John Scalzi: Being Poor

[Th1onein]

34. I was a food stamp single mother; no child support.

I know EXACTLY what this was like. Exactly.

I'm no longer poor. I'm probably one of the top ten percenters in this country; at least in terms of net worth. But I have never forgotten and I never will forget what it was like to be poor.

I was very, very lucky. I was born with good genes and I had brains (still do, I hope). My mother loved to read and she taught me to love it, as well. I parlayed this into scholarships and I took out loans, whcih I'm still paying on. Even that, though, did not get me very far. Education, especially for a woman, is not the ticket to the middle class that it used to be in this country. It helps, but it doesn't get you there.

I got lucky. I met an entrepreneur who had capital and had started a business that I made into a success. He had the money and the courage; I had the drive and the vision. I ended up owning the business, but only after I had supported him through his retirement and the illness that led to his death. I took the high road, did the right thing, but mostly, I got lucky.

I'm not saying that I didn't work. I worked my ass off, and I earned everything that I have.

I pulled myself up by my bootstraps, but you have to be lucky enough to have bootstraps in the first place, in order to do that.

Poverty is like a vortex; while you are struggling to claw your way out, the vortex is pulling you back down. It is not the strong who survive. It is the fortunate who survive.