Culture of Poverty
Is it Time to Protest Yet?
Published August 03, 2009 @ 12:00PM PT
More on those unemployment #s: Corrente takes a look at the National Employment Law Project report on unemployment - 1.5M Americans will have exhausted their unemployment benefits by 12/31/09 - and wonders if this is what will finally "break" us. And by break I mean rise up and fight back against atrocious wealth inequality.
I'm skeptical. Almost one-third of unemployed workers haven't worked in six months. That's a long time to be home all day, surfing the internet, sending out resumes, playing with your kids, letting yourself go, feeling your self-confidence and sense of self-worth along with your "soft skills" just totally atrophy. And from this sense of desperation we're going to fight for our economic rights? Revolution doesn't come from desperation; it comes from a sense of entitlement that we deserve more. We have to recognize our own oppression before we can revolt against it. This idea that work = self-worth means that out-of-work Americans just aren't our go-to revolutionaries. We're nothing without our jobs, and we get nothing from our society without them. And we buy into this set-up.
We're coming on 6 months since we last had this conversation about worker protest. As 500,000 Americans gear up to lose their unemployment benefits next month, seems like now's the time to have this discussion again.
What's it going to take, people??
(Photo of strike threat by janitorial workers in Santa Monica by Steve Lyons)
A Nation of Hustlers?
Published August 03, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
(Photo of "Hunger Amidst Plenty" by Kamal H.)
I have to ask: why do so many of our public policies assume the worst of human nature? Check this out from a depressing NYT piece on how unemployment benefits are going to run out by year's end for a frightening # of unemployed Americans:
Traditionally, many economists have been leery of prolonged unemployment benefits because they can reduce the incentive to seek work. But that should not be a concern now because jobs remain so scarce, said Lawrence Katz, a labor economist at Harvard.
For every job that becomes available, about six people are looking, Dr. Katz said. “Unemployment insurance gives income to families who are really suffering and can’t find work even if they are hustling to look,” he said.
Look, $300 a week in unemployment benefits is nothing to sneer at, but honestly, is it really a negative incentive? It's slightly more generous than working full-time for a week at minimum wage, and it's about half of what the median hourly wage pays weekly in the US.
Why do we assume that by offering any shred of a safety net we're creating a nation of loafers, hustlers, thieves, layabouts, and their rapaciously needy offspring?
Seriously - what are the roots of these very disturbing assumptions? I don't get it.
Public Housing Funds Spent on Middle-Class Families
Published August 02, 2009 @ 01:36PM PT
[Atlanta Housing Authority CEO Renee] Glover said that pushing out chronic public housing residents is the only way to break the cycle of poverty, and she has led many of the nation's housing authority leaders to the same conclusion.
Thanks to the Associated Press, I finally get some hard numbers on HOPE VI's - and our nation's housing authorities - impact on reducing deeply affordable housing in the U.S. As we've covered here previously, Atlanta is nearing the final demolition of its public housing projects. It's doubly sad to read about this as I learn that Atlanta was home to the first public housing project in the U.S.: Techwood Homes. As ATL abandons its developments for mixed-income complexes, we have also abandoned the original spirit and intent of the program, evoked by a former President:
President Franklin D. Roosevelt heralded the project as "a tribute to useful work under government supervision" and the first step in building a safety net for the working poor during the Depression.
These days, the US Dept. of Housing & Urban Development spends its money building housing for the middle class.
Less Crime, More Hunger
Published July 30, 2009 @ 01:26PM PT
I just finished reading a very frustrating article about the impacts of the HOPE VI program's impacts on public housing residents' lives ($). For those not in the know, HOPE VI is a program that since 1992 provides federal subsidies to demolish and redevelop public housing projects as mixed-income communities. Proponents say it improves residents' lives by enabling them to live in less-poor neighborhoods with better-off neighbors and that taken together these changes will bring increased safety, economic opportunities and role models for low-income residents.
The "role modeling" thing always ticks me off, but the bigger problem with HOPE VI is that it pursued a housing demolition and development strategy as the sole means to reduce poverty and inequality. If you know anything about the myriad problems poor people face in terms of job prospects (e.g., health problems, disability, young children at home, etc.), then you'll probably be unsurprised to learn that the most recent HOPE VI assessment shows no impact on residents' economic status. None. Sigh.
But the "choice" residents face between crime and hunger is what really gets me.
Why Food Matters
Published July 30, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
I realize that for a blog that is dedicated to understanding and alleviating the sources of poverty, I talk quite a bit about food. This is mainly because I think food, at it's best, can help people rise up out of poverty; and at its worst, contribute to diet-related health problems and force farm laborers to live an undignified life of poverty and despair.
Many times in the realm of poverty work, it seems as though food is addressed only in the most simple of terms: do people have enough of it, or not?
But there are so many other reasons why food, both producing and eating it, matters to those less fortunate than most of us. Here are a few:
1) One of the single greatest indicators of a persons likeliness to become obese is income level. The rationale is simple: the less money you have available to spend on food, the more likely you are to purchase products that give you the greatest bang for your buck.
Subsistence is the Only Choice
Published July 29, 2009 @ 11:00AM PT
Monday's post about the lack of housing affordability for anyone working minimum wage struck a chord with many readers; to date, it's driven the most readers to this blog. I noticed that after folks read it, they tended to root around in our Actions to see what they could do. There's a lot of options, but here's a couple suggestions:
- Join a campaign for a Living Wage;
- Join a coalition of affordable housing advocates to push for more quality housing for low-income Americans, especially for families, the elderly and the disabled;
- Fight for welfare "reforms" that count higher education towards work and expand access to subsidized childcare and for longer periods of time. (There's actually a lot more that could be done, but I'm trying to keep you all focused.)
Talking about poverty day in and day out can get pretty debilitating - I can't imagine how it is for my readers and loved ones who live it everyday. I'm feeling particularly beat down this morning by the combination of this absolutely horrendous report of the tragic confluence of child poverty, tenant exploitation and substandard housing from New Orleans, as well as the insistence from many readers around the web that minimum wage is generous enough - that if immigrants can get by, why can't we; that it will make teen workers more irresponsible, that it will hurt the businesses too meager or cheap or profit-oriented to even pay benefits. Bull. Bull. And more bull.
Poverty: The Elephant (or Giant, Bloodthirsty Rat) in the Room
Published July 29, 2009 @ 05:08AM PT
Among more pleasant things, like snoballs and crawfish, it seems that summer in post-Katrina New Orleans is marked by horrific, nearly unbelievable local news stories involving some sort of gory death or injury. In 2006, for example, Zachary Bowman strangled, dismembered and cooked his girlfriend before committing suicide by jumping from the roof a French Quarter hotel. Ideally, these hair-raising stories might spark more informed conversations amongst both our elected leaders and everyday residents about issues ranging from mental health to recreational activities for our young people to policing and crime prevention.
Recently, another horrifying news story surfaced in the New Orleans area. On July 18, three-month old Natalie Hill’s parents awoke to find Natalie dead in her crib, with hundreds of what looked to be rat bites all over her. Her nose and part of one of her legs had been completely chewed off. There were bloody rodent footprints in the crib and on the floor around it. Since then, the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office has ruled that Natalie did indeed bleed to death from rat bites.
Although many people jumped to conclusions about the quality of Natalie's parental care in the wake of this horrific death, this is really a story about poverty and the quality of our affordable housing stock.
