Imagine your world without a car or phone

The basic needs of a surviving individual are food, shelter, and clothing. There are people all around us who are scraping by or struggling for this level of existence, but this post is not a bout for pity or guilt.


The next basic needs of a functioning individual are food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and communication. If you can manage these basic functioning needs, then you are seen as a successful person and can make it on your own.

Think about it. I, for one, feel a stab of emotion when thinking of what it might be like to live homeless, or on the street. I also can faintly imagine what it is like to be REALLY hungry, and exposed to the elements because I don’t have the proper clothing. But I don’t really think about my survival on the same level when I think of having a car and a phone.

I used to gripe about my teaching pool on my mission, how we couldn’t get people to meet their commitments because they just plain didn’t have resources to get to church. I remember glorying in one particular woman because she was a person we baptized with a job, a car, and a phone. She would therefore be able to be a strength to the ward.

I would gripe because their physical living circumstances were not my profession at that point. I was focusing on their spiritual functioning and hope.

I have since been involved with people’s physical needs, and attempting to promote their social functioning, not merely survival. When someone comes to my desk and has somewhere to live and can function within their food stamps grant, I think of them as pretty safe. They can use a family member or a neighbor to leave messages, and I can get them a bus pass. I have not yet met someone who didn’t have life-sustaining clothing, but I can get a woman 10 sets of work clothing per year if needed. If I ever get to that point, I’m sure I’ll find something.

But think about how hard that would be. You are in a place where you need state help, perhaps you have a child you’ve never needed to care for before, and this drastically changes your needs. Maybe your mother is now sick and someone needs to stay home and take care of her. Your phone has been cancelled and you can’t afford gas money for your car. You’re surviving through the grace of food stamps and a $400 monthly financial grant, but there are these letters that keep coming in the mail asking you to fill out papers and call in for interviews to clarify the last papers you filled out. If you don’t respond to any one of these within 10 days, your benefits will be closed.

Think about doing all of that and trying to get a job. First step: go to the library to use their computers (if you even have computer skills), and let’s say you get an interview! You need to take the bus 45 minutes and 3 connections to get there. More likely, this bus ride will be just to fill out an application because most people I see in this situation can’t navigate a keyboard, much less attach and email a functioning resume.

Next step, have a phone number for them to call you back on. …um. There is your neighbor who has agreed to let people call their phone to leave messages for you, but she’s not too prompt or organized with your calls, and you’re starting to feel like a pest.

You can imagine how difficult this becomes. Walking to fill out applications, waiting for phone calls, and still trying to find a way to pay the utilities each month.

Just think about how life would be without your car. Would you be able to get to work/the grocery store? Once you’d lost your job, how long would your savings hold out until you were on the other side of a desk like mine? Would you walk to every employment opportunity imaginable and take whatever you could? Imagine how your life would be different. And then once you’ve gotten that job, imagine living on $1000 per month—what one earns in a full-time minimum wage job after taxes. That translates into $12,000 per year. Imagine how you would ever get out of that.

All I’m saying is, be grateful for your phone and car.

A lack of child care is a whole different story.