The Dry Salvages

To listen to poor people, to talk about poverty, is to admit that there is something deeply wrong in our society. Poor folks shouldn’t be ‘grateful for what they’ve got.’ They should be furious about what is being stolen from them. They should be angry about the rise of corporations, the increasing concentration of wealth into a handful of people, many of whom didn’t work for it. They should be angry about the deliberate creation of systems intended to maintain strict class stratifications. They should be angry about the fact that even the good poor people, the ones who do it right, the ones who are quiet and submissive and patient, the ones who work hard, they are still poor.

They should be angry about the fact that poverty is on the rise. They should be angry about unemployment, about corporate tax breaks, about lobbies that control Congress, about the fact that the Supreme Court basically wrote a blank check that millionaires can cash any time they want to buy political campaigns. They should be angry about the rise of poverty porn on prime time television, whether it’s ghastly shows like Secret Millionaire or grim documentaries on Detroit. They should be angry about the exploitation of poverty and poor people in the pages of magazine. They should be angry about the fact that people have to win the lottery to pay for health care in the United States.