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| III.
Poverty |
 
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Hercules
captures a runaway hind with golden horns that was sacred to Artemis.
Artemis
is one of the early symbols of an Earth Mother Goddess. The golden
horns can be interpreted as the wealth held in trust by the people
of the Earth. The wealth represented by the lost hind is captured
and returned to the kingdom.
On
January 8, 1964, Lyndon Johnson announced, “This administration
today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America.”
The
War on Poverty did not go so well, and four years later Nixon replaced
it with the War on Drugs. In 1987, while walking across the White
House lawn to a helicopter, Ronald Reagan tossed off a final epitaph:
“In the Sixties we waged a war on poverty, and poverty won.”
It
was an excuse to give up what perhaps should not have been seen
as a war to begin with. However, it also represented an ideologically
driven inability to adequately address some of these basic interconnected
factors that create and maintain poverty:
- SUBSTANCE
ABUSE: Tremendous physical and psychological damage can be traced
to the use of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. The War on Drugs and
drug prohibition has also created numerous problems that fall
most heavily upon the poor. (see Labor
IV).
- FAMILY
PLANNING: Even the poorest 20% of Americans spend an average of
$175,000 per family to raise one child to age 18. When it cannot
be paid by the parents, the taxpayers bear the cost. Having even
one child is an onerous financial burden, yet the poor tend to
have the most children, thus virtually ensuring that they will
be locked into poverty and experience a wide range of related
problems.
- IMMIGRATION:
Illegal and legal immigrants, mostly Hispanic, have a high birth
rate, which contributes strongly to poverty. They also import
all the characteristics of the poverty that they fled from. The
benefits of immigration to companies that make use of cheap immigrant
labor are not usually weighed against the cost to society.
- PARENTING:
The most fundamental element to starting out right in life rests
upon ability of the parents to instruct and nurture their children.
Yet this is usually the element that is weakest. It is not surprising
that most of the poor, as well as those in prison, also come from
unhappy families.
- EDUCATION:
If impoverished parents cannot teach their children properly,
then their children are unlikely to prosper in the public school
system, which cannot take on the main burden of education. Public
schools are under-funded, but also overwhelmed by children who
have not been prepared by their families or by society.
- RESOURCES:
Work skills, social networks, and assets to fall back on during
low periods are missing. Often race, gender, or social status
further limits access to resources.
- MENTAL
HEALTH: Many of the poor are unemployable or their skills are
meager or impacted by psychological or mental problems. A sense
of purposeless and powerlessness is common.
- PHYSICAL
HEALTH: Poor diet, lack of exercise, obesity, physical violence,
lack of preventative health care, substance abuse, and depression
all contribute to a downward spiral
- FINANCIAL
SKILLS: Poor financial decisions made on a daily basis and an
inability to manage for the future helps insure that the poor
stay poor.
- ENVIRONMENT:
Our automobile-dominated infrastructure is tough on people who
cannot afford or are not allowed to a car. Living in ugly urban
sprawl is dispiriting. Without beautiful natural surroundings,
safe walkable streets, and livable communities with social networks,
families feel less attached to each other and to the place where
they live. They are more likely to be violent, apathetic, and
angry. The poor also tend to be segregated into the same area,
thus associating almost exclusively with each other and making
it harder to improve their situation.
- DISCRIMINATION:
Being of a certain appearance, whether related to race or some
other cause is a determinant in social standing and income. Aside
from race, it has been demonstrated for example that being tall
and/or good-looking vastly increases one’s chances of being
successful in the world.
- ATTITUDE:
All of the above factors, coupled with anger and resentment, a
lack of purpose, and a sense of powerlessness makes it almost
impossible to have a positive attitude and make progress.
For
almost three years I informally studied the lower-income people
that I have encountered while rebuilding a slum neighborhood in
my town. Before that, while living in California and working as
a builder since 1986, I was also in close association with a large
number of low-income and immigrant families.
More
recently, many of my helpers were provided by a labor service that
hired out day workers. Some workers were homeless, some lived at
a public housing development within two blocks from my house, and
others lived in group homes, or in shared living arrangements. I
got to know their families, friends, and associates. I also spent
a lot of time with subcontractors, public works employees, and other
underprivileged people who lived in the area. As a result of many
years of close interaction with hundreds of lower income people
in California and Florida, I can draw three portraits of typical
lower income families that includes most of the most common problems
that I am personally familiar with:
THE
POOREST OF THE POOR: Cory is a homeless white male. He is only 45
years old, but he is already a rail-thin, gray-bearded and toothless
old man who walks with a limp. He sleeps outside most of the time,
usually in doorways, under bridges, or in a makeshift tent in the
woods. He is unwashed and his reeks of beer. His principle addictions
in descending order of the effect on his life include alcohol, tobacco,
crack cocaine, and coffee. He has a number of psychological problems,
but it is impossible to sort them all out. He has been in and out
of jail dozens of times for petty crimes, drug use, resisting arrest,
assault, public intoxication, and attempted rape. He has four children
with three women, none of whom he is in contact with. He begs for
money, and occasionally gets day labor work for a half a day here
and there. He spends what he gets immediately on alcohol, cigarettes,
or crack cocaine.
