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Slipping from the Bottom Rung: Many Could Lose Progress Escaping Generational Poverty

A return for first gen out of poverty not welcome

Justin Honse
5 min readJun 9, 2020

Try not to slip from that bottom rung — it’s a long way down.

There are many Gen X’ers and Millenials right now hoping like hell what they’re going through won’t last.

They are the individuals who grew up in American towns which were in the shadow of factories, nuclear power plants, or both. They grew up in poverty, but made their parents proud by finally getting out of it. They’ve crossed an important socioeconomic barrier — and really don’t want to go back. I am among them.

We didn’t receive money when our grandparents passed away. We don’t particularly expect anything when our parents shuffle off this mortal coil, either.

It is an unfortunate truth that is just accepted among us.

We are the ones who thought it was normal to eat the same meals regularly, and thought it was normal to only go out to eat once a month or so — for McDonald’s.

And when we stop and think about it, we wonder how the hell our parents were able to buy us that really cool bike; that game system that we now know cost several hundred dollars — probably a full paycheck or more for our struggling…

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Justin Honse
Justin Honse

Written by Justin Honse

I write about Economic and Social issues that affect us all, because my country, America, has problems and change is needed now.

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