After having been assigned to research suitable and affordable homes to both purchase and rent for someone whose gross annual income amounts to $42,000, free from monthly debt payments but without a car to travel to and from work, I was frustrated with what I found. In my limited life experience with real estate, strictly confined to watching friends and relatives on the hunt for new homes and apartments as a spectator, searching for places to live can be challenging enough (finances and educational decisions aside). However, when browsing the web, I found that most every available property for sale or rent in areas with high quality education systems amounted to more than I could comfortably afford and were not located within walking distance to work. I came to the realization then that people aren’t simply or solely purchasing properties to inhabit but rather, in the process, they are singlehandedly selecting which schools their children will, and most often times will not, attend. It’s shocking to me that federally mandated institutions are so poorly structured and run in the sense that a child’s zip code often dictates the quality of education they receive, which then informs their career path.
From this straightforward simulation I took away a lot more than I had expected I would. I spent hours trolling the Internet looking for available properties and continually was matched with hopeless results. Places I could afford in towns with superior public schools appeared cramped and rundown with an expensive price tag attached. Homes that were well maintained and spacious for parents and two children were affordable though not cheap, and resided in towns with school systems that were not highly esteemed or awarded on either the state or federal level. I can’t imagine what it must be like to have to choose between a safe neighborhood and structurally sound house in my budget or a shabby shack located in a town with a publicly praised school system. Sometimes people can’t make sacrifices like that though. Without a car, a parent would have to maintain their current place of employment which would then offset the freedom to decide which suburban town to relocate their family to.
Thoughts like these provoke questions and further realizations about how society responds to citizens in these types of crises. It is irresponsible and ignorant for others to point fingers at citizens in similar situations to this and to make comments such as, “They don’t work as hard as I do,” or “They’re not doing anything to get themselves out of that position.” It’s almost as if children of low-income families are born into this trap that continues to perpetuate until someone finally breaks the mold. It is not to say that this is a cookie cutter model for every low-income family in America, but on the whole I believe that we as a society choose to blind ourselves from our fellow citizens who suffer to acquire an adequate education for their children and grow up to mirror lives similar to their parents while we write them off as “lazy underachievers” when in fact they have never been given a proper chance to succeed. Essentially, I think it’s easier to place blame on a minority group of individuals than on the collective body of government when in reality we should be joining together as Americans to not only expect but rather demand change from the position of the government as opposed to attaching lofty and unrealistic expectations onto the struggling individuals themselves.