I once wrote a piece for a newspaper about how to end poverty in this country by consuming less. The crux of my argument was that if people in America would recognize what true poverty is (think China right now - or Burma), then we could go a long way toward fixing our socio-economic issues.

I received several letters from outraged individuals who believed that I made it sound too easy…that our societal ills and economic issues were not the result of our own American-style consumerism, but of other, more complex issues. Of course, I understand that there are, in the United States, people with true burdens. But if we look at poverty in this country realistically - and I am speaking as a person who once lived in my car with three children - one could see that most of the “poverty” we speak about is not really true poverty at all.

Poverty is not a lack of cable TV.

Poverty is not a lack of gas in your SUV.

Poverty is not having to shop at yard sales for your clothing.

Poverty is not having to give up Oreos (and I do love Oreos).

Poverty is not having to eat rice and beans and pasta.

Poverty is not having to give up your million dollar condo and go live somewhere cheaper.

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I just finished reading a story on CNN about a 67-year-old woman who is living in her car with her dogs. She had a good job in a nice area and after a recent layoff, can no longer afford to make ends meet. In fact, she is working and receiving some Social Security - and still cannot afford an apartment.

It sends me back to the days when I was living in my car with my three little ones. For the last three years, I have been speaking and writing ["Without a Net: Middle Class and Homeless (With Kids) in America"]about homelessness and my concern about the real estate bubble. While I recognize that my own story of homelessness is just that - my story - I have tried to illustrate that such a disaster can happen to anyone…no matter what choices one makes good or bad.

What most people, particularly the middle class, are beginning to understand is that many of us are just one paycheck away from homelessness.

Read the CNN story here.

Appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer – Sept. 2006

We can end poverty in America. And in no way do we need help from the government to do it.

Lately, everywhere I look – books, radio, television – there is someone telling me how to “eliminate debt” or “build wealth.” And the majority of these programs are geared for people who have high-paying jobs, huge homes and new cars and are feeling the “burden” of too much debt. What I don’t see a lot of are books or shows dedicated to helping people live – and live well - off $10 an hour. In order to be on a “debt diet” one needs to be able to acquire debt. I dare say that most financial experts would argue that you can’t live well off $10 an hour. Those families who make $10 an hour are impoverished and should be educated as to how to make more money. And that’s where the help ends: “Get a better job, get some debt and then I can help you.”

So what is poverty? Is it families who try and exist on Mom’s salary of $10 an hour? Or is it not having food in the house? Or is it not having the house? Is it not having electricity? Running water? Heat?

I read a story in the newspaper recently about a man who didn’t have heat and was in line at soup kitchen. He didn’t have any money because he had to pay his electric bill and for his cable TV.

Think that’s crazy? How many Americans, when asked, do you think would pause if they were asked if TV, the Internet or their cell phone was a luxury or a necessity? I bet you just did. How many times have you cut back on your budget for groceries so that you could pay the credit card, cable TV or cell phone bill?

A professional man, let’s call him “Ben,” I once had a conversation with told me that cutting back on groceries was the only way to cut back on spending because all of the other expense were fixed. The car payment had to be paid, the credit cards, the TV. All of them had to come first.

But did it ever occur to him to eliminate the car payment by buying a used car and paying cash for it? Or to cut up the card, turn off the TV or use the Internet at the public library?

But Ben was right in one regard. Food is one area where we as a nation can cut back. I had always thought of myself as being pretty frugal. My family doesn’t eat out much and I don’t buy a lot of junk food. So I did a little “receipt” searching and after recording each and everything we spent money on for about two months, I discovered that I spent a little over $1,000 per month in food costs alone. No, we didn’t eat out at restaurants, but how many times on my way to a soccer game did I buy Gatorades to go all around, plus a box of granola bars or a bag of chips? That’s an easy $10 or $15 nearly everyday.

After careful consideration of our spending habits, I was able to cut our food spending – all of it – down to an average of $300 a month. That’s less than $100 a week for seven people. I also found that we eat healthier on less money than we ever did before.

By eating healthier – and teaching our young and new mothers how to feed their children healthier – we will curb our need for medical attention. I am horrified by the amount of mothers, particularly teen mothers, who are talked into formula feeding their babies because someone tells them that their baby will be healthier, or will gain more weight or whatever. Not only is this untrue, but by breastfeeding a child throughout the child’s first year or more (no, not until kindergarten!), a mother can, on average, save as much as $160 month. That’s an electric bill and a phone bill! That’s also money that can go towards the other children in the family’s food budget.

Children who aren’t breastfed are more susceptible to a wide range of medical issues from food allergies to illnesses. All of which put single working mothers in precarious positions with their employers because they constantly have to take off work to take their little ones to the doctor. Another point to be made is that if doctors didn’t hold such “regular” bankers hours, mothers who work might not have to take time off to get their little ones there – thus reducing the image that such mothers don’t care about their baby’s well-being.

Our nation’s desire to consume is overrunning a mother’s desire to care for her child. Commercials for soda are misconstrued by immigrants who think that soda is a suitable replacement for their baby’s juice.

I also hear stories from middle-class families – who know that soda doesn’t go in the bottle, but are just as affected by our nation’s need to consume. One mother I know, rather than stay home with her children (something she would like to do), works 50 hours a week, spends $300 a week on day care, $100 month on disposable diapers, $200 month on the “best” baby formula, $400 a month on a new car to get her to her job, $50 a month to insure that car and more in convenience foods and take-out because she’s too tired to cook and the like.

When I added it all up with her, we realized that she spends over $1200 a month on a job where she earns just over $1600 a month. Was the extra $400 really that important to her? Or could she maybe find a way to reduce their spending by $400 a month so that she could stay home with her girls?

She was shocked. It had never occurred to her that she could “earn” her family money by doing things other than working herself into a frenzy.

I would like to develop a handbook for all new mothers in this country that they would receive upon the birth of their child. A handout that distinguishes between the necessary and the unnecessary. A little book that lets mothers everywhere know that mothering can be done – and Nike sneakers, X-Box and Gameboy are not mandatory purchases. Neither are disposable diapers, cans of formula or any of a number of the pieces of flotsam that we, as mothers, are constantly bombarded by advertising with. By preying on our natural need to protect and take care of our children, advertisers use our guilt against us.

On both levels, the “lower” and “middle” classes, the forest is missed for the trees. The way to end poverty in America is not to pay for more – it’s to rise up and consume less.