Tag: Poverty

But The Economy Is Doing Well

Have you noticed that the MSM reports the economy is doing well….apparently based on market information not reality….in other words as long as corporations are turning a big profit the people should be happy and compliant.

If all that is true and the economy is going great why is one of the biggest issues in the upcoming election the economic woes we are facing those days?

If the economy is working so well how come child poverty has risen yet again?

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and congressional Republicans faced fresh backlash on Tuesday after the U.S. Census Bureau released new data showing that the nation’s child poverty rate more than doubled in 2022 compared to the previous year, thanks in large part to the expiration of the boosted Child Tax Credit.

The expanded CTC, an American Rescue Plan (ARP) policy that sent eligible families up to $300 per month for each child and eliminated the original CTC’s regressive phase-in, helped push the U.S. child poverty rate to a record low of 5.2% in 2021.

But the program expired at the end of that year after Manchin (D-W.Va.), who supported the ARP, opposed an extension, baselessly claiming that some parents would use the money on drugs instead of their children. (Survey data showed that most families, including those in West Virginia, used the money to buy food and help with rent, along with other essentials.)

Congressional Republicans, who unanimously opposed the ARP, also rejected calls to support an extension of the boosted CTC, part of a broader pandemic-era safety net that is now collapsing.

The result of the program’s expiration, as predicted, was a devastating surge in child poverty. According to the new Census Bureau data, the child poverty rate rose to 12.4% in 2022—the largest single-year increase on record.

The overall U.S. poverty rate also increased, rising from 7.8% in 2021 to 12.4% last year. More than 37 million people in the U.S. lived in poverty in 2022, the Census Bureau said.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/manchin-child-poverty

No one I talk with seems to hold the belief that the economy is doing good.

How about you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What’s Driving Middle East Terrorism?

I recall all the mocking that was given when someone tried to equate the rise of terrorism with that of poverty.  Some Right wing sources made light and even a joke or two over the comment….

But good old boy GW had this to say about the subject back in 2002……

US president George W. Bush told the United Nations in 2002, that “we fight against poverty because hope is an answer to terror.”

While I believe that poverty does have a spot on the list of causes of terrorism…… it is not the only driving force behind the acts……politics is a much bigger driving force….it interests me that some cannot see where extreme poverty could drive someone into acts of terrorism…..but that is another day and another post…..the below article is a good piece on this……

Source: It’s not the poverty in the Middle East that’s driving terrorism—it’s the politics – Quartz

What say you?

Which Is the Better Populist Message: Class Mobility or Income Inequality? – NationalJournal.com

Populism is the hot button term for this election.

We have Right wing populism and Left wing populism…….but what will the people do at the time of the vote?

Is it more important to face income inequality?  Or is class mobility the more important issue?  Are we Americans truly concerned about our fellow citizens?

What do you think is the more important issue for this election?

 

Which Is the Better Populist Message: Class Mobility or Income Inequality? – NationalJournal.com.

Could It Be? The GOP Sees The Light?

It seems that our political brethren, the GOP, have bitten the bullet and decided it would be in the best interest to acknowledge the growing problem of inequality….after many election cycles and a whole lot of denial…they may have seen the light…(how fortunate with an election looming on the horizon)…….

Republicans seem to have shifted thinking about income inequality and the plight of poor people, writes Doyle McManus in the Los Angeles Times. Conservative stalwarts Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio are among those pitching proposals to help low-income Americans make ends meet, perhaps learning a lesson from Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” comments in the last election. That’s smart, writes McManus, because President Obama is keeping the issue of income inequality front and center, and Republicans have figured out that it’s not enough to argue that lower taxes and reduced federal debt will be a cure-all. “The stagnation of middle-class incomes and the growing gap between rich and poor aren’t by any means partisan issues,” he writes. “Republican voters worry about them as much as Democrats do.” GOP candidates will no doubt have different approaches toward solutions, but McManus thinks it’s promising that they’re even discussing the need for them. “The two parties have agreed on a basic premise: that the federal government must do more to help the poor, especially low-income workers, clamber out of poverty,” he writes. “And that’s progress.” Click for his full column.

Now with the problem in sight….the next question is….what to do….what to do?

