The American Dream/Nightmare
According
to the Bureau of Census, in 2010 46.2 million Americans lived in poverty, 3
million more than in 2009. This is the largest poverty-stricken populace since
the Bureau started keeping records 52 years ago. The numbers are hard to get
your head around -- one out of every six Americans living in poverty!
The term "Poverty"
does not have a precise definition so I went in search for how to define it as
something other than the lack of a predetermined amount of material wealth.
During my search
into a definition of poverty I found that organizations varied widely in how
they defined poverty. For example, the
United Nations’ definition is “a denial of choices and opportunities, a
violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate
effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family,
not having a school or health clinic, not having the land on which to grow
one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, not having access to credit. It means
insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and
communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living
in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or
sanitation.”
Whereas, the World Bank defines poverty as a “pronounced
deprivation in well-being, and comprises many dimensions. It includes low
incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for
survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low levels of health and
education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical
security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacity and opportunity to better
one’s life.”
Europeans
define poverty as living on an income below 60% of the median. However, the
United Kingdom takes a different approach vis-a-vie three definitions: absolute
poverty, relative poverty and material deprivation.
According
to Wikipedia, “Absolute poverty or destitution refers to the one who lacks
basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition,
health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are
estimated to live in absolute poverty today.
“Relative
poverty refers to lacking a usual or socially acceptable level of resources or
income as compared with others within a society or country.”
Then there
is the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica (2008) which defines poverty as “The
state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or
material possessions. […] Whatever definition one uses, authorities and
laypersons alike commonly assume that the effects of poverty are harmful to
both individuals and society.”
Though my
research I also determined that poverty is defined differently from country to
country. Poverty has one meaning in
Liberia, another way in Sweden and Mexico all of which is entirely different
than in the U.S. While the common denominator
for all four countries poverty is the lack of adequate food, clothing and
proper shelter in the U.S. (and perhaps Sweden) you also need to add goods that
are necessary to one’s participation in social life (exclusion from society is
also a form poverty) such as radio, TV, Internet access.
Now that we
have an idea of what is poverty. How
does poverty affect us in our everyday life?
Poverty affects
everyone – rich, poor, middle class.
What if all the wage earners in your household lost their job? Could your children still participate in all the
afterschool activities, lessons, organizations?
Could your children go to college?
Would you be able to afford quality healthcare for your family? Think about it.
You
probably know someone in poverty. It may not be someone close, but it could be someone
you see every day such as a neighbor or a co-worker – you just never really
paid attention or thought about how that other person lives. Your neighbor may
be retired but on an income that doesn’t cover their basic needs. Your co-worker may not make enough money to
provide the basic needs for her and her three children and disabled
husband. There are many working poor –
the person that served you your coffee this morning, bagged your groceries over
the weekend, delivers your daily paper, sold you that pretty blouse. They work hard but many don’t make enough to
provide for their basic needs. Remember
that although many seem to think otherwise, poverty is not a choice. You can be
born into poverty or illness, disability or age can push you into poverty.
Another way
poverty can affect you is that the higher the poverty quotient the less goods
and services sold, which means even less jobs, more unemployment, and thus more
poverty.
Individuals,
businesses and even the government all can share some blame for poverty. Some take advantage of the poor by not paying
them a decent living wage and moving jobs offshore, by charging outrageously
for substandard housing which can be a breeding ground for disease and
disabilities (lead paint poisoning for example); politicians use the specter of
poverty to get elected.
Today it
seems that many of the electorate and policymakers want to pursue the kind of deficit
reduction that will exacerbate rather than alleviate poverty and inequality. The recent recession hurt the poor the most,
we cannot ask this same group to bear the brunt of deficit reduction by
slashing the programs that keeps them from falling into ”absolute” poverty at
the worst, and a cycle of poverty at the best.
We must insist that our one percenters (the millionaires, billionaires,
and profitable corporations) contribute their fair share.
21st Century Feudalism
The U.S. seems to be headed toward a version of what I call "21st Century Feudalism," which I define a regime dominated by a privileged few who possess financial or social power and prestige through exploitation of the remaining populace who provide the labor but also spend their hard earned money to purchase the goods and services they deliver. Consider the following evidence:
1. It is almost impossible to exploit an educated and informed population . An education that teaches much more than the 20th Century "reading, writing and arithmetic" is needed to succeed in today's labor market. But rather than expanding our educational system so the "average joe" can make a middle class living in today's employment environment, state after state is cutting funding for education. I realize many states are dealing with funding shortfalls, but why is education always on the top of the list for revenue cuts? Why not legislative salaries and benefits? Why not raise more revenue by taxing oil, gas and coal companies rather than giving them large tax breaks -- they don't need it!
Books could be written on the ramifications of a poorly educated population. But for the purpose of this blog I'll concentrate on the dumbing down of our citizens. How many read AND UNDERSTAND what they read about their local, state and federal government. How many follow blindly whatever the "flavor of the month" is telling them? How many are too lazy, too unmotivated or too uneducated to determine if what they hear and read is factual or truthiness or outright untruths? It's easy to lead the undereducated or uneducated to a conclusion that may not be in their best interest. That is what is happening today.
Higher education is expensive. And I'm not just talking about a four year degree. Even technical schools run into the thousands. Most families cannot afford such costs so they obtain education loans which means years of debt that cannot be wiped off the books by bankrupty even though corporations can wipe any type of debt off their books. Today's citizen has no choice though -- to make even a moderate income you must have some type education that goes beyond a high school degree.
2. Protection against corporate greed. Today union busting is rampant. Many people consider unions as the "bad guy." Why? They are in place to protect the worker against corporate excesses. Unions gained their place in the workplace due to corporate abuses. I do agree that unions did get "too big for their britches" in the 60s and 70s. But they've had their wings clipped since then and now work almost exclusively to protect employees against employer abuses. Without unions what would prevent corporations from going back to their abusive ways? The government? Give me a break!
3. Taxing citizens into poverty. This has been discussed to death but... Our tax system is totally unfair with the lower and middle class bearing most of the burden. The peasants are being taxed to death with the economic elite pay little (but complain the most). Why is this happening? Perhaps because the peasants have lost their voting power because so many are so uninformed and thus willing to follow whoever gives "lip service" to their latest needs, wants and desires. Once everyone was taught the lesson of the Herbert Hoover campaign promise of a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage. Then came the 1929 stock market crash and the great depression and Hoover couldn't deliver on his promise. Now it is jobs and cheap energy. No one every says how their political system will deliver jobs except by keeping taxes low for the "job creators" translated into those that already have money and thus either have already created the jobs and are looking for ways to lessen the employment burden or ways to offshore their employment costs. And the cheap energy is obtained by giving tax cuts to corporations so they will spend their hard earned money to explore for energy IN THE U.S. and if we don't give them tax cuts they won't explore. Now does that make sense? NO!!! They will fight each other to the bitter end to get every drop of oil, gas etc. out of our soil, tax breaks or not, as long as it produces revenue. But if you don't have a good education it might difficult to understand some of the complex issues of energy exploration, costs to the consumer and how they might or might not work. Then let's not even get into the speculation that goes on in these markets.
