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“Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.”
― Herman Melville

“When someone steals another’s clothes, we call them a thief. Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat unused in your closet belongs to the one who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the one who has no shoes; the money which you hoard up belongs to the poor.”
― Basil the Great

I used to refer to them as my Pauper Papers. They were the selection of documents that officially proved that I was poor. Every government agency required these papers in order to put me on a list. Once I was on the list, I could begin the waiting period to get help. It’s purposeful, the government uses long waits and barriers to cull applicants before they get into the system.

Groveling, shame, and humiliation are required before they will listen to requests for help. The dignity of the poor is fair exchange for food and shelter. Officials will wait until a poor person is selling the gold crowns off their own teeth before the person is deemed to be in need of help. There is no excuse for this shaming of the poor. A humiliated wretch is no more deserving of food than a person with their dignity intact. It appears to be used as a reminder from the giver about their position of power over the receiver. This need for the poor to be humiliated and punished for being poor directly ties into history, where the landowners abused and used the poor for their labor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Poor_Laws

The United States has abundance everywhere we look. Why else would so many have spent so long, and so much money, trying to own every square inch of it? Stealing what they could, fighting wars over it, killing off the people who were in the way, is a lot of effort for something that has no value. Songs have been written about the abundance of this land and how wonderful it is.

“O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!” – America The Beautiful

With so much abundance at every turn, why are we still shaming the poor when the rich have divided the spoils of their past conquests between each other? There is no shame in lacking material wealth. There is shame in hoarding material wealth to the extent that it causes another to suffer. There is enough to go around, with leftovers if we can just share what we have. Some people have said to me, “You first!” It’s not the poor demographic in the USA that needs a lesson in generosity. They are the most generous demographic in the country. The remark to that information is, “That’s why they’re poor”.

We can do better than a movie sketch – from Time Bandits