Tag: Families

Poverty, American Style

We long haired hippie leftists have been telling the American people that their acquiescence on the political side of life was going to bring them nothing but pain and poverty…..and for the longest time we long haired hippies have been told that we were alarmists……I have one question…….can you hear us now?

I know my readers are getting tired of all gloom and doom about the economy and especially the Middle Class…..but I will not apologize…..I see the chance of the Middle Class disappearing completely and the possibility that it could never return….I have given lots of links and such to inform my reader and I will continue to do so……like today….I found more info on the economy and the Middle Class that is under attack……this time from Braden Goyette of ProPublica…….I know it is a lot of info, but the more you have the better your writings…….

Americans below the poverty line in 2010: 46.2 million

Official U.S. poverty rate in 2007, before the recession: 12.5 percent

Poverty rate in 2009: 14.3 percent

Poverty rate in 2010: 15.1 percent

Last time the poverty level was this high: 1993

Poverty line in 2010: $22,314 for a family of four, or $11,139 for an individual

Rough amount the poor are living on per week: $200 or less

Poverty rate in American suburbs: 11.8 percent, the highest since 1967

Percentage of the population making less than half the poverty line in 2010: 6.7 percent

Percentage of the population making less than half the poverty line in 2007, before the recession: 5.2 percent

Poverty rate for white Americans in 2010: 13 percent

Poverty rate for African-Americans in 2010: 27.4 percent

Real median household income in 2010: $49,445

Decline in median household income since 2009: 2.3 percent

Decline in median household income since before the recession: 6.4 percent

The last time median household incomes have been this low: 1996

Real median household income in 1999, in 2010 dollars: $53,252

Median income for full-time male workers in 2010: $47,715

Median income for full-time male workers in 1973, in 2010 dollars: $49,065

Official unemployment rate in August 2011: 9.1 percent

Total unemployed people in August: 14 million

People who were employed part-time for economic reasons in August 2011: 8.8 million

People not counted in the labor force who wanted work: 2.6 million

Net jobs created in August 2011: 0

Long-term unemployed people as of August 2011: 6 million

Unemployed workers per job opening as of July 2011: 4.34 (3.2 million openings and 13.9 million unemployed people)

Uninsured Americans in 2010: 49.9 million

Percentage of Americans without health insurance in 2010: 16.3 percent

Percentage of Americans without health insurance in 2007, before the recession: 15.3 percent

Percentage of children who were uninsured in 2010: 9.8 percent

Percentage of children in poverty who were uninsured in 2010: 15.4 percent

Percentage of American households that had enough to eat throughout the year in 2007: 88.9 percent

Percentage of American households that had enough to eat throughout the year in 2010: 85.5 percent

It is time for the American people to get INVOLVED!  Are you proud of the direction that your elected officials are taking our country?  If not, then get to writing, phoning, texting, tweeting, whatever……get INVOLVED or lose your country…FOR GOOD!

Shared Sacrifice

Daily Agitator

A wonderful term, at least politically……

And most of the time it does NOT mean ALL Americans, just those that work hard and try to survive…….those calling for a shared sacrifice seldom ever have to sacrifice anything……

My friend over at Quintessential Havoc (go to blogroll and visit an insightful site) and I have been bitching about politicians for some time now and it got me to thinking about ways of changing the whole atmosphere in which they work (I use the term loosely).

Americans for generations have been asked to sacrifice for the country’s sake…..wars, depression, national disasters, etc….each and every time Americans have stepped up for the good of their country…most recently Americans have sacrificed, not all, but a few….war has made American families sacrifice everything…not only the loss of lives and the mutilation of bodies.  The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken families to the brink…..multiple deployments, sons, daughters, fathers and mothers taken away from their families so that many situations are lost like births, deaths, birthdays, anniversaries, first steps, etc. etc.  And these people do this voluntarily for the good of the country.

What have you done?

If you do not live near a military base then the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan mean very little to you…..Americans are not asked to sacrifice for the good of the country and when only a small percentage is asked to do so…sacrifice, that is……

I am tired of hearing these “do nothing” worms in Washington talk about sacrifice…they know nothing about sacrifice….but they want you top sacrifice while they retain their privileged existence…..that is time for a change…….

