On Poverty And Soap

Eric Cartman - "Mr. Garrison! Why do poor people smell like sour milk?"

Mr. Garrison - "I don't know, Eric, they just do."

I don't recall the particular episode it was in, but that exchange in Southpark always stuck with me. Why is it that lower end tenants (we're talking low C and D class renters here) usually smell bad? Why are they almost always dirty, smell of BO, unkempt, etc?

(BTW, I'm talking about my area here. Perhaps in your area this is not the case. Hey, weirder things have happened…)

Yes, yes, yes... I hear all you social crusaders out there: "It's because they are PPPOOOOOOOOOORRR! We need more tax-funded social programs to help them be better!" I even hear other Catholics out there saying "Haven't you read that G. K. Chesterton article about the little girl's hair?" The common thread in all this is the assumption that there is some automatic cause/effect relationship between your income and your general state of cleanliness. At the absolute lowest end in some areas this can perhaps be shown at some point: If you are a beggar on the streets of Islamabad, then yes, I very much doubt that you have much of a chance to keep yourself clean at all.

We are not talking about those extremes here.

I am talking about the general lower class, the bottom income brackets in general, particularly the lowest income brackets that are encountered in the C and D class real estate market. Do we see the same kind of situation? Can, say, government subsidized or full-out charity funded housing tenants not afford the requirements of basic cleanliness?

I have seen quite a bit in this area, and I answer NO. My answer is based on what I see in day to day interactions with tenants and particularly what I see when we do evictions. Let's run through the list, shall we? (For a sample of the kind of thing we see, CLICK HERE)

Lots of empty cigarette packs
While I don't smoke myself, I have been in line at the gas station when lots of people are buying. The average in our area seems to be about $4-$5 a pack.

Empty bottles of bottom shelf booze
We're talking about stuff that should only be used to peel paint. Still not cheap. I stopped by the local store near our buildings for shits and giggles and checked prices. "Ten High" goes for $18.00 for a large bottle, which we see a lot of.

Empty cardboard cases of cheap beer
Bud Light (the most common) goes for about $15 a case.

Porn
Porno mags. Lots and LOTS of porno mags. Lots and lots of the latest porno mags. What do those cost, $3-$5 each?

Baggies of seeds and stems
Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. While I have neither purchased nor smoked said substance before, is it really that cheap? Cheaper than cigarettes?

Tons of losing lottery tickets
Depending on what you're playing, $1-$10 each.

Ok, so why am I posting all those? To make a point. I also checked a couple of other prices while I was at the local store. Here's what I found:

Zest bar soap, 8-pack
$3.79. That's $0.46 per bar of soap, for those of you without a calculator.

Suave generic shampoo
$1.46. That's what I use, and it lasts me for months.

At the time Chesterton wrote the article wherein he talks about just wages and uses the example of the little girl's hair, which is a very good article BTW, soap was not as cheap or plentiful as today. Hell, there were still lots of people in Britain who didn't even have indoor plumbing. At our low-end apartments, WE pay for water, including hot water.

So what does all this mean? Well, when a bar of soap costs less than the cheapest loaf of bread, when you have money to blow on shitty booze, porn and drugs you are officially OUT of excuses for smelling like a pigsty.

It's at this point that most of the social do-gooders start to get evasive and still want to talk about money, but I can go even further. How does being poor keep you from taking basic sanitation steps that are free? Do you have to have a certain amount of cash on hand before it is physically possible for you to get off your lazy ass and haul your personal garbage to the provided dumpster out back?

Bottom line, why do poor people smell like sour milk? Because they just don't give a damn about being dirty.