the only reason you are “doing well”, whether that means a mutli-billion dollar investment portfolio or maybe a CEO position at a government agency, is purely down to your own genius and ability then you look down at others who are less well off as a way to bolster your ego. Trump is the poster boy for this. He doesn’t just look down at others, he talks himself up constantly and fabricates a reality all his own to keep the party going. His ego is too fragile to accept any modest failure.
Most politicians are on the same end of the spectrum, even if they aren’t fully delusional like Donald.
The majority of our elected people are already in the ego game, because voting is essentially a popularity contest and what kind of normal person would even enter that madness. Most have had a pretty good start in life, having been sent to good schools and studied a law degree. Malcolm Turnbull studied at Oxford and was in the property market before he left university. Not because he worked harder than his classmates, but because he had help from his father.
And that’s really the key point here. Look at anyone who is successful at anything, and you can recognise that they had help. I’ve written about this before, I wont start anew now. It’s important to recognise this fact if you want to understand the aggressive position of modern conservative politics when it comes to the poor. Our nations are typically ruled by men in suits who own a lot of stuff, and who see themselves as having achieved this status through their own hard work. They don’t see themselves as having been the beneficiaries of opportunity or having been propped up by a much wider social system than even their family connections.
A man who takes full credit for his own success is not going to accept the role of fate in the misfortune of others.
The idea that our position in society is largely down to fate makes most of us uncomfortable. We work hard at our jobs, we struggle with family responsibilities and our journey to this point has been a hard fought battle in most cases. Life isn’t simple. But working hard is not the same as being in control of your fate.
If you don’t have the right higher degree then some jobs are beyond your reach. If you didn’t attend the right school then you are unlikely to qualify for some degrees. If your family can’t afford the school fees then your choice of schools is limited before you were even aware of it. There are a great many opportunities that will never be available to sections of our society purely on the basis of economics, and a good deal more that are unfairly biased by race, gender or religion.
There are no level playing fields in life, everyone starts with a different set of advantages.
Health is the ultimate demonstration of fate. Putting aside that a huge number of health issues and causes of death become a higher risk based on your economic upbringing, there is still an immense world of fate that comes to bear with personal health issues. Being hit by a car, being infected with a fatal virus or having a genetic time-bomb ticking away in your chromosomes are all beyond the control of an individual — even the ones who take excellent care of their diet, exercise and environment.
When the American Vice President gleefully tweeted about “individual responsibility” this week he was referring to the idea that everyone should be paying for their own health insurance. Until the Affordable Care Act (which the Republicans refer to in the pejorative as “Obamacare”) the only affordable way to get health insurance was through your employer. The obvious problem being what about people who are in between jobs or have casual work, or are being short changed by their insurance, or don’t qualify because their genetic failings have already materialised as a pre-existing condition? Pence is accusing innocent people of being irresponsible with their fate, as though we all pick our destiny.
I will never forget the scenes in Congress when the introduction of the ACA was being debated, and Republicans would take the podium and fall into a tirade of anger and emotions at the thought of poor people getting access to health care for free. It made grown men bitter and enraged. How dare Obama create a plan where someone who is poor can access the same standard of health care as a congressman?
Their pain was real. Beneath the partisan politics something far more basic was at work. These congressmen deeply believe that their entitlement is the result of their own efforts, that they have worked sooooooo hard and for soooooo long and that no other factor has led them to success. They are offended by poor people, because in their minds if you’re poor it’s because “you didn’t work as hard as I did”.
This is the great lie. That somehow you’re poor because you deserve to be poor. It’s an insidious failing, but necessary in order to hold onto the idea that my wealth and success is equally deserved.
For those who have never lived a life of poverty it is near impossible to understand how someone else ends up there. And that is the problem. We have government policies being written by people who have not walked in the shoes of those affected. And we have representatives who are too busy buzzing around in chartered helicopters and spending tax-payer dollars to research investment opportunities. How much enthusiasm do they have to look more closely at the lives of the 99%, and realise how abhorrent their entitlements and behaviour might truly be?
But it’s easier to blame the poor for being poor. No need to look yourself in the mirror that way, no need to accept that maybe you’re just a fella in a suit and that any of a million people could do a better job than you are right now. Easier to ignore that poor people work hard too, in fact that most of them work much harder and endure immense hardship just to stay alive.
Being offended by someone else’s poverty is a simple way of entrenching a narrow view. It’s one thing to celebrate your success, it’s another to ignore the breadth of humanity and society that got you there.
Post Script
This piece was written in February 2017. Three months later I realised it needed an update to include the role of religion. The American context is different to Australia and Britain, because the expression of religion is so much more potent and polarised.
Religion in America provides a unique ecosystem that nurtures this idea of blaming the poor for being poor. Poverty becomes a moral issue, something that is blamed on the poor because they didn’t try hard enough, they made bad choices, they lacked virtue. Religion builds a framework around those who lacked advantage, and delivers all the blame onto their shoulders.
In this ecosystem there is no room for debating the politics of wealth distribution, there is no need to attempt to lift people out of desperation. There is even a perceived virtue in letting people suffer, in the hope they will reform themselves and eventually seek a righteous path. There are no limits to what injustices can be inflicted when you believe you are doing the work of God.
The depths of cruelty inflicted by organised religion in this manner is staggering. Not all religion does this of course, but in America there is a much stronger presence of this style of evangelical thinking. Sickness, poverty, or even falling victim to a car accident can simply be ignored as a symptom of “moral failing”.
