When the wealthy pretend to be poor

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sylvia-gindick/my-empty-fridge_b_4724981.html?ir=College

Above is the article I'm referring to in the post. It's written by a fellow U of M student. I have no idea what the author's financial situation is, so I don't want to insinuate that I think the author herself is part of an upper-class that is "pretending" to be poor. I am merely saying that the way the writing is structured begins with a complaint that stems from a wealthy point of view and then uses a subtle switch and bait to conflate poverty with their issue. 

Watch out for the switch and bait. The article claims to be about balance and food, but its true issue lies in economic instability. In fact, the most compelling portion of the article comes when it cites issues faced by poor students who struggle with eating options due to money constraints. The beginning of the article is front loaded with a variety of factors the author faces and while I'm slightly sympathetic to many of them, to compare Ann Arbor to a food desert is a bit ridiculous (which is insinuated with this line "I was not warned of the food imbalance written into the environment, replete with liquor stores, bars and restaurants, yet lacking an affordable grocery store.") Then when it cites the statistic that 40 percent of UM students feel insecure about food, I become curious about how much of that statistic is due to financial instability or true lack of access. I cannot speak for other campuses, but I have plenty of friends who live in apartments and manage to get groceries every other month if they have the necessary funds to do so. Access is never the issue when you have bus services that take you to Meijer. Is it annoying to do groceries at Meijer and then have to take them onto the bus? Yes. But when you're a poor student who came from a place where fresh produce and a huge supermarket of groceries was a rarity, then the trek is more of a nuisance rather than a serious barrier. The author was right about one thing: food choices are about trade-offs. But I rarely find my friends stressing over whether they'll have access. Most of their issues stems from economic instability. Either they don't have the money to purchase their groceries or they are too busy working for the money to buy groceries. This article doesn't emphasize economic instability as the pressing concern. Instead it puts economic instability on the same order of magnitude as a well off student who simply doesn't have enough time in their day to take a trip to the grocery store (notice that a well off student doesn't necessarily have endless amounts of money, they have economic security which might mean just enough afforded to them by their parents to buy groceries, but we shouldn't immediately assume that they can afford the far more expensive grocery stores). Even the complaint concerning expensive grocery stores stems back to economic disparity. So what's your beef Raymond? They mention all that stuff in the article. Yes, but the article is titled "My Empty Fridge" when it should be titled "My Empty Pockets".

Further Musings: Another thing I want to avoid is "Rich shaming". I'm not saying wealthy students don't have the right to complain about lack of access to the best quality of food. That's fine. In fact I encourage it. But don't conflate the issues of the poor with your issues. They aren't the same.