Tag: The Poor

The War On Poverty

Today is the 50th anniversary on the failed policy of a war on poverty……I am old enough that I can remember the day this was announced….in my opinion it was an excellent idea…..the problem is that every prez that came after Johnson has slowly and methodically dismembered the program….that includes some of our dynamite Dem prezs……and Bubba was the worse on of them all and he did it with the approval of the Democratic Party…..

Today marks 50 years since Lyndon Johnson declared his “unconditional war on poverty.” Yet the percentage of Americans living in poverty has remained roughly unchanged in the decades since, despite some $916 billion in federal spending on means-tested welfare programs in 2012 alone, Robert Rector from the conservative Heritage Foundation writes at the Wall Street Journal. “If converted to cash, current means-tested spending is five times greater than the amount needed to eliminate all official poverty in the US,” he writes. All that spending has indeed improved the poor’s living standards, but Johnson promised to lift people out of poverty, and “by that standard, the war on poverty has been a catastrophe.” Rector suggests two solutions: First, require welfare recipients “to work or prepare to work,” and second, “reduce the antimarriage incentives rife within welfare programs.” Right now, if a single mother marries a working father, her benefits will plummet—but kids raised by a single parent are 50% more likely to be poor as adults. Click for his full column.

There is nothing in anyone’s repertoire that can successfully end deep poverty…. poverty is something that America has come to stand for in the eyes of the world…and you wonder why so many third world countries do not want to travel down this path……

Sad Economic Statement

From the VOMITORIUM:

We now return to our regular schedule……..shake, rattle and RANT!~

I live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and we have been a tourist destination for decades, especially now with all the casinos and such……and there other tourist destinations like Yellowstone, Statue of Liberty, ski areas of the West…….we like our sights and sounds……

But for the last several years there has been a slow decline of many our this country’s major cities…..sad indictment of this corrupt system, in my mind……but I read a story the other day that just made me want to puke…..and that is why I have put this in the VOMITORIUM…….

Detroit’s economy is famously not exactly booming, but the city does have one burgeoning industry: Tourism. Since the city declared bankruptcy, hotels tell the LA Times that they’ve seen more visitors coming intent on gawking at some of the city’s roughly 78,000 abandoned buildings. Restaurants in Corktown, which is strategically located near an abandoned train station, confirm that, and one tour guide the paper talked to said he’d recently upgraded to a 12-seat van. For $45, former aircraft mechanic Jesse Welter will lead visitors into derelict churches, once-luxurious high-rises, the deserted ballroom where the Who held their first US concert and more—often climbing fences or crawling on hands and knees along the way. It’s technically illegal, but police say they don’t mind. And visitors are impressed. “It’s really a once-in-a-lifetime thing you’re going to see,” said one British tourist. “You can really feel the history of a city. In Europe when things become derelict, they’ll demolish them.” Detroit hasn’t—in large part because it doesn’t have the money.

I can understand trying to find a way to make a buck….but this is a bit much for my tastes……and then there are those that gawk at the devastation of the inner city and marvel at the city’s woes……

Resetting the Poverty Debate: State of the States 2013

As this year ends, 2013, poverty seems to be moving at any alarming pace……markets hit all time highs almost daily….while workers make a mere penitence….the old saying….”the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”…….is more pre3valent today than anytime in the last hundred years…….

Today we are looking at the economy and economics……this will be talked about and while they are wasting time talking more of the Middle Class will slip into poverty…..

Poverty is the enemy of the American Dream…..end it and the dream will come alive!

Resetting the Poverty Debate: State of the States 2013.

Let Them Eat Cake

From the VOMITORIUM

Both party loyal have a position on poverty and how we can pull ourselves up and finally live the American Dream….one thinks tax cuts will eliminate the poor and the other thinks that throwing money away will do it……both are delusional.  First, we have had a generation of some sort of tax cuts and the poor are just as poor as they were when it started……second, we have had a wealth of programs and government give aways to put the poor on the right trajectory out of poverty, and the poor are still as poor as they were…..none of these short sighted short term plans is going to eliminate the poor.

