The High Cost of Poverty

January 21, 2012 in Daily Bulletin

The Washington Post took a look at some of the hidden costs of being poor. Some of the things they found include:

  • The poor don’t have access to cars to travel to large superstores with the lowest prices. Instead they must go to corner shops where prices are higher
  • Even though they have to work more for lower wages the poor are forced to spend more time on buses and to do things like laundry at the local laundromat since they aren’t able to afford their own washing machines
  • Interest rates for loans can reach hundreds of percent even at a time when the Federal Reserve is lending to banks at a fraction of a percentage point
  • The poor sometimes have to pay more for rent than the rich would have to pay in annual mortgage payments for the same house

Read the entire five page report to find out more about the struggles that the poor in America must contend with over here.