Down and Out in America

After watching the film Down and Out in America, my outlook on who I think is poor and why I believe people are poor have altered.  Firstly, you get a whole new outlook on the typical "poor" person. ANYBODY CAN BECOME POOR. Within the first few minutes of the film, one of the people sharing their "poverty testimony" talks about how she never thought she'd be poor and how it could happen to anybody at anytime. This really stuck out to me. While reading several of my peers first blog posting, some people said that being at Georgia State, the poor people were the homeless people! To me, the homeless people are of a completely different class level; they're below poor. I say this because most homeless people have nothing, they don't have jobs or an income and most likely don't qualify for any type of government aid (food stamps, medicaid, etc.) Homeless people are people that are struggling with life alone. They have no voice in society. I honestly feel like poor people are people that just struggle financially. In the film, farmers are introduced as entering "poverty". Farmers! Who would've thought right? After watching this film and reading my peer's blogs and even thinking of my own opinions on poverty, it shows how misinformed we are about this issue. How well do I think poverty is being addressed currently in the United States and globally? Horribly, the more misinformed we are about this issue, the worse it will continue to get. The more the problem will expand and the more people will fall under this category.