THE POOR IN AMERICA ARE GETTING GAPPED…..AND UNDERPAID!

THE POOR IN AMERICA ARE GETTING GAPPED…..AND UNDERPAID!

(Doctor Phil Bartle, KTAR.com, Mike Sauter, Wall Street Journal)

(Irene Kruger, Alexander E.M. Hess, Thomas Frohlich, Frazer Chronicle)

This is one hard subject to figure out, it’s almost complicated…..and you know how I hate that word, however in this instance complicated at most, and convoluted at least would seem to apply. Now that we have that thorny word settled, we can together forge on in the mess that the middle class in America has become.

The easy answer is that the middle class is shrinking, if you want to accept reports which were issued earlier this year. An estimated 51% of the population was in the middle class at the start of the 21^st century…..down from 61% four decades earlier. As the economy makes its slow recovery, jobs are being added…..for low-wage positions much faster. Despite economic growth in the United States, income inequality is worsening throughout the nation.

Of course the gap between the rich and poor varies depending on which part of the country you reside. Some areas have experienced extreme poverty, extreme wealth, or both, with very little in between. We’re talking about income equality, and all the things that those in poverty and low paying jobs can’t have…..like some of the following:

PAYING RENT ON TIME

PAYING UTILITY BILLS ON TIME

PAYING OTHER BILLS ON TIME

AFFORDING NUTRITIONAL FOOD

A RELIABLE AUTOMOBLE

ACCESS TO PREVENTATIVE HEALTH CARE

ACCESS TO PREVENTATIVE DENTAL CARE

LIFE INSURANCE

UNABLE TO PROVIDE DECENT CLOTHING FOR FAMILY

REDUCTION IN EDUCATION/LITRACY RATE

Interestingly there is a huge poverty rate in the United States and that population is increasing every year. Most of us have felt the pinch of low cash at times, that is an individual experience, and isn’t the same as the social problem of poverty. While money or material items is a measure of wealth…..a lack of cash can be a measure of a lack of wealth…..but is not the same as the social problem of poverty.

Poverty as a social problem is a deeply embedded wound that permeates every dimension of culture and society. It includes extended levels of low income for members of a community. It includes the ability to access the above emboldened list, but the most important are a lack of decision making ability, there is a poverty of spirit, despair, hopelessness, apathy, and timidity.

Poverty, and the factors that contribute to it, is a social problem, and must be resolved socially, there aren’t any all-encompassing answers, and really there aren’t any encompassing solutions that can serve to eradicate the problem from our society.

POVERTY RATES IN THE UNITED STATES

The study of poverty rates in the United States can be a tricky issue, and it’s been my experience that many figures are unreliable. The census takers every 10 years question household stability, income, family members, and overall health of the family members.

Try Alabama on for size…..but be prepared to tighten your belt because there are a total of 786,544 people out of a total population of 4,596,836, or 17.1% of the state residing in or below the poverty line. Or how about the razorback state, Arkansas with its population of 2,790,794, of which 502,684, or 18% of the states people are left  grubbing around for food to put on the table.

What about our nation’s capital, Washington D.C. with a population of 551,331 and a poverty rate of 18.5% living under the yoke of not enough money to pay the bills, buy grocers, or keep the family heap running.

Mississippi has the dubious honor of leading the United States with 21.2% of its population mired in poverty. Overall the United States…..the most powerful country on the face of the earth…..as well as in the history of man-kind, has an overall poverty percentage of 11.8%. That would equate to 1,872,020.

These poverty statistics tend to boggle the mind, at least in the 21^st century, I guess the time of enlightenment and the Age of Aquarius have both come and gone…..or we’ll have to wait a bit longer for world peace, a new understanding and compassion one towards another, and to acquire the bliss of cooperation through brother and sisterhood.

THIS IS THE DEAL

In our country we are endlessly counting down, making lists of the top ten, twenty, thirty, or hundred, there’s so damn many statistical lists out there that a person can get all muddled-up trying to keep them straight. Luckily I’m retired and have the time to sort through what I feel is the most pertinent to the subject that I’m writing about.

I gotta admit that this one, poverty, kind of threw me, there are variables connected with how and why people encounter, and can sink into a state of poverty. The emotional stress and the anger involved, the hopelessness, and the utter loss of the American dream can completely dominate people’s lives, exacerbating the precarious place that people find themselves.

There are many different things in play here, but three, surprising ones (at least for me) are how law enforcement and judicial system acts and reacts to people who experience poverty; how clergy, food pantries and help organizations respond; the 3^rd is how our political system has address…..or actually how they haven’t addressed and dealt with the problem of entitlements, low wages and poverty.

In many, many cases of pandering, lawlessness, and petty crime, these are committed out of a total fear of having no other place to go except to rip people more fortunate off. Usually these people end up in city or county lock-ups for as little as 30 days, or as long as 180 days. No matter the amount of time these people are stigmatized for the rest of their lives, and when looking for employment now have a criminal record to deal with.

NOW YOU TELL ME…..WHO’S AT FAULT

Some of the fastest growing companies in the United States are service oriented, sales clerks and the fast food industry. An example of how far out of whack the work-place can be is the fact that my wife received less pay at her city job then a garbage collector. My wife kept books, dealt with the public on a daily basis face to face, and over the phone. The garbage collector…..well, let’s put it this way, for some of these jokers, a plumbers crack is a necessity. The only thing these guys deal with on a daily bases are drippy, leaky, stinky heavy garbage bags…..I rest my case.

I’m not blaming the garbage guys, they bargained for their pay grade…..the root of the problem is the human resource people who negotiate contracts for the city of Green Bay. I did not agree with Governor Scott Walker taking away negotiating rights of public employees, but he did have a point.

According to a Wall Street Journal survey Starbucks, TJX Companies, Macy’s, Darden Restaurants, Sears Holdings, Yumi Brands, Kroger, Target, McDonald’s and Wal-Mart employ more than 4.4 million people of all ages.

These companies generate a net combined income of more than $8.7 billion dollars, and their CEO’s bank a combined $97 million…..at that ain’t hay baby. These industries, their CEO’s their boards of directors, and the single owners are completely detached from their lowly employees, they see an enhanced profit and they…..go for it.

We now come to the city’s with the widest gap between the haves and the never will haves, these cities are so vile, so unbelievable unaware of what is going on the other end of town, that they’d be surprised to learn that they even have a poverty and unjust wage system in place.

These cities are, McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas, poverty rate, 34%, Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas, poverty rate, 36.1%, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Florida, poverty rate, 17.5%, Lafayette, Louisiana, poverty rate, 17.9%, Jackson, Mississippi, poverty rate 22.2%, New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, N.Y. N.J. Pennsylvania, poverty rate, 14.8%, Albany, Georgia, poverty rate, 26.9%, Naples-Marco Island, Florida, poverty rate, 13.8%, Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Connecticut, poverty rate, 8.9%, Sebastian-Vero Beach, Florida, poverty rate, 17.2%.

These figures should be embarrassing, they should jerk us up in our easy chairs…..and we should hit the floor running to right a huge injustice as well as an almost completely misunderstood circumstance in Pax Americana, now…..look up what that means.

HAVE A NICE DAY!