Poverty Simulation gives students a taste of lower class life

Joel Render

Staff Writer

This past week we honored Martin Luther King Jr. with a variety of activities, and perhaps one of the most intriguing and unique opportunities was the poverty simulation. The simulation took place last Thursday in both a morning and afternoon session. The goal of the simulation was to semi-accurately portray what life would be like while living under conditions of middle level poverty. I participated in the afternoon section of the event, which consisted mostly of students with a few others mixed in.

The event began with the pairing up of families and the assigning of personalities. As it turned out I was assigned to be a 72 year old woman living on my own. Other families consisted of differing numbers of parents and kids as well as varying ages of each. Also, each person was assigned some specific characteristics that allowed more room for role-playing. Some people had varying medical conditions or had teenage pregnancies, and in some cases a history of crime.

From there, everyone was given a list of expenses, some source of funds, and time to make a plan on how they were going to make it through the four fifteen minute sessions, which were labeled as weeks. Needless to say, the volunteers running the simulation were assigned to play the parts of each of the various institutions, such as the bank, the grocery store, the clinic, the utility company, the school, the rent collection association, the family independence agency, and the pawn shop to name the important ones.

As the simulation began, I started to realize that many people were in varying scenarios. For example, I lived completely on my Social Security check, but that was definitely not enough money to pay for all my expenses. Other families had to apply to find jobs or attempt to receive welfare aid if they qualified for it. Everything seemed to be somewhat calm during the first fifteen minute session except for a few harried single mothers.

However, as the second session/week began, families started to fall further behind in their payments to the bank or the utility company. I could not pay my electric bill and, consequently had the service shut off in my house. Very soon after that I was evicted from my house despite the fact that I paid my bill. I went to the rent collection association and was unable to prove that I had paid my bill because I had forgotten to get a receipt. Later on we all learned how infrequently people got receipts from anywhere that they paid in cash.

The third week in the simulation was marked with a bank robbery that one family had undertaken as a means to pay their bills. I did not personally witness the robbery because I was at the Family Independence Agency applying for emergency welfare assistance. After the third and fourth weeks ended, the group gathered together to discuss what had happened for everyone.

Some of the results were astonishing. Nearly half of the families were in danger of being evicted or already had been. Five people pawned their social security cards for money. The bank robbery of course was a dramatic event. The most shocking event was the sale of a teenage mother’s newborn baby to the pawn shop so that the family could eat that week.

Aside from the actual logistics of the simulation, the most accurate portrayal of the people was played by the participants in the simulation. As the weeks rolled on, people became more irritable and greedy. Children were louder and pushed their parents harder. I even found myself getting angry at someone who took a long time in the line at the pawn shop, which I had no idea I was doing at the time.

Overall, I think everyone involved in the simulation was serious and made attempts to role-play their character to the best of their ability. This resulted in a rather eye-opening experience for me and many other people that had it even tougher than I did. I would definitely recommend that anyone who has the opportunity to participate in a simulation such as this do so. You will definitely find it a unique and provocative experience regardless of whether the attitude that you have when you enter. I would also invite the group responsible for organizing the simulation to visit Alma College again and give more students the chance to see what life in poverty truly is like.

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