This bit resonated.
It makes me so terribly sad that in a society such as ours the wealthy keep creating new means to harm the less lucky.
That aside, Alan Kholer has also opined in the past that our economics policy is based on disdain.
I know many will read my financial experiences and see failure. I haven’t failed; I succeeded when the odds were totally stacked against me. I made good what life threw at me. I survived … with my values intact.
I can only agree.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
For Pay Day, Dr Allen shares the secrets of survival, the shame that comes with living in poverty, and how “having no money grants the privilege of seeing the world differently”.
I was so ashamed that I didn’t ask for help from anyone and was stuck at the library nearby the health centre for over eight hours until my pay came into my bank account, and I could afford the couple of dollars for a bus ride home.
This makes us vulnerable to financial shocks, like the car breaking down, but because of my experience with poverty, having kids early, and with HECS debt, I’ve never had the opportunity to save.
Poverty grants perspective that can never be bought … If a privileged person behaves like a jerk, trust your instincts and value yourself — they’re not worth your time.
When the 2020 Canberra hailstorm resulted in thousands of cars destined for metal melting, I picked up a beautiful 2007 Tarago really cheap.
Dr Liz Allen is an award-winning demographer at the Australian National University’s POLIS Centre for Social Policy Research.
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