Believe it or not there are some ideas coming out of the GOP on how we can move past poverty and make a better country for our citizens…..really….they have some ideas….and here they are…..

1. Don’t raise minimum wage: Rubio said we shouldn’t raise the minimum wage to $10 because no one wants a job that pays $10. “Raising the minimum wage may poll well, but having a job that pays $10 an hour is not the American dream.” It is not clear how not raising the minimum wage translates into people getting jobs that pay more than $10 an hour. The current minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, an amount so low that people working full-time can’t afford to pay rent in any state, never mind buy food. People making the minimum wage actually qualify for food stamps and other government assistance. A bill currently before Congress to lift the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would lift 4.6 million Americans out of poverty.

2. Give subsidies to employers instead: Instead of raising the minimum wage (higher wages mean less money going into the pockets of those at the top of the corporate ladder) Rubio proposes to replace the Earned Income Tax Credit with a direct wage subsidy. He would give government money to companies to “supplement wages.” He says this would “encourage and reward work.” This would mean the money companies are not paying out in higher wages would continue to go to the top few and government would make up the difference: a direct government subsidy of inequality.

3. Turn programs over to states: Rubio proposed turning federal anti-poverty programs over to the states in a single “flex-fund” block grant, in order to let the states decide what to do with the money. Note that  24 states are currently refusing the federal Medicaid expansion, leaving 5.4 million people without health coverage even though it comes at no cost to those states. So the record on turning things over to the states as a way to help the poor is not good.

4. Marriage: Rubio’s  big proposal is marriage (but not gay marriage). He said, “the greatest tool to lift children and families from poverty is one that decreases the probability of child poverty by 82 percent. But it isn’t a government spending program. It’s called marriage.” Rubio says that government subsidies to increase wages (instead of just raising the minimum wage) makes men more “marriageable.” He also said we need to “remove the marriage penalties in safety net programs.” This is typical Republican dog-whistle politics, used to evoke images of “welfare mothers” – single black mothers having lots of babies so they can get more welfare.

Along these same lines Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)  recently said the reason he ran for Congress was “because he was outraged that single women were having as many as 15 babies and getting welfare checks.” Perhaps his proposal to stop all the women who have 15 babies (if there are any) from getting welfare checks will fight poverty, perhaps not. It should be noted, however, that “welfare” largely ended in 1996. Even with this program the amount given for nutritional assistance for children is extremely low, while the “reform” of this assistance has left millions in desperate straits. A 1997 Rutgers study compared birth rates between women receiving welfare who were receiving these benefits and a control group of women on welfare who were not found identical birth rates.

5. Make them move: Rubio also proposed giving unemployed people “relocation vouchers” so they can move to places with low unemployment.  Erika Eichelberger at Mother Jones talked to Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute, who pointed out that this idea would just move the problem around. “States with low unemployment are often small states that are heavily agricultural,” he says. “There is not a lot of dynamic turnover… There are already unemployed people there who want those jobs” that are open.

Other Republican Proposals

Republicans have thrown a few other anti-poverty proposals into the mix recently.

6. Volunteer: Paul Ryan, chief cutter of budgets for things government does to make our lives better, is trying to distance himself from Republican (and his own) branding as insensitive to the poor. According to the Washington Post, “His idea of a war on poverty so far relies heavily on promoting volunteerism and encouraging work.” This is not the “volunteerism” of his famous photo pretending to wash dishes at a soup kitchen during the 2012 campaign; this is people showing up at soup kitchens, etc., and working without pay. While all of us should be helping out at soup kitchens, shelters and other programs that help others, it’s no substitute for the kind of resources government would be able to apply if Ryan was not so effective at gutting the government.

7. Get rid of public schools: Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority (Republican) leader  says that education reform broadly, and “school choice” in particular, is the surest way to break the “vicious cycle of poverty.” It is not clear how getting rid of public schools and using tax dollars to fund private schools-for-profit will fight poverty. The Education Opportunity Network explains that “education reform… seeks to impose on schools a governing methodology favored by business executives and policy technocrats” and in another post, that “access to good public schools is a critical civil and human right… corporate reform is characterized as a “market-based system” emphasizing “competition—as opposed to collaboration” that imposes a “system of winners and losers” in which “vulnerable children become collateral damage.”