POOR:
Joe and Alison are both African-Americans in their late twenties.
They have three children. Joe is from a family of 12, but he only
grew up with 7 siblings, Alison is from a family of eight, but she
only grew up with three of her siblings. Joe also has two children
from a previous marriage. He owes $20,000 in child support in another
state and often has problems with the law related to that. The first
time he lost his driver’s license was because of a DUI, the
second time it was because he did not pay back child support. They
both smoke and drink. Joe also uses various drugs, most notably
crack cocaine and Oxycontin, and works sporadically at construction
work. He spends all his income within hours of receiving it. Joe
and Alison fight constantly. They accuse each other of extramarital
affairs, and sometimes their fights are physically abusive. Joe
has been arrested once for battery, once for failure to pay child
support, twice for DUI, twice for driving without a license, and
once for resisting arrest. He suffers from bi-polar disorder and
dyslexia. She has a driver’s license, but he does not. He
drives anyway, but often takes buses or gets rides from friends
when his dilapidated vehicle is broken down. He once spent about
six months in jail for possession of crack cocaine. When they have
Medicare or go to the county hospital emergency room and wait for
hours to receive care. They have abysmal credit and owe over $50,000
in emergency room charges and interest from when they did not have
Medicare. Their children are also sick quite often, but at least
they are qualified to receive Medicaid. She graduated from high
school; he dropped out in his junior year. They live in a subsidized
public housing project that is composed of featureless apartment
blocks with nearly treeless spaces in between. Trash dumpsters and
parking lots are the most dominant features in front of the buildings.
They rent some of their furniture from a rent-to-buy store that
capitalizes on the poor. They are renting a large screen TV from
the same place that will cost them over $2,000 by the time it is
paid off. They buy lottery tickets almost every time they go to
the store and they spend as much on alcohol and tobacco as they
do on food, which is subsidized with food stamps. Sometimes Joe
sells the food stamps, or his carpentry tools for money to buy alcohol
and tobacco. Sometimes the tools, or other items from their home
are pawned for cash on which they pay exorbitant interest. It is
remarkable that they function at all considering all of their problems,
and to observe them even for one day is exhausting. It seems that
they are going to kill each another at any minute.
POOR
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: Jose and Maria, Miguel and Angela (all in their
early thirties), and their seven children live in a Garden District
home that was renovated a year and a half ago. Today five windows
are broken, some of the screens are pulled off, there is trash in
the yard, and a growing pile of beer bottles on the side under a
tree where Jose and Miguel or their Hispanic neighbors party once
or twice week. The absentee landlord does what he can when he comes
to town, and wants to evict them, but the fun-loving neighbors in
the adjoining house, with its own mountain of beer bottles in the
front yard, would make it difficult to get good tenants. Even as
I am writing this, at 6:30 AM on a Sunday morning, the revelers
are howling like coyotes and playing loud Mexican music that reverberates
all over the neighborhood. The police are on the way, but the only
thing that is certain is that they will be at it again next weekend.
During these loud, drunken binges, the wives cringe with the children
in the house. They do not try to rein in their husbands’ behavior
because they would get beaten. During the week, Jose and Miguel
work at a local fernery as laborers. The Immigration and Naturalization
Service pays no attention to the fact that they are in this country
illegally because the fern growers, and other employers around the
country, need cheap labor and they have enough influence to keep
enforcement of the law at a token level. They go to the emergency
room of the county hospital when they need medical care, and ignore
the bills they get.
LOWER
MIDDLE INCOME: Sandra, 37, and Randy, 38, both work at a fast food
restaurant. Randy is a manager. They had a checking account for
a while, until medical bills caused them to lose what little credit
they had. Now they pay their bills with money orders. They barely
make ends meet and they live in a rented house that used to be in
the middle of Cracktown, but is now in the rapidly improving Garden
District. They share a 12-year old vehicle that Randy is constantly
patching together to keep it running. Randy downs a six-pack every
day after work, and watches television until he falls asleep on
the recliner. Sandra watches her own TV in the bedroom. Everyone
in the family smokes, but Sandra doesn’t drink as much. Randy
has a son from a girl who he impregnated in high school. He signed
away his parental rights and the mother never filed for child support.
