Baking A Cake

              I enjoyed taking part in the poverty simulation.  It demonstrated the struggles that many people face on a day to day basis.  Time was a huge issue for my "family" and me which I realized is also a struggle for impoverished people in the real world.  They have so many other errands to take care of that they run out of time to do other important things.  There were some characteristics of the simulation that I did not appreciate and felt were inaccurate.  A simulation is obviously not going to be a true representation of real life though.  You can never get an accurate feeling of living in poverty unless you have been there in reality.  Simulations will never be able to do it justice.

                My initial definition of poverty has stayed the same throughout the course and this simulation.  Poverty involves not having the money, resources, and support to live at the basic standard of society.  My perception and feelings toward those who are impoverished has changed, however.  I have more empathy and compassion for those who find themselves in this situation.  I use to think that individual factors forced people to live below the poverty line.  Classes and this simulation have shown me that a lot of factors play into poverty and many of those are not controlled by the individual.  Life deals us some unfortunate situations that we cannot do anything about sometimes.

                I am still unsure about what should be done to address poverty.  I think that one big thing we can do as individuals is change the stereotypes and stigmas around those who are in poverty.  Society portrays them as lazy, free riders, dirty, nasty, criminals, along with many other negative words.  This is not the case though.  Every individual has a different story about how they landed in poverty.  I think the first step in addressing poverty is taking away the fear and hesitation towards helping these people.  We should listen to their stories and see what resources they need in order to get them on their feet.  Once these resources are known then an implementation process can get started.