Life is complicated. There are so many things that happen, so many things that affect other things that it can be difficult to foresee the results of any particular decision. Something small turns into something huge, and something that you think is huge turns out to be no big deal.
Economists and social scientists even have a phrase for this sort of thing. They call it “the law of unintended consequences”. It means that you can never account for all the possible results of any given actions. Basically, the future is unpredictable. I know, common sense, right? Except that it’s not. Blame is also a complicated thing, and humans take credit for causing all sorts of bad things when they actually had absolutely no control over the outcome.
Let me give you an example. I have an acquaintance who ended up in prison. He was trying to do the right thing, got caught up in something, and ended up getting convicted of something he didn’t do. What happened to him was a travesty and a miscarriage of justice. It was not his fault. The fact that he is in jail is not his fault. Period. Having said that, he did make some questionable decisions along the way. While he had good intentions and wanted nothing more than to help others, he put himself in a place where these bad things could happen to him. It is still not his fault. The system in place acted against him in a way that he just couldn’t fight. He didn’t have the ability to beat it because they held all the cards. Even though he made some choices that lead him to be in that position, he is not to blame.
Poverty is the same way. There is a system in place that is hard to fight. It is rigged against the poor in practically every way. Yes, it is easy to mismanage money. Yes, it is easy to make bad decisions. But in the current economic conditions in the US, unless someone makes the conscious decision to spend or give away every last penny they have, being in poverty is not your fault. The game is rigged. The house always wins. It is hard to stay afloat, and once you sink below the line, it is practically impossible to pull yourself back up.
Humans look for ways to control the uncontrollable. When things happen, they try to find ways to make it okay. If they can just find out who is responsible, or why things went wrong, it will be a little bit better. Assigning blame is human. It is also mostly unhelpful, especially when it comes to poverty. There is no blame to assign. Surviving is hard enough without worrying about who is at fault. Your energy is more useful making your world a better place for you and everyone around you.