He has not seen his son since he was 18. Sandra and Randy have two
teenage boys, Cory, 16 and Justin, 17. Justin left last year after
a fight over not contributing money for rent and they do not know
where he is. Cory keeps to himself, listens to a Walkman, plays
video games, and sells drugs for spending money. He sleeps on the
couch in the living room after his father goes to bed.
SOLUTIONS
The
United States has the largest disparity between rich and poor of
any industrialized country. One factor is the technological divide
that separates those who are participating in the technological
revolution from those who are left behind. High birth rates, social
policy, family history, genetics, health, and other factors determine
the rest. This divide is growing, and it is hard to imagine how
anything could change for the better in the dynamics of these poor
families as long as the status quo remains. The problems that beset
the poor are so deep and convoluted that on the surface it might
seem that any attempts to help are futile. Nevertheless, there are
steps that the government could take that would eventually improve
their lives.
END
DRUG PROHIBITION: The simplest and most obvious solution is end
the Drug War. Aside from all the reasons listed under Labor
IV, prohibition helps create an alternative class system based
on defiance and lawlessness. The illusion is created for young people
that they can succeed in an underworld that has been glamorized
by pop culture.
LEGALIZE
PROSTITUTION: Many of the same problems caused by moralistic prohibitions
against sex for hire by consenting adults parallel the ill effects
caused by drug prohibition. Ending the war on sex, would allow the
world’s oldest profession to be taxed and regulated to the
benefit of society and all concerned.
FAMILY
PLANNING AND PARENTING: Limiting family size is by far the biggest
factor in reducing poverty in the U.S. One of my poor neighbors
has 15 siblings; another one has 23 brothers and sisters. Each of
these neighbors has four of their own children, spread over various
mothers, and they will probably have more children. Even though
this is an improvement over their fathers, they are still overwhelmed
by the effort and expense of supporting their families, which to
a large extent falls upon the state.
Studies
have shown that there is a strong correlation between a family’s
size and its net worth. Having no children should be considered
as a noble option and encouraged. Limiting family size to one or
two children, or opting to not have children, leaves time to make
and keep more money, learn skills, get an education, develop parenting
and relationship skills, and live under less stressful conditions.
The benefits are then passed onto the next generation, thus helping
to break the cycle of poverty that dooms most of the poor who have
large families.
EDUCATION
AND RESOURCES: Head Start, founded in 1965 during the War on Poverty,
helps poor preschool children prepare for elementary school to partially
offset insufficient training by their parents. Increased efforts
like this to educate the children of the poor will pay big dividends
to society later. Unfortunately, meager funding for education has
been national policy for decades despite campaign promises. In February
2004, President Bush's Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, called
America's largest teachers' union a "terrorist organization”
because the union had the temerity to ask that President Bush fund
education as promised.
Negative
social attitudes, including real life consequences related to having
too many children, brands certain ethnic or racial groups thus fostering
prejudice and resentment. It is difficult to legislate social acceptance,
so education must bear much of burden of instilling tolerance for
people’s differences.
Not
everyone is suited for higher learning, so providing basic work
skills and a trade is much more useful for many people. Schools
should place more emphasize on the entire range of skills needed
in life, from relationships to managing a budget.
NATIONAL
HEALTH INSURANCE: Having a comprehensive national health insurance
program would be far more efficient and judicious than our current
system, which is a mix of private and public insurance funding that
costs more than any other industrialized country. The poor and lower
middle classes would be the primary beneficiaries, but all of society
would benefit if preventative health practices were freely available.
It is far less costly to promote wellness then to wait for wait
for people to get sick. (See Labor X: Health)
URBAN
RENEWAL: In the Fifties and Sixties, urban renewal was jokingly
referred to as “Negro Removal.” Huge numbers of predominately
black, low-income people were relocated from decaying inner city
neighborhoods into multi-story government housing projects that
immediately turned into vertical crime ridden slums surrounded with
trash and graffiti. Pruitt-Igoe, the infamous 2,870-unit housing
development in St. Louis, consisting of 33 eleven-story buildings,
was simply blown up by officials in 1972. (The equally uninspiring
World Trade Center was designed by the same modernist architect,
Minoru Yamasaki, and blown up by terrorists).
The
New Urbanism movement emphasizes livable, walkable, mixed-use developments
that are reminiscent of neighborhoods and urban areas that were
common before the 1940s. I propose a “New Pedestrianism,”
a branch of New Urbanism, with Pedestrian Villages that replaces
the neo-traditional alley at the rear with an automobile street.
The houses, with big porches, are then moved close to a tree-lined
pedestrian lane in front. These multi-use lanes, closed to motor
vehicles, connect all the houses with each other and a village center
where public transportation would be available. This would work
for all housing developments, including public housing, and would
vastly improve the safety, health, quality of life, and community
involvement for their inhabitants. (See Labor
IX: Urbanism for details).
 
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