
We Just Debunked 10 Myths About Poverty
People mythologize the poor.
Some of these stories are harmless. The old caricature of a hobo with his bindle really only affects lazy animators, If the worst that comes from their afternoon is an unrealistic belief in the cargo capacity of bandanas, that's not so bad.
Most of these stories, though, are not, and they affect people's lives. When politicians see poverty as under control they might move to cut the very programs people depend on to keep their heads above water. Believing that poverty is a choice can lead to the same consequences.
The truth about poverty is that it's widely misunderstood, and often for very good reason. This is a complicated subject. There's almost never one clear reason why someone is poor, and most people want to believe that financial desperation could never happen to them.
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Which is how we get these ten myths about life in poverty.


![There is some truth to this belief. At its core, poverty is a simple phenomenon: this is about people who don't have enough money. At the same time, it's far more complicated than that. Poverty is about instability. It's not just about paying the rent this month but about never knowing for sure if you'll have the money to pay it again in four weeks. It's about knowing that a flat tire or a sick day could ruin you because, even if you made ends meet today, you're holding it all together so tenuously.As Barbara Ehrenreich wrote for The Atlantic, "[t]o be poor - especially with children to support and care for - is a perpetual high-wire act… No amount of training in financial literacy can prepare someone for such exigencies - or make up for an income that is impossibly low to start with."](https://www.thestreet.com/.image/c_fill%2Ccs_srgb%2Cg_face%2Ch_80%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_80/MTY4NjUwODE5MzA5NDc5ODMx/8-poverty-is-just-about-having-no-money.png)






