Ugh. I have an appointment with a woman on Sunday who very well could have written this article. She can NOT seem to catch a break. Car dies? Missed wages. Manager thinks she looked at her sideways? Lost hours. Kid vomits blood from anxiety attack after the younger kid died from cancer? Hospital bills. Even when given a small leg up - like if rent gets covered by church or a charity. Even if the local food pantry doesn't turn her down - it's the same story next month. SO HARD to break the cycle.Because our lives seem so unstable, poor people are often seen as being basically incompetent at managing their lives. That is, it’s assumed that we’re not unstable because we’re poor, we’re poor because we’re unstable. So let’s just talk about how impossible it is to keep your life from spiraling out of control when you have no financial cushion whatsoever.