But we can point to all the months of economic growth, as small as it is, but it is still growth and that is traveling in the right direction, right?  Put all this Democratic good news and campaign fodder and the gloom and doom of the GOP into a sort of perspective……how are the ‘real’ American people really doing?

This year, hundreds of thousands of Americans are expected to be too broke to file for bankruptcy.

The average cost to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, the most common form of consumer bankruptcy, is more than $1,500, according to recent research submitted to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

As a result, anywhere between 200,000 and one million consumers are estimated to be unable to afford that steep cost this year.

Read More…

So many Americans cannot afford to even file for bankruptcy…..what sort of sign is that?  If lower and middle class are having a problem, what about the poor (this assumes that there are those worse off than the middle class)?

From an article by Alexander Eichler writing in the HufPo…….

It’s getting harder for poor Americans to lift themselves up.

Don’t believe it? The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has some pretty compelling evidence.

Between 1996 and 2006, most Americans in the bottom 20 percent of earners never moved up the income ladder, according to a recent research brief by Katharine Bradbury, an economist at the Boston Fed.

Moreover, she writes, it was harder for people to lift themselves up off the bottom in those Clinton-Bush years than it was in the decade from 1976 to 1986, or the decade from 1986 to 1996.

In other words, the data suggests, America’s not the land of opportunity anymore. Instead, it’s become the land of stasis.

Bradbury’s not the first to suggest that the U.S. is increasingly a country where the poor stay poor. Income inequality is at its highest level in decades, and repeated studies have shown that it’s harder to achieve economic mobility in America than in other wealthy, industrialized countries.

A record number of Americans are living in poverty, according to the most recent census, and nearly half of households are believed to have almost nothing in the way of meaningful savings. The problems don’t look to be abating any time soon; wages have more or less frozen in place for many Americans.

With all these facts and stats (which I will assume will be challenged) what conclusion can we draw about the path the two parties are traveling……..will Americans, especially poor Americans, ever find that American Dream?

It’s Poverty—-Again!

If it is not education…… it is poverty…..do not misunderstand me….I think poverty should be eliminated completely….but that is wishful thinking…..why?  For one, capitalism needs poverty….and two, if it was eliminated, what would politicians have to talk about?

First, we have had programming after programming on what should be done in this country to bring our educational system up to where it belongs…..but instead we here what programs are working in New York or what school is graduating what skilled people or …..well, you get the point……yes there are successes but none of this programming will ever complete the job that is needed, a massive job, I may add…..all it does is give some person who has written a book or who is looking for a job an outlet…….

Let us not forget the next big issue that gets lots of lip service but NO action…..”Going Green”…..another attempt to be relevant but falls short, way short……the channels zero in on this business or that attempt or this person….and yet….NOTHING is being done other than some lame stop gap measure……they can change the color of their logo and give us all kinds of programming….but if NO one is listening or cares….then “green” is just another bumper sticker…….

And now I see lots of programming on poverty and the costs to the nation…..I think it is a lovely gesture to zero in on the problem….but we have done all the talking that is required and anymore talking will NOT make poverty a thing of the past….once again NO one is listening and at worse, NO one cares…..

Poverty is ever expanding and until the nation makes it priority to eliminate then all the well meaning talk is in the end….just well meaning and falling on deaf ears….I regret to say…..in a country that worships the creation of wealth….poverty is just NOT that important.

If you think I am mistaken then look at the campaign stuff…..there is NO one that is talking about poverty….only some vague idea on how to avoid it……

Assaulting The System

For years I have been telling people to watch their backs that they were letting the politicians get away with way too much and that it would eventually sneak up and bite them in the butt…..right about now the voter’s ass should look like hamburger!

It began with the hatchet job done on ACORN by Breitbart and his lackey film maker….it seemed that the Far Right had to silence ACORN and the job it did helping poor people register to vote….for those people were “Democrats”…argh!

