Can We Just Talk About Being Broke?

Because there's so much levels of being broke, isn't there? And people just don't seem to get it.

Like there's homeless-broke. And beyond government help broke. And there's surviving on welfare broke. And there's surviving on welfare and random odd-jobs broke.

But there's working broke too, right? The kind of broke where you work 40+ hours a week and are making just barely enough to stay afloat. And your bills aren't fully paid, but just paid enough to keep you going. You always owe some company, but you pay enough so you don't get cut off. You live paycheck to paycheck but it's pretty much as soon as your check comes in, all of it goes towards paying what you owe and getting you to the next paycheck. That's like "living on minimum wage if you're NOT in serious debt" broke.

And then there's the kind of broke you can be when you live with your parents. The "I'm not worried about being homeless but I have like no extra income" broke. Or the "My life is not ideal, but I know if worse comes to worse, my parents can help me out" broke.

And there's the "I only have $5 to my name but I get paid next week" broke. But there's also the "I only have $5 to my name but I have no idea when I'm going to get money again" broke.

There's also the "I have no money because I'm paying rent and bills and paying off loans and barely surviving, but the government thinks I'm 'too rich' to get welfare or tuition assistance" broke. Or how about the "I get paid the federal minimum wage, but I live in a city where the cost of living is at least twice as much as anywhere else and I can't afford to move" broke.

Or the "I'm doing okay but if anything unexpected crops up, just fucking kill me" broke.

Or the super depressing "I'm never getting out of this situation" broke.

Or the "how am I paying rent next month" broke. Or the "how long will it take for my landlord to legally through me out" broke. Or the "Is anything worth any money if I sell it?" broke.

I mean, there's a thousand ways to be broke. And some is definitely worse than others. But people who are not broke or who have never been broke tend think that there's only one kind. Like if you don't fit this one definition of 'poor' then you're doing great and fine and just pull up those bootstraps, you know?

But then you meet people who just make you want to throw things or cry. People who say, "I make $100,000 a year and I can barely survive." And you're just like, "Why, though? And if you think you're barely surviving on $100,000, how do you expect me to survive on $20,000?"

Or you hear people who haven't made less than $50,000 since they moved out of their parents house, tell people who support a family of four on $20,000 in an expensive city say, "You just have to learn to budget your money and pull back on luxuries." Yes, luxuries like a place to live and lights, right?

I think it's perfectly summarized by a comment I saw on one of those "How to live meagerly" articles that get so popular. And the comment was something like this:

If you open your article by saying I can cut my expenses by making coffee at home everyday, rather than spending upwards of $5 at Starbucks every morning, I already know you can't help me. If you're starting this article assuming that I make enough money to realistically buy expensive coffee every morning, you've already wildly underestimated how broke I really am. If you think I make so much money that I haven't thought to make my own coffee at home, you've already overestimated how much money I have. This obviously isn't an article that's made to help me. It's made to help the 'myth' of 'low-income' you've conjured in your head. A fantasy that's based on the myth that I'm broke because I spend unwisely, rather than the reality that I just don't make enough money to survive.

I mean, how many of us have been really in trouble financially? And what was your level of financial trouble?

Like I've been all sorts of broke throughout my life. I've went to WIC appointments with my mother and seen her shell out food stamps (when it looked like monopoly money and not an EBT card). I've seen my breakdown and crying because she didn't know who we were going to pay rent. I've seen my mother take whatever underpaid, trash-can jobs people offer to 'illegal' immigrants with 'no papers.'

I've also seen my mom complain about not being able to buy cute dress or take a fancy trip - but our rent was paid and food was on the table and things were otherwise okay. I've seen her have 'not enough' to buy a new car but enough to buy a pre-owned one.

We've had enough to send my sister to private university for a couple of years and then not even be able to get a department store credit card after. I've cried in the middle of the student union mailroom because - even after loans and scholarships - I still owed $3000 dollars and the school was threatening to kick me out. But I've also had enough to live on campus with prepaid meals and UnivBucks to feed me through the year. And then I've had to save and save to be able to afford textbooks.

And I've worked so I had enough to pay rent in an apartment shared with four other people and still have money for food. And I've worked so I had enough to have my own apartment. And I've worked so I had enough so that I couldn't afford to live on my own anymore. And I worked so I had enough to realistically own a car. And I worked so I had enough to be nearly bankrupt by an illness...

I hate that I live in a country that financially instability can be achieve by so many through hardwork and dedication. Like you can work your ass off all your life and your reward can be a lifetime plagued by financial failings. And even after years and decades of being financially okay, it's always so easy for it go fall to shit again. And that's normal. And then it's also normal for people to think that even though the majority of the country lives under these conditions, it's because they deserve it or aren't working hard enough. It can't be because there's a system in place that forces you to be in that position. And then there's people who've never experienced it who won't even try to understand it.