Poverty is a never-ending issue for communities around the globe. The recent campus poverty simulation helped individuals begin to understand what life is like with a shortage of money and an abundance of stress.Â
When you walk in, you see a bunch of chairs in the middle and tables surrounding the outskirts of the room. There was a bag that had everything you needed from money, to a transportation pass, to papers about your current living situation.
The tables surrounding the families consisted of services for us students to use. There was a bank stationed next to a pawn shop, an occupation area, a shop and medical center, a homeless shelter, and a school.
The bags showed the specific roles we were assigned, emulating real-life people and situations, and their schedule such as going to school or work, and paying for medical bills and food. The frustration grows on you when you lose your home and job, even though it was a simulation.
There were, of course, some rules. You needed to use a transportation pass every time you traveled to a service or work. Passes would run out quickly, so it was cheap to re-up on those. But with this, it’s easy to get sidetracked from your main goals, such as paying the mortgage.
The realism was implemented from the start. One student was a cop, and another a homeless criminal. If you don’t lock your door, the criminal can take everything you own. Every person’s decision had a ripple effect on subsequent choices you could make. For example, if you show up late to work, you can’t clock in, therefore missing out on valuable income. The student in charge of jobs is not allowed to let you in. Then, you miss a chance to improve your family’s struggling situation.
Every table had its own life to it. The tough circumstances surrounding the students made everyone go into fight or flight mode while having to be timely with their actions. Things got so dire when students had no more money that they started conspiring with the criminal to steal and deceive. I even felt like taking on the criminal role as my resources were getting thin.
Because everyone took it seriously, it was a positive learning experience that more students need to learn. It’s not enough to talk about the problems of a struggling and poor system, but we have to feel what it’s like to understand how to impact it in a way to create real change. Opening our eyes to the horrors of life with close to nothing is a big first step, and the poverty simulation does just that.
This poverty simulation should be done in more schools so we can come up with solutions as a community to help those in need. In 2022, the U.S. Census estimated that 37 million people were impoverished, which is 11.5 % of the population in the country. The best thing we can do is make others aware by bringing the crushing realism of poverty to them.
