As someone who grew up poor and still is, I can tell you most people don’t. Even when it’s explained to them like this.

The indignant will always tell you you’re poor because you’re not trying hard enough, even when you come home from a 12-hour work day and have to just cry and breakdown because you have nothing left to give your family that needs you, too.

To get a little more personal with it, I was literally in the midst of a nervous breakdown recently and on the verge of killing myself because I couldn’t afford to take time off to get the mental health treatment I needed, either. Because poor people can’t miss a paycheck or everything falls apart.

But even though I have ADHD, autism, depression, anxiety and OCD, work incredibly long hours and come home to take care of my aging husband with limited mobility and our 10 year old, we’re poor because I’m not trying hard enough. Because at any given time I’m a step away from an eviction notice and a repo.

That’s what the world tells us, anyway. I’ve heard it a million times. We’re poor because we’re not trying hard enough not to be poor. And god knows there’s not much compassion in this world for people who aren’t giving 100% at all times despite what it may do to them.

It’s exhausting to even just exist here in NoCompassionLand.