It’s hard to believe that anyone thinks the poor, in this country, have an easy, work-free life. There’s an assumption among a certain segment of the population that government benefits are enough to enable someone to ease back and voluntarily give up looking for a job. The reality is that poverty, especially now, is more like quicksand. Once you fall into it, it’s harder and harder to get out. Opportunity to improve one’s life has disappeared for most Americans, especially those who are poor. As The Atlantic wrote not long ago: “The American Dream isn’t dead. It just moved to Denmark.”
Who are the poor? Most of us. Research has shown that, more than half of all Americans, at some point in their lives, will spend a year either in poverty or close to it. Those in poverty don’t willingly choose to stay there. None find it easy. Charles Blow wrote a column in the New York Times recently that offered only a few of the many examples of how painful it is to be poor. He was responding to a Pew Research Center survey showing how many Americans believed that the poor now have it easy, thanks to government benefits that supplement whatever they are able to earn in minimum wage jobs.
The Pen Hustle With Brandy Cavalli 
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