Acting Poor vs. Being Poor

NPR aired a story about the definition of poverty the other day. It coincided with me thinking about poverty and the difference between acting poor and being poor. I'm not even an amateur sociologist, but this is what I see.

Acting poor is about attitude.


Being poor is about cash.

Not having the cash to meet basic needs makes you poor. Living life as a victim, blaming others and always hoping for a hand-out is acting poor. Being poor is often out of our control (a result of family history, tragedy, macroeconomics, etc.), while the responsibility for acting poor lands squarely on the shoulders of every one of us.

The amazing thing about modern capitalism, and the United States specifically, is that being poor is not necessarily permanent. Acting poor makes it that way. By not acting poor, by taking responsibility for our own choices and working hard, anyone can stop being poor.

I am not naive in this. Ending personal poverty in a week won't happen. A year or a decade may not be enough time. Yet hundreds of thousands of first-generation Americans can testify to the fact that within a generation, a family that doesn't act poor will no longer be poor.

If you're reading this blog, it is unlikely you are poor. It is likely that your grandparents, or their grandparents, were. They didn't act poor, and we should be grateful. We also owe it to them to continue. Work hard, take responsibility. Whatever your income, don't act poor.