Do most Americans in poverty work? Looking for source...

[usregimechange]

Debating a freep who is blaming Katrina victims for poverty...

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Yes they do

Clinton reformed welfare. It no longer exists. Families may now apply for TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families) and it is indeed temporary.

[Maddy McCall]

5. Time limit on TANF is five years.

Even before TANF, when it was called AFDC, 80% of people who received governmental assistance were off of the dole in less than two years. What sociologists call the "underbelly" of the welfare system--that 20% that stays on it for generations--still receives assistance because they've been deferred from jobs programs.

Welfare Reform was an illusion that reinforced "welfare queen" myths, and not much more.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. We saw a ton of parents in our school district

have to get jobs when welfare reform passed. The majority now work. It wasn't always that way.

[Maddy McCall]

13. Why do you think that they might not have done so anyway?

Are you a teacher? Was who's on welfare a topic of teacher's lounge conversation?

Perhaps the improved child care conditions under Clinton made it possible for people who wanted to work to go to work. The only good thing about Clintonian welfare reform was that it provided day care to working parents who were moving from welfare to work.

Possibly, some of the people you saw move from welfare to work did so because they wanted to, not because they had to.

Clinton wasn't even in office when the first group of people were forced off of TANF. They had five years to receive benefits before being bumped.

I tend to think that many of them found work because they wanted to, not because they had to--at least that is what my research showed me when I did it back in 2001-02.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. Maddy, I have taught in this community for nearly 30 years

So yes, I do know what happened when Clinton reformed welfare. They went to work because they had to. First they went through job training. Then they went to work. Most got TANF while they made the transition from welfare to work. Many still get food stamps 10 years later.

No, we did not sit around and talk about who was on welfare. I am kind of insulted by that question. You are a teacher too and I assume you know that we are too busy working with students to spend time gossiping about whose mom works and whose does not. However, we each do know about the families of the students we teach. I am fairly close to my families. I have been in all of my students' homes. I know if they have a mom and a dad or if they are living with grandparents or if they are in foster care. I know where their parents work. Ten years ago, most did not work. Now most do. And yes, I remember that they went to work because they had to. I also see nothing wrong with that, as ten years later, I see parents who take pride in having a job and supporting their families. Some struggle, some live more comfortably than others.

However, I couldn't tell you a thing about the kids in the classroom next door.

[Beaverhausen]

2. How can someone blame Katrina victims for poverty?

You mean for the rise in poverty numbers? They have been going up steadily since * came into office.

edit: here is some info:
http://www.usccb.org/cchd/povertyusa/povfacts.htm

http://www.usccb.org/cchd/povertyusa/povfact3.htm

[usregimechange]

7. Excellent source, thank you...

[etherealtruth]

3. Here an interesting article r/t to US poverty ... from the UK

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1712965,00.html

[Maddy McCall]

4. Fuck that asshole.

You don't owe him any kind of an explanation for his not-so-subtle bigotry.

Yes, most people in poverty work. Even before Welfare Reform, over 80% of people who received governmental assistance moved off of the dole in less than two years.

What perturbs me most about jerks like the one to whom you refer is that they actually think that the poor in Katrina benefited from Katrina, that it brought some kind of windfall to them. Nothing could be further from the truth. Can you imagine having everything you own--the only existing photos of your deceased parents and grandparents, your child's school year books, you daughter's baby photos--all gone. Everything.

Ask any Katrina victim...would they rather be back in their home in the lower 9th ward, working for minimum wage making beds at a hotel, setting up barricades on Bourbon for the City, or would they rather be in a hotel in Houston with their four kids and mother? The little bit of money they've received is nothing compared what it will cost to rebuild their lives--and lots of what they lost can never be replaced. Oh, and there's that little thing called PTSD, which they'll live with for the rest of their lives.

Tell that jerk to shut his pie hole. He's trying to say something racist without saying it. Cut him off at the pass.

[usregimechange]

10. You are right but the readers may benefit in this Red area.

[CottonBear]

6. My community has about a 3% unemployment rate & a 28% poverty rate.

You do the numbers. Obviously, people are working, sometimes several jobs, but they are not making enough to live on without being in poverty or needing assistance. There are simply not enough jobs that pay a living wage. We are all working, some more than one job, and it is still hard to get by. The higher gas prices are hurting the middle class as well.

I live in a small urban county with a large state university, a large student population and a large minority population ( blacks, who have lived here for generations, and newly arrived hispanics along with Asians who are mostly associated with the university.) The low university staff and worker wages keep the surrounding area wages down. The university employees get benefits which offset the low wages. There are virtually no unions here. WalMart keeps wages low too. Many of our local textile jobs were outsourced long ago. High gas prices and the lack of public transit on Sundays (buses only plus bike paths in some areas and we do have some sidewalks and are building more) and no transit connecting to adjacent red-rural-white flight counties make it expensive for the poor to get around without spending all their money.

Our new industries and businesses are fairly high tech and attract mainly college educated professionals. We need jobs for our poor and unskilled workers too. Too many illegals have been hired by mainly Republican owned businesses and contractors and thus poor whites and blacks have been pushed out of jobs in construction, lawn care and poultry processing. Our town has two major poultry plants that form a large part of our industrial tax base. Prior to the illegals coming, we had no problems finding workers already here (mostly natives of our town) to do the jobs.

[Rex]

8. Blaming Katrina victims for poverty? The freep sounds brainwashed.

That's like blaming war dead for the bullets lodged in their skull. Stop jumping in front of bullets!

[usregimechange]

11. Yep...

[renate]

12. "Nickeled and Dimed" was a big eye-opener for lots of people...

... including me. I had no idea that those disgusting rent-by-the-week hotels were as expensive as apartments--the difference being that they don't require a damage deposit, so people without several hundred bucks to spare for the deposit and the first and last month's rent can get into them.

Same kind of thing with opening a checking account vs those payday cash-your-check places, etc. It costs a lot of money to be poor.