Cassie Stromer's Not Poor Enough

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There are poor people who struggle to afford expenses to simply live. They can not afford food, rent, or healthcare. However, there are others who are not poor enough. They live a comfortable life, but with huge loans and schooling, they still do not make enough. For example, in higher education. There are families who make too much money for FAFSA and grants, but still cannot afford thirty-thousand-dollar yearly tuition. It is the people who are in the middle who struggle the most. The poor get government aid and the rich have money, but those in the middle get no help at all. This is not being poor enough.
In the chapter, “Not Poor Enough” by Susan Sheehan, Cassie Stromer is a seventy-six-year-old woman living in Mount Vernon House in Alexandria, …show more content…

They could afford to buy a house and raise a family. In the chapter, Cassie explains “’It takes one mother to take care of five children, but oftentimes five children can’t take care of a mother’” (Sheehan, 2018). Cassie worked hard to raise her children with a good life working several jobs, and they did. Now, when Cassie needs help her children have trouble helping her because of their own life expenses (Sheehan, 2018). This is becoming true for most middle-class millennials. For example, Matthew McCabe is a forty-year-old man who makes $55,000 a year teaching at Columbus State University, but he still rents his home. At forty-years-old McCabe is still paying off his doctorate school loans and cannot afford to buy a home. Although, he can be considered middle class, he does not make enough money to own a home. As time goes on, the cost of living is raising and so does the minimum comfortable salary. The middle class is no longer getting the best of both worlds. While Cassie is on the borderline of poverty and medical care, Matt cannot afford a simple luxury, such as a home. The middle-class can live a great life, until it comes to large expenses and big loans. That is what they