8. Get rid of child labor laws: Maine’s Republican Governor Paul LePage  says child labor laws “are causing damage to our economy.” “We don’t allow children to work until they’re 16, but two years later, when they’re 18, they can go to war and fight for us,” LePage said. “That’s causing damage to our economy. I started working far earlier than that, and it didn’t hurt me at all. There is nothing wrong with being a paperboy at 12 years old, or at a store sorting bottles at 12 years old.”

(Thanx to Salon.com for the list)

There you have the ideas from the party that gave you Ted Cruz and Newt……..I could be a prick and make all kinds of insulting comments about their ideas to end poverty but I will take the high ground…..I am by no means an economist but to me, with my limited training in economics, these sound about as successful as the now defunct idea of trickle down economics…..WAIT!  Some of the programs are thinly veiled steps in trickle down…..they never stop trying to use that piece of manure as a base for economic growth.

I ask my readers to weigh in on these ideas…..one by one if you like….I want to see if I missed something………

Is This A Compassionate Country?

There have been times when I question whether this country is a compassionate one or not…..I guess that is one of those questions that we can only answer for ourselves…….

We all have heard of the jobs loss, the foreclosures and the hunger that is all too prevalent in this country and most of us would do all we could to help these unfortunates out in their time of need……but what about our governments….the local ones that is?

Source: The Economic Collapse

This is so twisted.  In America today, you need a “permit” to do almost anything.  We are supposed to be a land of liberty and freedom, but these days government bureaucrats have turned our rights into “privileges” that they can revoke at any time.

The following are some of the major U.S. cities that have attempted to ban feeding the homeless….

Philadelphia

Mayor Nutter recently banned feeding homeless people in many parts of Philadelphia where homeless people are known to congregate….

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has announced a ban on the feeding of large numbers of homeless and hungry people at sites on and near the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Mayor Nutter is imposing the ban on all outdoor feedings of large numbers of people on city parkland, including Love Park and the Ben Franklin Parkway, where it is not uncommon for outreach groups to offer free food.

Nutter says the feedings lack both sanitary conditions and dignity.

Orlando

Last June, a group of activists down in Orlando, Florida were arrested by police for feeding the homeless in defiance of a city ordinance….

Over the past week, twelve members of food activist group Food Not Bombs have been arrested in Orlando for giving free food to groups of homeless people in a downtown park. They were acting in defiance of a controversial city ordinance that mandates permits for groups distributing food to large groups in parks within two miles of City Hall. Each group is allowed only two permits per park per year; Food Not Bombs has already exceeded their limit. They set up their meatless buffet in Lake Eola knowing that they would likely be arrested as a result.

Houston

Down in Houston, a group of Christians was recently banned from distributing food to the homeless, and they were told that they probably would not be granted a permit to do so in the future even if they applied for one….

Bobby and Amanda Herring spent more than a year providing food to homeless people in downtown Houston every day. They fed them, left behind no trash and doled out warm meals peacefully without a single crime being committed, Bobby Herring said.

That ended two weeks ago when the city shut down their “Feed a Friend” effort for lack of a permit. And city officials say the couple most likely will not be able to obtain one.

“We don’t really know what they want, we just think that they don’t want us down there feeding people,” said Bobby Herring, a Christian rapper who goes by the stage name Tre9.

Dallas

Dallas has also adopted a law which greatly restricts the ability of individuals and ministries to feed the homeless….

A Dallas-area ministry is suing the city over a food ordinance that restricts the group from giving meals to the homeless.

Courts dismissed Dallas’ request for a summary judgment last week, saying the case, brought up by pastor Don Hart (in video above) may indeed be a violation of free exercise of religion, as protected by the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the blog Religion Clause reported.

In the court filing, the ministry leaders argue that their Christian faith requires them to share meals with the homeless (Jesus did!) and that the requirement that even churches and charities provide toilets, sinks, trained staff and consent of the city keeps them from doing so.

Las Vegas

A few years ago, Las Vegas became the first major U.S. city to specifically pass a law banning the feeding of homeless people….

Las Vegas, whose homeless population has doubled in the past decade to about 12,000 people in and around the city, joins several other cities across the country that have adopted or considered ordinances limiting the distribution of charitable meals in parks. Most have restricted the time and place of such handouts, hoping to discourage homeless people from congregating and, in the view of officials, ruining efforts to beautify downtowns and neighborhoods.