Then after the 2010 election we had a number of Repub governors attacking collective bargaining and union membership as some how making the deficits worse in their states….states like Ohio, Wisconsin …….after all unions were the major contributors to the opposition…..those “Democrats”…..argh!

And then Repub governors and legislatures started attacking voting…..they passed new laws that limit who could vote or made it extremely hard for some people to register….states like Florida…because these people more than likely would have voted….”Democrat”….argh!

And now there is a new approach…..the Hill is reporting….

A new proposal by the governor of Pennsylvania that would dramatically change how the state awards its Electoral College votes could have a major impact on the 2012 election — and President Obama’s reelection chances.The plan would be similar to the configurations in Nebraska and Maine, which divide their votes rather than adopting the “winner-take-all” system in place in the remaining states plus the District of Columbia. But while Nebraska and Maine have a relatively small impact on the race, due to their size, Pennsylvania’s adoption of the system would have a dramatic effect on the presidential process.

They will tinker with a plan that was stated in the Constitution….remember that document?

This plan would further eliminate the whole  idea of one vote concept….this is the attempt to find ways to prevent Obama from gaining all the electoral votes….these newly elected Repub governors and legislatures are doing what they accused us Leftist of wanting to do in the past….and yet they get support and the Left got vilified……why is that?  To be fair, this idea could well, backfire on them….but that is not important….trying to gin the system for the 2012 election is all that matters at this time…….

I warned yet again…WATCH your backs…….or you will lose what few voting rights you have now…..and there are NOT many left.

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!

Fat Is As Fat Does

From the VOMITORIUM

The debate rages on and on…..many of the liberal elite see the worse problem in America is obesity….and their half hearted attempts to change the tide are amusing at best and flipping naive at worse….but now they have found a new champion…..Mayor Bloomberg of NYC…..

Sugar-sweetened beverages are “the largest single contributor to the obesity epidemic,” Governor David Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a joint statement in advance of a City Hall news briefing today. Obesity is almost twice as prevalent among the city’s poorest households compared to the wealthiest, they said.

The state’s office for disability assistance intends to ask the USDA to exclude the drinks from the list of items that can be purchased with food stamps, a welfare program that started in 1964, the statement said. The department oversees the benefit.

Obesity-related illness costs New York State residents almost $8 billion annually, or $770 for each household, according to city and state health officials. Overweight or obese adults comprise 57 percent of the city’s population, they said.

Almost half, or 46 percent, of the 22,300 people hospitalized for obesity-related diabetes each year live in low- income neighborhoods, the statement said.Almost 40 percent of New York City’s public school students in kindergarten through 8th grade are overweight or obese, including 46 percent of Hispanic students and 40 percent of black students, according to the statement. A child who consumes one sugary drink a day has a 60 percent higher risk of becoming obese than those who don’t.

All of this is well intended but look at the figures…Hispanics and Blacks are the heaviest and have the most problems and the answer to this is to all but tax them into submission….the groups mentioned are the families living in poverty….and the answer is to lessen the amount of sustenance that their benefits provide….find a solution to poverty and your obesity problems will also be solved….just a thought…..

This is a typical American response to a problem…..do NOTHING to solve the problem…and what is that problem?  ……you want to truly solve the problem then address the cause…..POVERTY!  All this type of reform does is give the idle rich a warm and fuzzy feeling that they are championing an issue……

It is easy to sit at your desk making plenty to give your family everything and have the spare time to go out an run to Albany….but real people do not have that luxury…penalizing poor people will NOT solve the problem…..only smooth the feathers ruffled by those who have NO idea……..the idea in NYC penalizes the poor, as I have said, they want to avoid taxing this stuff for it will effect those who can afford it….and that is NEVER the idea.

Here is an idea for those liberal airheads…..solve the problem and stop patting yourselves on the back for sticking it to the poor….so far all your well intended ideas are crap…..try again, but this time look at it from a real perspective, the perspective of making barely afford to live on and then have to feed a family,  if you can from the Hamptons…….