Last week, Rep. Jason Chaffetz made some startling comments regarding the Republicans' new health care plan American Healthcare Act. In short, he claimed that lower income Americans should make the choice of having an iPhone or healthcare. This is troublesome for many reasons, but mostly because it implies that being poor is a choice. This was the topic of conversation in many of my classes last week, and it drove debates between me and some of my classmates.

In one of my psychology classes, I tried to explain to a friend of mine who has never ever been poor in his life why it is that poverty is a cycle, why it’s so difficult to escape poverty. His response was “just save money." I kept trying to explain that when you are living paycheck to paycheck, there really is no saving money because most of your income is being spent on basic needs: food, shelter, clothing, transportation.

He then responded, “well, why can’t you just save $5 every week?” Well, a lot of poor people do try to save; some would manage to get a few hundred in their savings account, but then get a flat tire, end up getting sick and missing a week of work, or have an unexpected bill. Then, those few hundred dollars suddenly disappear. I tried to explain that when you’re poor, unanticipated expenses can very quickly and easily blow through what little you have in your savings account. this, essentially, puts you back to square one.

I also tried to explain that when you are that poor, you need to make purchases while you have the money. Like, if I needed a new pair of jeans and I had an extra $30 that week, I would buy myself a new pair of jeans that week because I didn’t know when I would have an extra $20 or $30 to spend. So, he countered that with, “You don’t need to buy clothes. You could have put that $30 in your savings.” To which I responded, “Well, if it were socially acceptable to walk around without pants on, then maybe poor people could climb out of poverty, but until then, when your jeans have holes in them or don’t fit you anymore, you need to get some new ones.”

So, I went on to talk about the sociological aspects of poverty. When growing up poor, or growing up as part of a marginalized demographic, those circumstances push your starting block 100 feet behind your peers. I even argue how our educational systems are set up to fail impoverished children, but this didn't budge his standing.

I never understood how it was so difficult to see the realities of poverty. To me, it is common sense. Poverty doesn’t always present itself as an old beat up car and falling apart sneakers. People who grow up middle class and financially secure seem to think that poverty looks a lot like dirty children with dirty clothes, and no shoes. But, it doesn’t. It can be that, but it’s often not.

So when someone says, “I still can't believe you ever struggled financially” (which apparently people say far more often than they should) what they are really saying is “I have this picture in my head of what poverty looks like, and you don’t fit that image.”

The idea we have about what poverty is supposed to look like is a big reason why people in the middle class are so content with cutting safety net programs, even though they are one medical problem, one car accident, or one layoff away from complete financial ruin. What does poverty look like, then? How do you “just save money”, then? Poverty in the developed world doesn’t look like a refugee child with flies on their face. It looks like a normal person in normal clothes, in a normal apartment, with their bills spread out on the kitchen table, crying.

Rep. Chaffetz's comments supported the idea that poverty is a choice essentially, poverty is the result of laziness and can be simply overcome if someone works hard enough. This idea is mind boggling. The Washington Post says it best:

To accept this as reality [that poverty is not choice] is to confront the unpleasant fact that myths of American exceptionalism are just that — myths — and many of us would fare better economically (and live longer, healthier lives, too) had we been born elsewhere. That cognitive dissonance is too much for too many of us, so we believe instead that people can overcome any obstacle if they would simply work hard enough.