The poor have and will always pay the most. When the country is called to arms, who answers the call? Those without the means to turn away such a double sided offer. The idea of utilizing the poor for military service goes all the way back to the ancient cohorts of Rome. Is it because the lower classes of the world are the more formidable fighters? Perhaps. Or is it because those with the money and means to pursue prosperity don't require all the amenities that come with serving; a place to sleep, food in the stomach and training in any chosen trade? Oh, and the complete and undivided obedience to the superiors who are too caught up in their own political gambits to consider the repercussions of alienating themselves from the people they are meant to lead. Go back to the draft policies and the inequities that are written in black and white. If you were enrolled in college, don't sweat it; the sons and daughters of blue collar workers will jump from the air and charge once more through the gates of hell.
The poor pay with their health. Where the bourgeois and the elites have access to better healthcare the poor have to weigh a doctor's visit with being able to buy groceries or going to work that day. Think of the disparity between going to an inconvenient walk-in clinic and the easy access of a local family doctor. Obviously no one goes out of their way to succumb to an illness, but nonetheless, sickness affects all levels of economic prosperity unequally. It’s the poor who drink the water laced with lead and inhabit the mold-infested houses. It's the poor who can't afford the overpriced medications they need to survive. It's the poor who pay the most for the healthcare they can't afford.
The poor pay with their bodies. Not only is their heath affected by the random affliction of a genetic condition or the random contraction of an infectious disease but they also pay with the diets they are forced to consume. In low income communities it is well known that low priced healthy foods is a scarcity, to say the least. Why would Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck) open a new store in a community where the average household income sits around 30,000-50,000 dollars per year? Even if a low income worker wished to eat the healthy food that meets their national needs, their income simply won't allow it. Alternatives? McDonalds and Mini Marts down the street. Although it is cheap and affordable, this food continues to wreak havoc on the health of the poor. How does it make sense that those with least have the highest rates of obesity? Maybe it's because the poor don't have the $100 a month to go to that newly renovated gym with the trainers who specialized in obese patients. Maybe it's simple because the poor lifestyle doesn't allow for such luxuries to cause any concern.
Lastly I'd like to dispel the whole idea that if you work hard in school you will have the capability to go to college. Imagine for a moment, if you will, two students. Both have the same grades, accepted to the same colleges, and work ethic. However student A can't afford the best school that he got into while student B has his choice of schools because he was lucky enough to be born into a family with more spending power. Yes, student A could easily work more to attain the necessary funds to be able to afford his college of choice. But if this is indeed the only solution the fact that the poor pay more becomes more self-evident.
The poor pay more. America is supposed to be the country where anyone from any walk of life can aspire to anything if they so will it into reality. This being said, why is it that the cards seem to be stacked against the poorest people in the population? Is this why rags to riches stories sell so well? Is this what John Rawls meant when he developed his difference principle? In short, the principle says that if their is to be any inequalities in a society, then they should favor only those who are lesser within that society. One might look at this theory and information that has just been provided and wonder if the current system favors society in the opposite direction. You will find no argument from this author.
