Credit: Rome Tours
Beautiful downtown Ottumwa, Iowa. The blue circle is our office, the courthouse is the yellow circle, and just above the courthouse on the left in a red circle is my apartment. I loved commuting to work on foot.
Why are poor people poor?
Whenever we interviewed for a position in our office, I always asked the potential hire this question: ‘Why are poor people poor?’
Didn’t matter if they applying to be a lawyer, paralegal, secretary, or receptionist, they all got that question.
Why are poor people poor?
Quite often, particularly when interviewing for a support staff position, their answer was revealing.
“They’re lazy.”
“They’re ignorant.”
“Drugs and alcohol.”
Those answers were useful because when you are hiring someone who will be working with poor people all day long, every day, you need to find someone who has compassion for them. The question helped weed out folks who would look down on our clients. My view of our clients was one my mother impressed upon me every time she helped someone out on the street with a little cash and a kind word, “There but for the grace of God go you and I, Bobby.”
One time we were filling a lawyer position, and we were interviewing a lawyer who was a single mother. I popped that question and she sat in silence for quite a while and then shrugged. “I feel like I should know the answer to that question, because I am currently a poor person, but for the life of me I can’t put my finger on what pivotal factor got me jammed up like this.”
That was Kay Delafield. We hired her. She was great.
Another time we were in the middle of a lackluster interview of a young lawyer and within a few minutes, we just knew that he wasn’t a good fit. For one thing, we were sitting across the table from him in the office library and with every question we asked he was slowly sliding down in his chair. I don’t mean slumping a bit, or leaning forward, I mean his butt was slowly sliding forward and off the chair and the top of his head moved from a normal seated height above the chair, to become level with the top of the chair, and soon my eyeline had his chin slightly below the edge of the table. It was hypnotizing behavior, but not one that made me want to welcome him to the team. To close the interview, I asked the question.
“Why are poor people poor?”
He leapt to his feet, I jumped back in my chair and Jim Elliot spilled coffee into his lap.
“WHAT A QUESTION!” the interviewee shouted.
Jim left to get some paper towels to dry his pants, and my heart rate was returning to normal when the jack-in-the-box asked a question no interviewee had asked before. “What is your answer to that question?”
“We have actually discussed the topic quite a bit,” I replied. “I have read articles, looked through Congressional reports setting welfare rates, it all gets so complicated I get lost. I finally decided that it all boils down to what one of the Caesars said.
“’To be successful you have to be smart, work hard, and be lucky.’ I have actually changed the quote a tad to be more accurate by adding ‘enough’ – To be successful you have to be smart enough, work hard enough, and be lucky. I have met some successful people who weren’t that bright, or didn’t work that hard, but were lucky. I’ve come to the conclusion that so much of what makes us successful is luck. Where we are born, who are parents are, what schools we go to, what teachers encourage us, what skills we are introduced to at a young age, the people we meet by coincidence who can connect us to a good job.
“Poor people always live on a razor’s edge, they are one small mishap away from disaster.
“Let me give you an example, a guy is a hard worker, but he gets laid off along with his entire crew when construction slows down. It takes him months to find another job, his family has burned through their savings, and then, thank God, he finally starts working again. The new employer likes him, they see he is a hard worker, he never complains, but on the third day his car won’t start, he arrives at the job site late, they fire him because he is unreliable.
“Now contrast his situation, teetering on the brink of disaster, with a middle-income person. The husband is ready for work, he goes out to the driveway and his car won’t start. He goes back in the house, tells his wife he has to take her car, and arrives at his job on time. After work he stops by Pep Boys, uses his credit card to buy a car battery, installs it after dinner, and he is back in business. When you have money, you don’t notice unlucky things happening because they are just minor inconveniences you can pay your way out of. In my experience, poor people appear to be the unluckiest people I have ever met because there is no room for even the tiniest misfortune.”
A wishful solution to the problem. At Iowa Legal Services we used to say that so many of the legal problems our clients had could be solved with a drawer full of $50 bills.
Getting evicted because you couldn’t pay your rent? Open drawer, count out cash, here, go pay the landlord.
Iowa Power shut off your electricity? Well, they may be violating the law, but here is 100 bucks, go pay them and get your power turned back on this afternoon.
There were more than a few times I reached into my own pocket to solve a potential client’s legal problem. I have always been happy to share what extra money I had because, well, there but for the grace of God go I.
Out for Justice 