But then I think that congress people should not have their families with them and that they should live in a dormitory type structure…(I hear that the Watergate is for sale..) after all these people only work about 3 days a week and spend the rest of their time at home fund raising….so it is not like that they would be deprived of their families, like the troops.  There would be NO need for private schools or houses in exclusive neighborhoods.   If they have time for tanning beds and golf and other such pursuits then we are paying them too much or they are NOT doing their job…after all they are in Washington to run the government, not to increase their visibilities at social functions.  Or to take vacations and call it work.  Let these clowns share in the sacrifices of the working people of this country.  (Emphasis for effect)

And further more it is time to consider making these perpetual candidates to start retiring when they hit 75…..time to move past people running the country that are over 90 and cannot remember their gran kid’s names…we all bitch about making the government more fiscal conservative then eliminate the expenses that these celebrities run up in the name of doing their jobs.  But nope we had rather let them gut the education system, among many programs and retain their elitism.

The problem is that Americans are timid and allow the top 10% to make their decisions and their sacrifices.

YOU WANT CHANGE!  Then change everything about the Congress…you will have to do it because your elected officials will NOT change the sure thing or the sweet gig that they have….but NO you prefer to let them talk and promise and bullsh*t you…all the while they are getting rich on your dime…..does that sound logical or for that matter, rational?

The Crisis Of Working Families

There is broad consensus among labor unions and progressive organizations, economists and politicians that we need a bottom-up solution to the economic crisis. That is, the priority should be fixing Main Street, not Wall Street. The main proposals include:

1) A moratorium on home foreclosures, and giving bankruptcy courts the power to renegotiate mortgages.
2) Extend unemployment benefits and increase funding for food stamps, heating assistance, and other survival programs.
3) Aid to state and local governments so they can avoid layoffs and reductions in vital services.
4) Rebuilding the infrastructure of America: clean energy, roads, bridges, water systems, schools, and housing, providing good-paying jobs.

There is broad consensus among labor unions and progressive organizations, economists and politicians that we need a bottom-up solution to the economic crisis. That is, the priority should be fixing Main Street, not Wall Street. The main proposals include:

1) A moratorium on home foreclosures, and giving bankruptcy courts the power to renegotiate mortgages.
2) Extend unemployment benefits and increase funding for food stamps, heating assistance, and other survival programs.
3) Aid to state and local governments so they can avoid layoffs and reductions in vital services.
4) Rebuilding the infrastructure of America: clean energy, roads, bridges, water systems, schools, and housing, providing good-paying jobs.

The immediate cause of the financial crisis on Wall Street is this mountain of debt smothering people on Main Street. In simplified form, here is what happens.
● Hard-pressed families fall behind on their mortgage and credit card payments.
● When homeowners can’t make payments, the banks foreclose, but the home frequently stands empty and the bank is unable to recover much of the outstanding loan..
● The bank, with less money coming in, has trouble paying other banks and investors that it borrowed money from.
● Those other banks and investors have trouble paying banks and investors they borrowed from.
● Banks, investors, and ordinary businesses are afraid to lend money to other banks, investors and ordinary businesses.

Families owe more on their mortgages and their credit cards than they can ever pay back. And their effort to save their homes and meet creditors’ demands is undermining their families, their neighborhoods and the local economy, as family members work multiple jobs and cut back on health care, local purchases, local taxes, utilities, and home maintenance.

The bailout package just approved by Congress doesn’t address this problem at all. Homeowners and consumers still have the same debt, still face the same monthly payments. The only change is that the U.S. government has become a collection agent for the banks and investors.

The solution is to reduce the amount that working people owe. Reduce homeowners’ and consumers’ debt to the level it would be at if reasonable lending standards had been applied in the first place. Conservative practice is that families should pay no more than 25 percent of their income for housing. So a people’s bailout plan would mandate that mortgages be reduced so that monthly payments will be 25 percent of household income. But in no case should the debt be for more than the real value of the house, as determined by historical price levels adjusted for inflation. Credit card debt, second mortgages, and home improvement loans, college loans, and medical debt could also be adjusted by similar calculations, to a maximum of 10 percent of household income.

This would not cost the government a penny — it would force banks and investors to recognize the losses resulting from their own bad judgment and fraudulent practices. Millions of people would still be in their homes, and neighborhoods and local tax bases would be stabilized. And the financial system would be more stable because the banks could now be confident of receiving a steady stream of payments, even though these payments would be less than what they originally expected.

Come on guys, time to get angry and time to demand that the PEOPLE come first!  Please get off your ass.

Social Misery Approaches

Millions of people in the US, and not merely those with the lowest incomes, are being hammered by a combination of job losses, rising prices for basic items such as food and gasoline, and the drop in the value of their homes.

