tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11093162.post7918436893590800719..comments2024-03-23T19:16:01.555-07:00Comments on Can it happen here?: The U.S. trashed a promise to the poor ... who cares?janinsanfranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07548452260456734928noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11093162.post-4727314288306351272016-06-05T15:18:19.219-07:002016-06-05T15:18:19.219-07:00Anon: the figures I used here derive (among other ...Anon: the figures I used here derive (among other sources) from <a href="http://www.demos.org/blog/2/12/16/welfare-reform-was-quite-bad" rel="nofollow">this article at Demos</a> which I did link to. Their data does seem to jump around as to years. Still, the strange situation that federal policy has created seems clear: the very poorest receive less assistance today than in the past while the working poor who have just a little more (and who are very profitable to their cheapskate employers) have MORE access to government assistance.<br /><br />Wonder what difference raising the minimum wage will have on this distribution of benefits?janinsanfranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07548452260456734928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11093162.post-2659723119355048002016-06-05T13:24:39.121-07:002016-06-05T13:24:39.121-07:00What are the latest numbers? The charts are outdat...What are the latest numbers? The charts are outdated. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11093162.post-62504389592980048922016-06-05T07:32:15.723-07:002016-06-05T07:32:15.723-07:00We don't recognize poverty as long as it is no...We don't recognize poverty as long as it is not unsightly. In the cities we can be very aware of the street people and the bus nuts, and we see the improvised encampments along the freeways, but most poverty is hidden. When I was working in a prison, I knew the inmates were poor people. They were paid 35 cents an hour for their work. They owned two sets of underwear, two shirts, two pair of jeans, a cap and a jacket. Their personal space was a dorm bed and a locker. When I mentioned to my boss one time that the prisoners were poor, my boss look surprised and said, "I never thought of them that way."<br />The constant threat of falling into poverty ourselves is at the heart of our meanness toward the poor and the reason so many will do just about anything for money. With our insufficient safety net the possibility of descending to the bottom is always there, even for the affluent. <br />I despair of ever hearing original and possibly effective approaches to eliminating poverty in this country. I would favor a guaranteed annual income. If the prisoners had that, for instance, they could improve their immediate situation some, send money to their families, have some savings when they were paroled. But you can see how unfeasible that would seem to most, like such a far-out idea, and that's why it can't work. Like Medicare, it would have to be for everyone, but Americans would never accept such a program.<br />I go right back to Shaw and the notion of the deserving and the undeserving poor. The drunk, the mother with too many children, the woman of loose morals, the petty thief: undeserving. The young woman "in service," respectable, mending her stockings and washing her hair on her evening off: deserving. That's how we see the poor, still. In our minds they conform to certain stereotypes. They are not human like us. Hattiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13297404386730167834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11093162.post-87013084442346467992016-06-05T06:05:46.390-07:002016-06-05T06:05:46.390-07:00Poverty is not an easy problem with which to deal....Poverty is not an easy problem with which to deal. I don't think, anyone wants one generation after another to be on welfare with no real incentive to get off of it. But just ending it, which they didn't as we still have many on various assistance programs (food, heat, housing, medical), but nothing done then actually helped change the situation for many stuck in a poverty spiral downward (which often encourages young men to turn to gangs, drugs, etc. as their solution which then puts them in prison or dead). Jesus said we'd always have the poor with us and that is the case. The question is are all those who are poor in that situation because it can't change or because we haven't found the right key to open the door? <br /><br />Anyone who thinks the Clintons are on the side of the poor or the middle hasn't paid much attention to their policies. What he did with bank deregulation and trade deals that didn't help jobs here at all goes along with welfare. The problem voters like I have is if Bernie can't get it, which seems likely, she's our only alternative. But no way do I kid myself that she cares about the average person or someone who is poor. Of course, the problem is-- would what Bernie wants to do help either? His education policy to make universities affordable (he only says government would cover tuition-- it'd still not be free) would help. Education is definitely part of the problem or rather the lack of skills that make for good jobs. I liked him though for years before he ran for president, when I'd hear him on the talk shows and he'd give his take on various issues the country faced. He always made sense but whether he could do any of it, well there is still that Congress who doesn't want to help anybody but the oligarchs and themselves. This is a VERY disillusioning year for me in terms of feeling good about real hope for change. Seems they all get in and it's the last we hear of programs that might actually help change generational poverty in places like rural American and inner cities. Rain Trueaxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07994628226501093880noreply@blogger.com