But the Las Vegas ordinance is believed to be the first to explicitly make it an offense to feed “the indigent.”

That law has since been blocked by a federal judge, and since then many U.S. cities have been very careful not to mention “the indigent” or “the homeless” by name in the laws they pass that are intended to ban feeding the homeless.

New York City

New York City has banned all food donations to government-run homeless shelters because the bureaucrats there are concerned that the donated food will not be “nutritious” enough.

Yes, this is really true.

The following is from a recent Fox News article….

The Bloomberg administration is now taking the term “food police” to new depths, blocking food donations to all government-run facilities that serve the city’s homeless.

In conjunction with a mayoral task force and the Health Department, the Department of Homeless Services recently started enforcing new nutritional rules for food served at city shelters. Since DHS can’t assess the nutritional content of donated food, shelters have to turn away good Samaritans.

Does this sound like a government that cares?  Bet these politicians would take federal funds and then use them on some worthless project that was promised to a donor.  This is why I say this system needs replacing……when the people become a hindrance…it is time for it to go!

This is shameful!  And disgusting at the same time!

The Real New South

From time to time I like to let others know the extreme conditions that exist in nthe South, especially in my state of Mississippi……

We hear all the hype about the business opportunities in the New South…..corporations are heading South and the commercials say it is all about the quality if the workers, the work ethic, yada yada…….but it is the business friendly state governments, the low wages, right to work and the tax incentives more than anything….my state has been selling the concept of business friendly to the voters for 30 years and what is really happened in the South?

The official US poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent, an increase of 0.8 percent from 2009 and the third consecutive increase since 2007 when the figure was 12.5 percent. Approximately 46.2 million Americans lived in poverty in 2010, while 49 million were without health insurance. Forty-six of the 50 US states saw an increase in the poverty rate from 2009 to 2010, and median household income fell in all regions.

The South witnessed an increase in both poverty rates and the total number of people in poverty, with a poverty rate of 16.9 percent and 19.1 million people in poverty in 2010, up from 15.7 percent and 17.6 million in 2009. Median household income in the region fell 1.9 percent, from $46,368 to $45,492 annually.

The latest data show that of the 10 states with the highest unemployment rates, 6 are in the South. The manufacturing and construction sectors—hard hit by the economic crisis—have led the drop in employment in the region.

Certain states in the South show particularly disturbing statistics. Mississippi had the highest official poverty rate, at 22.7 percent, followed by Louisiana, the District of Columbia, Georgia, and then two southwestern states, New Mexico and Arizona.

In North Carolina, the state poverty rate rose to 17.5 percent in 2010, a 22 percent increase since 2007, when the recession began. The median household income fell by 12.3 percent during the same time period. The number of Alabamians living in poverty rose from 16.6 percent in 2009 to 17.3 percent in 2010.

The United Way of Central Alabama has seen a 22 percent increase in the number of calls for assistance, its call center having received 27,570 calls since the beginning of the year, an increase of more than 5,000 compared to the same period last year. The most common needs were food, rent, and medical assistance.

In a recent campaign ad the woman, a conservative, states that she will cut taxes, find jobs and protect education with the tax funds…..but where will those education dollars come from while she cuts taxes?  The stupidity of the voters just amazes daily……

After all the years of business friendly policies and what does the South have?  Bad education, massive poverty, low wages, no benefits, poor health……..and yet the people still fall for the crap every election…and that is the truly sad part….the people screw themselves!  People voting against themselves…the height of stupidity!

And GOP policies will make the rest of the country as poor, uneducated and unhealthy as the South…..if that is what you want for this country then by all means vote your butts off….but if it happens….do not whine!

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!

Some Things Are Not Important!

Daily Agitator

There are many sensational subjects that the media fixates on…education….they report and do nothing else…..energy and push the oil stocks……of course they love the international stuff because they can report minutely on the happenings……they report on all the good news in the markets (good only for the rich)…..and they seem to care not about some things or they touch on it for 30 seconds and spend  10 times that on Charlie Sheen…..I have been an outspoken critic of our media and the reporting standards….if it does not help ratings…it is NOT news…….