Home prices continued to fall last month, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price indexes, a widely followed measurement. In 20 US metropolitan areas home prices declined in April by the most on record, 15.3 percent from a year earlier, following a 14.3 percent decline in March. The drop in prices has erased gains made since 2004.

The figures for selected major metropolitan areas are staggering. Las Vegas and Miami saw annual price declines of 26.8 percent and 26.7 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, now that the warmer weather is upon us, combined with the growing economic distress, private utility companies are cutting off electricity and natural gas at rates 15 percent higher than last year. There are restrictions on the ability of the utilities to halt service to homes during the winter months.

USA Today reported Tuesday that “utilities are disconnecting many more customers who fall behind on their bills, and even moderate-income households are getting zapped…Totals for some utilities have more than doubled.”

Utility disconnects are up 56 percent for Detroit Edison; more than one in five of its customers were behind in their electric bills in May.

All in all, it’s no wonder then, as the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, that “consumer confidence dropped like a stone in June, and expectations hit an all-time low, according to the latest survey from the Conference Board.” Lynn Franco of the Conference Board told the paper, “Perhaps the silver lining to this otherwise dismal report is that consumer confidence may be nearing a bottom.”

June’s confidence figure, based on a survey of 5,000 households, was the fifth lowest reading ever. Only 11.5 percent of those surveyed said business conditions were good.

One of the most telling social realities, and one with considerable implications, is detailed in the section somewhat blandly entitled, “Heightened Housing Challenges.” The Joint Center study notes that in 2006 nearly 40 million households in the US were at least “moderately cost burdened”—paying more than 30 percent of income on housing—and nearly 18 million “were severely cost burdened (paying more 50 percent)”. The number of severely burdened households “surged by almost four million” from 2001 to 2006, or some 20 to 25 percent.

“The weight of high housing costs falls especially heavily on households in the bottom income quartile. Fully 47 percent of low-income households were severely cost burdened in 2006, compared with 11 percent of lower middle-income households and just 4 percent of upper middle-income households. On average, households with children in the bottom quartile of spenders with severe housing cost burdens have just $257 a month left over for food, $29 for clothing, and $9 for healthcare. With food and energy costs climbing, these households will have less to spend on bare necessities.”

While low-income and minority households have been hard hit, “Affordability problems are edging up the income scale,” the study observes. “A rising number of middle-income homeowners also face cost pressures….For homeowners earning more than the median income, the likelihood of being housing cost burdened nearly doubled between 2001 and 2006.”

The conditions for millions of children are a national disgrace. More than one in six children in the US lives in households paying more than half their incomes for housing. The poorest quarter of American households “spent 32 percent less on food, 56 percent less on clothes, and 79 percent less on healthcare than families with low housing outlays.”

Americans are in dire straits–with the high cost of gas, housing and food–these are essentials not luxuries and there seems to be no relief in sight.  Will the candidates eventually get around to offering real solutions to these problems or will we continue to hear the stuff that does not make sense, it is said to gain votes not solve problems.

When will the American people learn?

FLDS UpDate

Texas policy holds that when children are taken from their parents for investigation of possible abuse, geographic distances should be kept to a minimum to allow supervised visitation. That has not, by a wide Texas mile, been the experience of Nora Jeffs, who was among the dozens of women attending court hearings here on Monday. Since her eight children were taken in the raid at a polygamist compound last month, Ms. Jeffs has been transformed into more or less an itinerant traveler, trying to visit her children, who are 18 months old to 14 years old, according to a state case worke

The children themselves, who are not allowed to travel while in state custody, are being encouraged to use conference telephone calls to stay in touch and to send drawings and letters.The hearings, technically meant as a 60-day check-up of the state’s plan in handling the children and families of the raid, have exposed the clanking machinery of the Texas child welfare apparatus, which has strained at the seams and spent millions of dollars to handle one of the biggest and most complex child welfare cases in the nation’s history.

State officials said the raid and the taking of all the children in the church’s compound, called Yearning for Zion, were necessary because the culture of the sect led to illegal under-age marriage for girls and acceptance of that practice by boys — a pattern that state officials have said endangers both sexes.

Once again, I state that I am NOT a follower of the FLDS, my problem is one of civil rights, if there was abuse then those abusing should be held accountable.  My problem is making children pay for the state’s dislike of a religious sect.  It happened to these people, it could happen to you.