"We were poor and we're still poor"
Published June 14, 2009 @ 08:23AM PT
I have to wonder if the presence of Barbara Ehrenreich in the NYT talking about the working poor and the recession will finally get people to pay attention to this notoriously invisible population:
...the outlook is not so cozy when we look at the effects of the recession on a group generally omitted from all the vivid narratives of downward mobility — the already poor, the estimated 20 percent to 30 percent of the population who struggle to get by in the best of times. This demographic, the working poor, have already been living in an economic depression of their own. From their point of view “the economy,” as a shared condition, is a fiction.
And as racial justice advocate Gihan Perera points out, our stimulus policies are not exactly poised to change anything.
First, Ehrenreich introduces a term that I've missed so far: the "Nouveau Poor" - which I take to mean the downward middle-class, likely people like my fiance and me, who live in a nice apartment with a lot of stuff but newly can't afford to pay our bills. As Ehrenreich visits with community organizers in L.A.. they make the point that so many of the working poor are disconnected from the larger economy, and that boom times - the alleged "rising tide" to lift all our boats - actually has a detrimental effect on low-income neighborhoods in the form of gentrification and displacement.
I'm preaching to the choir here, I know. The entire article is worth reading, as it gets into the outcomes such as overcrowding, domestic violence, "food auctions," missed medications, and other survival/coping strategies.
So what are we doing to shift this same-old cycle of hardship and oppression of the poorest among us? According to Perera of the Miami Workers Center, very little:
...things are a-changin', but it does not mean a progressive rearrangement of the economy. In cities throughout the country, the stimulus has not been visible. It's early, but everything in the design of the Recovery Act means that it will make little structural difference for communities of color. Black, Latino, and Asian inner-city communities have been in recession since at least 2004. Whether the national economy can recover any time soon is a big question, but no matter what happens, local urban communities will stay in crisis for much longer. The stimulus was designed to save the existing economy, but not fundamentally restructure it.
He goes on to layout how stimulus funds go to tax breaks, plugging state budget deficits, and "shovel-ready" projects. In actuality, we're seeing the $$ mostly go to social service programs, essentially dealing with our current recession emergency. This is useful, but not the long-term investment we need in struggling neighborhoods. As regular commenter Danetta pointed out in a recent post, echoing Perera but from a different angle, we need to "restructure" our economy and how we think about poverty and economic opportunity. Beyond the stepped up need to deliver social services right now, anti-poverty activists must focus on this deeper, systemic problem. We need a fairer system of economic distribution and opportunity, and a more reasonable, realistic, contemporary understanding of poverty in the U.S.
And so concludes my Sunday morning sermon. Please spread the word.
(Photo of homeless shelter mural by Valerie Everett)
Share this Post
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
StumbleUpon
Delicious
EmailRelated Posts
Comments (5)
Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.
Author
-
Leigh is a PhD candidate in urban planning at MIT, and a consultant on U.S. Gulf Coast recovery. She sits on the Board of the Allston-Brighton Community Development Corporation in Boston, and has worked with non-profits, foundations and local governments on policies and programs aimed at reducing urban poverty and inequality.
Featured Poverty in America Actions
-
-
-
Repeal the Hyde Amendment!
88 People
-
Repeal the Hyde Amendment!
Charles Barkley, the famous basketball player, said "Well, when I went off to college, the guys I used to hang with were pumping gas and voting Democrat. Today they're still pumping gas and voting Democrat. Guess the Democrats didn't do much for them."
Charles was joking of course but what he says is true. No matter which party is in power the poor will get poorer and the rich will get richer. It seems that the only people in the US who care about the poor are the religious organizations who cater to the needy. That is commendable but we need to do more as a nation to relieve the strains that poverty leaves on the family. Higher taxes on the rich and higher corporate taxes would be a good start. When Exxon is making record profits and the president of the company earns $27,000,000 per year while some of our citizens are starving is just sick. Go to http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/paywatch/ceou/database.cfm and see who the fat cats are and how much they earn.
Posted by jack barr on 06/14/2009 @ 11:38AM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Thanks for the link Jack. The POTUS, btw, earns $400k per year.
Posted by Leigh Graham on 06/14/2009 @ 12:39PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
"In actuality, we're seeing the $$ mostly go to social service programs"
Not here in CA. They have cut all social programs including social security for the disabled, welfare, and healthcare. They also cut the funding of homeless shelters by 40%.
Posted by Sharon Blasingame on 06/14/2009 @ 02:35PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
Entitlement? Because I dare to keep looking for help, begging for help, persisting, hoping that SOME DAY, SOMEONE can and will bother to help - I have a sense of entitlement? Geez, that has to be one of the most offensive things I've read in a while as a person fighting poverty and a disability.
I really hope I've read something into your post that wasn't intended, because the other option for those of us in poverty is, quite often, to give up which can easily mean a slow and miserable death due to an inability to meet one or more of our basic needs without assistance.
Posted by Danetta Amschler on 06/15/2009 @ 07:08PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.
The money for the programs are going to the Obama wars, the same wars Bush started. The only change Obama was talking about is helping his buddies and if the people dont start to pay attendtion the poor people will disappear..
Which I think it is sad, because many of us who are poor didnt asked to loose our jobs ( my case), or other people to loose their homes, be denied footstamps and any kind of help, based on a lie we have no $$$, but yet we hear or read it on the media Congress give someone so much amount of money for somebody who needs it the most, the ones who gets the $$$ doesnt need it at all.
The best policy I can give to people, dont shop at walmart, shop at the dollar tree or big lots or family dollar store. go to foodbanks or different organization which are not connected to the govt who will help feed your family or a single person.
I have been doing this and I am not going hungry. If you are able plant a small garden, people can survive this, all it takes is knowning how to live. And if you see another person who is in the same boat, dont shrug them off helping each other will make the time of being homeless less stressful in the long run.
P.S. I have been homeless and I survived.
Posted by Lara Nunes on 08/02/2009 @ 09:22PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.