“A People’s History of Poverty in America”

[Orwellian_Ghost]

“A People’s History of Poverty in America”

By Democracy Now!

November 25, 2008 "While President-Elect Obama has talked a lot about the middle class, there has been little said about the issue of poverty in this country. The economic crisis is likely to have a particularly devastating impact on poor Americans. The rising unemployment could push between 7 and 10 million Americans into poverty according to a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released Monday. Census Bureau figures from 2007 show that 12.5% of the population, or over 37 million people, live below the poverty line. The Center warns that number could increase to up to 47 million.

Capitalism's unequal distribution of wealth and resources necessarily engenders economic "winners" and "losers." But the poor in the United States are often described solely in terms of moral failures: they're lazy, irresponsible and just don't want to work hard for success. Indeed, openly blaming the poor for poverty has been en vogue since Reagan's acidic "welfare queen" remarks. However, in A People's History of Poverty in America, Stephen Pimpare takes a decidedly less accusatory look at the history of poverty in our country. Told from the perspective of the poor themselves, the moving stories of hard work, bad luck, and almost insurmountable institutional inequalities brim with a quiet dignity.

– Suzanne Niemoth

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/25/stephen_pimpare_on_a_peoples_history

If you look at the experience of inhabiting a poor house in the 1600 or 1700’s and listen to those descriptions of those inhabitants of what it means to be confined in such an institution and turn our attention to the people today describing the experience of living institutions—living in the homeless shelters in the Bronx. I am hard pressed to identify how that experience differs in any significant way.

[ananda]

1. Democracy Now was great today!

I listened to it intently.

What I learned is that people in the media
and leadership are afraid to use the word
"poor" or to provide serious discussion
of what it means to be poor and how to solve
the poverty crisis, discussion which involves
the poor themselves and their ideas.

As I learned, the emotive context of the words
poor and poverty have evolved to mean something
bad, negative, and less than. The poor are
looked down on and considered deficient, lacking,
less than human, and lazy... and responsible for
their own poverty and problems to the point that
the conversation and the action needed just never
happen.

Furthermore, the conversation about Obama and the
economy was VERY informative and totally depressing.
It does not appear that either Obama or his new
economic minions have the vision or the will to make
the kinds of changes that are needed to truly bring
this nation and its people out of the economic mess
that we are now mired in.

The vocabulary isn't there and the ideas are too
limited because of the way that the propaganda machine,
the corporations, and the lobbyists are controlling
the dialogue and the policies.

Sue

[Orwellian_Ghost]

2. I'm listening to the show at present

Signs of the recession's impact on America's impoverished are increasingly apparent, Greenstein says, pointing to a dramatic rise in food-stamp caseloads in recent months. The number of people using food stamps has risen 9.6%, or roughly 2.6 million people, from August 2007 to August 2008, the last period for which data are available. Food banks around the country are reporting longer lines even as donations are falling.

By historical comparison, the expected rise in the number of impoverished in this recession is relatively normal. During the recession years of the 1980s, the number of people in poverty rose by 9.2 million, an increase of more than a third. The recession of the 1990s was not quite as deep but still increased the number of people in poverty by 6.5 million. But those falling into poverty now face harder prospects and need more government help, Greenstein says, because many social safety nets have been cut away since past economic downturns. (See pictures of the recession of 1958.)

<snip>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20081125/us_time/08599186184300

[JeffR]

3. Thank you for posting this.

:thumbsup:

K & R!

[Qibing Zero]

4. During the election..

I often noted to friends that McCain was for the upper class, Obama for the middle class, but that no one ever spoke about the lower class at all. If I didn't feel so strongly about keeping McCain out of there, or if I didn't live in a battleground state, I likely would have voted Socialist or something.

[intheflow]

5. And really there are many, many more poor people in America.

The poverty level is so ridiculously low, $10,400 for a single person, or $866.67 a month. Who the hell can cover transportation, housing, utilities, and incidentals on $866/mo.? I'd be living in my car if that's all I had to live on, though I'm damned close, making about $1,000 a month. But I'm barely squeaking by and I do not live an extravagant lifestyle. And it gets worse the more people come into play: a family of four is supposed to live on $21,200 a year, or $441.70 per person. WTF?! No wonder so many kids live in poverty! :grr:

If the poverty level for a family of four was raised to even $25000 (still pathetically low at $520.83 per person per month), how many more people would come into the system? But the poverty level ought to be raised at least that high to reflect the incredible cost of everything--and how many people are not surviving above the poverty line. Reminds me of how they don't count people who have run out of unemployment benefits as among the unemployed. :grr:

[RufusTFirefly]

6. Sadly, the one Presidential candidate who mentioned poverty explicitly...

... had trouble keeping his zipper zipped.

Although I was a Kucinich backer, I was still very impressed that John Edwards made poverty such a key element of his campaign. Many may recall that he launched his campaign in New Orleans. That was something that hadn't been done since RFK. Not long after that, the message was handed down by the high priests of PR that pictures of a candidate in a poverty-ravaged area -- regardless of the message -- were damaging to a campaign.

NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 28 -- Former senator John Edwards of North Carolina launched his second campaign for the White House from this flood-ravaged city Thursday with a call for the United States to reduce its troop presence in Iraq and a plea for citizen action to combat poverty, global warming and America's reliance on foreign oil.

Washington Post, 2006