By Alyssa Crutcher
With hustle culture being so prevalent, especially in younger generations, there is a lot of pressure on working hard and pushing yourself to perform at 110%. They say if you’re not exhausted, you didn’t work hard enough. With that, there are so many people in the world who spend their days hustling. They work excessive hours, take care of their kids in their free time, do household chores, run errands and still barely make a living wage.
People who live in the lower class are some of the most determined, hard-working people out there. Yet, for whatever reason, our society views them as lazy or less than just because of their financial status. No matter how hard they work, the world seems to place them at the bottom with no regard to the stress that comes with it.
According to the Center on Poverty and Social Policy, the amount of people in the US living in poverty has been slowly increasing since December of 2021. As of February of 2022, 14.4% of Americans are living in poverty. And the number of homeless individuals in the US is high, higher than it should be, at 17 people per 10,000 in the population, according to the Council of Economic Advisors. Waitlists for homeless shelters have been doubling, even tripling, in recent months, details an article by the New York Times.
When one loses their home, they are put at risk of losing their job. After this happens, it becomes incredibly difficult to acquire a new job with no permanent address or access to the internet, which adds onto the already high pressure of needing to hustle and make money.
It is no secret that many people look down on the poor and homeless. They’re viewed as unmotivated, lazy and a waste of space. What most people don’t realize, though, is that the top cause of homelessness is poverty, which is caused by low wages and a lack of affordable housing and healthcare, according to an article by Human Rights Careers.
Trinity Barnes grew up in a household with her single mother whose yearly salary as a teacher’s aid was only about $4200 a year, due to the Great Recession, leaving them with only $1800 to spend on things like food, housing and other necessities. They would stay in an unoccupied house owned by her grandmother, she said.
However, growing up, Barnes said she was never completely aware of her family’s financial situation.
On top of being hard-working, the heads of lower income households can be the most caring, too. Many adults will give their food or extra money to the children and do everything within their power to make them happy. They keep their struggles a secret so as to not cause worry to the children.
“We always had enough food for my brother and I,” Barnes said, “but there were many times my mother couldn’t afford to eat her own portion of a meal. She hid our lack of money so well, I was convinced she had an eating disorder rather than a financial crisis.”
Although the financial situation is usually attempted to be hidden from the children, they still can have negative mental effects from it.
Not only did Barnes, her mother and her brother have to navigate financial worry, but they also had to navigate the harsh words and the aftermath of a separation from her father.
In her life, Barnes’ father was the only person who ever tried to make her mother feel lazy due to her financial situation, she said. He would also try to use Barnes and her brother against her mother to force her mother to save what little money she had; money she needed to spend in order to care for herself and her children.
“(It) was traumatizing,” Barnes said. “A grown man who knew that our mother was already having to go without food more often than not, wearing clothing with many holes, unable to afford a surgery she desperately needed and still trying to tell her that she needed to save money was obscene at best. He was just trying to break her spirit”
Sofia Kingsbury grew up poor in California. Her parents got divorced when she was just three years old. When staying with her dad, she and her sister would live in either a hotel or a garage that belonged to a family friend, because her dad could not afford a permanent place to stay.
Kingsbury and her sister would often be left at home alone by their father for whole days at a time while he worked full time starting a business, which people called him lazy for doing instead of working towards a more traditional job, she said. Kingsbury’s mother also worked full time, but it was a more stable environment. When staying with her, she and her sister had a live-in nanny to take care of them.
Regardless of the unconventional lifestyle she had at a young age, Kingsbury has a more positive outlook, saying it has given her plenty of funny stories for her to talk about with friends and gave her more of an exciting childhood.
“When everyone was watching movies with both of their parents, I was traveling to new and cheaper places and getting to explore the outdoors, beaches, and mountains of California,” Kingsbury said.
While growing up or living in a low income household can be stressful, exhausting and certainly not ideal, the life lessons that can be learned from the experience are like no other. While it may seem like the hustle is taking you nowhere, the outcome is almost always rewarding.
“Growing up in poverty shaped my life by giving me an alternate perspective on people’s appearances,” Kingsbury said. “When someone physically looks like they are financially struggling, I can understand where they are coming from because I’ve been there before in my childhood.”
Although Barnes’ view of her childhood wasn’t directly affected by her financial situation, it still changed it. It taught her how to be more in touch with reality and how to save and spend wisely, she said. She doesn’t look back on her childhood with distaste because she had her family, and that was everything she needed, she said.
Barnes also has found her passion in helping those who are struggling financially and to help those that are so incredibly low-income that saving money really isn’t an option, she said.
“My brother and I were perfectly content with what we had, even though it wasn’t much of anything,” Barnes said. “I care greatly about helping people learn how to get themselves out of financial ‘holes,’ so to speak, hence why my major is finance.”
Although their hustle paid off, throughout the years they pursued to get to this point, society still viewed them as less than.
Now Barnes’ and Kingsbury’s families are both doing well financially. Kingsbury’s mother is a well-accomplished Human Resources manager and her dad’s business is doing very well, she said.
“I can make it through college without financial worry, but I always keep money in mind because I remember how it feels to not know where you’ll be a year from now,” Kingsbury said.
Barnes’ mother remarried and they now own a house with more than they need, she said.
“My mother was the hardest worker I’d ever met,” Barnes said. “She juggled having two kids, a job, and the stress of (my father) all by herself. It was truly amazing how stressed she must have been and still managed to be just about a perfect parent.”
So appreciate and respect those around you, no matter where they are in their lives mentally, physically, or financially, because you never know what someone is going through behind the curtain. While you may be conditioned to look down on those who are below you financially, it is better to have kindness and understanding of the hard work and feelings of discouragement that go with the need to hustle.