But there is a story that seems to fall between the cracks because NO one wants to hear it……that subject is poverty and homelessness…..Debra Watson has written a good piece…quoted here in part…..

In the two years since the onset of the financial crisis in the fall of 2008, the number of children living in poverty increased from 14 million to 16 million, the US Census Bureau reports. The US government estimates that 25 percent of children in America will soon be living in poverty.Recently, the National Alliance to End Homelessness reported that between 2008 and 2009 a majority—31 of 50 states and the District of Columbia—had increases in their homeless counts. The nation’s homeless population increased by approximately 20,000 people from 2008 to 2009, a 3 percent increase. There were 656,000 homeless in 2009, up from 636,000 in 2008.

Its new report, State of Homelessness in America, highlights that nearly 4 in 10 homeless were living unsheltered, on the street, in a car, or in another place not intended for human habitation. In Wisconsin, twice as many people experienced homelessness without shelter in 2009 as did in 2008.

Key indicators of housing crisis tracked by the group went through triple-digit increases in vastly disparate locations. In Louisiana, (where Hurricane Katrina and flooding ravaged New Orleans nearly six years ago), the homeless population, sheltered and unsheltered, doubled.

A section of the report looks at the causes of rising homelessness. The fall in wages and other supports at the bottom of the income scale is notable. While real income among all US workers decreased by 1 percent in 2009, poor workers’ income decreased even more, dropping by 2 percent to $9,151. Poor workers in Alaska, the District of Columbia, Maine, and Rhode Island saw their incomes decrease by more than 10 percent.

Homelessness and poverty are growing at an alarming rate and yet NOTHING is being done or even addressed by our elected officials in Washington….as if it does not matter to them…..there is a good possibility that it does NOT matter!

Where is the concern for the poor?  They (Reps) spend an inordinate amount of time fixated (God I love that word) on the plight of business….this society is dying slowly…..and with the help of those we elected to protect us from disaster….the American people are SO SCREWED!

How Do We Fight The Fat?

Daily Agitator

There has been an amazing dialog going on and on and on and……that is the dialog about the increasing problem of obesity in the US.  Endless and I DO mean endless talkers and specials and ….whatever other technique they choose to use to make the point that Americans are FAT…..

With the recession in full swing az study was done in june by Gallup:

Healthways shows that in the past year, the number of Americans considered obese has jumped by 1.7 percent—or almost 5.5 million people—and that the obese report a much lower quality of life than those who are at healthier weights.

As part of their larger Well-Being Index, Gallup pollsters began surveying 1,000 Americans a day in an attempt to create a comprehensive index able to track the daily, monthly and yearly shifts in American life. As a result, they now have more than 460,000 completed surveys offering a unique perspective on trends in the health and happiness of America. Several of the questions on the poll have to do with weight and the data from Gallup indicates that the number of individuals who have a Body Mass Index over 30 and are thereby classified as “obese,” has risen from 25.1 percent of the population surveyed to 26.8 percent between the first quarter of this year and last. (BMI is the ratio of height to weight.)

And then there are those that say there is discrimination in the job market against fat people….there is probably a study on this too but I was unable to find it….well that is a bit of a lie….I did not Google…..

Let us get back to the whole TV evangelism on the subject of obesity.  Personally, I am really tired of the sanctimonious a/holes that preach about the situation of obesity…..these talkers do nothing but accuse the obese as lazy and unfit…..there self-serving answer to the problem is to exercise more and eat grass…..to which I yell HORSESH*T!

These mouthy hypocrites do NOT live on Main Street….they have all the advantages of the wealthy….gym access, personal trainers, dietitians, all the benefits of not having to worry about anything but who to book for today’s show.  Few offer any insight to the problem other than the laziness of the people who suffer from obesity….they spend their time trying to shame people and make fun of them….they have NO answers other than ridiculing them….

I know I am an SOB most of the time…and this post is NO different…..but unlike my well paid comrades…I have an answer that has escaped them……I bet you want the answer….right?

Since the fattest states are the poorest states….and if these self-serving people want to find a cure for obesity……then find a cure for POVERTY!  Period!

It is just that simple…….even the media talkers could grasp a simple solution….at least you would think they could……