I’ve made it plain in my writings, that I’m not at all fond of talking about myself.

Though I periodically expose small bits of information here and there, I try to keep it to a bare minimum, and I always attempt to ensure I’m not doing so gratuitously.

Put another way, if it doesn’t serve some greater purpose to add some part of my history to the thing I’m writing, I make it my business to avoid doing so.

If you follow my attempts at writing, you’re probably aware that I wrote a piece in which I talked about the foibles and failures of government. That post was called Social Safety Net.

That particular article, was talking about my dealings years ago with the local food stamp office (from when I lived in Washington state).

I wrote yet another piece, that was called Lock Step, it talked about more recent experiences with the government.

A significant portion of the text in that article was devoted to my dealings with the local unemployment folks in the last few months.

In case I haven’t made it clear, my writing as I do, currently brings me zero income. I hope at some point that will change; and yes, I do understand that’ll largely be on what I do to make it happen.

For the moment though, I live in the land of the “not working, but in search of gainful employment.”

As things presently stand, I’ve been out of work since the end of May; at present, it is nearly the middle of September. From the time of my contract ending to the present moment I’ve had no income of any kind.

You can be pretty sure, what little saving I was able to do before I found myself out of work—though it’s helped a great deal—is almost depleted.

You should also know, I’m making sacrifices on a daily and ongoing basis to just survive. This is even more true, considering I’ve an eight-year-old, Moderately Autistic son.

His eating habits are a great deal less regular than my own, in that the total number of things found in his diet can be counted on fingers and toes.

As such, when I go to get him food, at present, I don’t join him in eating from the places it’s gotten, because I cannot afford to do so and still feed him.

I want to make it plain, I well understand there are many many people in far worse situations than my own. I don’t assume myself to be comparatively all that badly off.

I further want it understood that I don’t talk about this for pity’s sake or in order to spur the reader to action in my behalf.

Your question at this point may be, “So why do you bring it up?”

I want for people to understand that even in my mid-fifties I still have trouble providing for myself and my family. As such, I have some understanding of poverty—mild though mine may be by comparison.

And I’ve been here before, though I’ve learned how to deal with it substantially better, from the last time, to the current one.

This is at least the second time I can claim to be in this state (and if you want to count periods of less than a year, the number is two or three greater).

Over the course of time, my hope is that I’ll begin again, to be in a place where I’m earning a living—where I’ll make enough money to not be counting even on unemployment insurance, to help me to get along.

I want you to know though, there are a good many people who’re poor for entirely different reasons.

It’s true that young people tend to be less affluent as a result of lacking the skills and educational wherewithal, to gain a position that pays reasonably. For the most part though, unless they plod down the wrong paths (and the possible bad passages are many), chances are good they’ll end up happily earning a sufficiency.

There are others though, for whom that’s not likely to be the case without substantial help.

Put simply, in almost all cases (though there’re always exceptions), the folks in question are broken.

I learned something years ago, that one of the folks I follow on social media, has confirmed is more true than anyone wants to admit. I discovered it on the edges of temporary homelessness. He did so while working in a homeless shelter.

What is it we both came to know as a result of our experience? Simply that many homeless people are without a place to live by choice.

That’s certainly not true for all on the street—I wasn’t among that number. That said, it’s true that very many people not currently sleeping under roofs choose to be where they are.

The reasons are varied. Some have drug problems, but opt to follow the substances rather than living a normal life. Some are mentally plagued in some way. I’m sure you could find many other things that got them, and keep them where they are.

This applies too, to those working in low money jobs. Again, not to all, but to many. If they’re still in those jobs after years of being there, unless they’re not yet adults, there tend to be causes people don’t want to admit, can’t see, or can’t fix.

In the end, what this means is, those folks need help, and where a small amount of that help might be in the form of food and monies to keep them afloat, a good deal more should be designated to helping them to break the various chains that bind them.

You may believe that the folks in question just can’t possibly be brought to places where they’re self sufficient, I’m pretty certain for most of them, that’s not true.

If you wonder why so many who count themselves Conservatives don’t support pouring billions or trillions more into welfare, I hope my observations help to make that clear. We want solutions for the majority of impoverished folks, that get them out of poverty and help them to help themselves, not things that will likely keep them there indefinitely.

Thanks for reading, and may your time be good.