"the poverty business"

[katty]

more: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08082008/transcript2.html

August 8, 2008

BILL MOYERS:There's always been money to be made from people who have no money. That's because low income families turn to fast, easy, and pre-approved credit to make ends meet. But once they've signed on the dotted line, they often find their troubles have just begun. According to the Federal Reserve, the amount of money owed by households earning $30,000 or less between 1989 and 2004, soared to $691 billion — that's an increase of nearly 250%.

These households are what one entrepreneur describes as "low-hanging fruit" — just waiting to be plucked. Nothing new about this.

Loan sharks have been around to prey on the poor for centuries, but now the sharks are trying to spiff up their image, relocating from back alleyways to friendly-looking storefronts.

They hide their sharp teeth behind promises of ready cash to people who need it now. BUSINESSWEEK magazine dubbed this industry "the poverty business."

[willing dwarf]

1. Social Service Agencies too!

Having worked for a few organizations that are in the business of serving the poor, I can see too well how most of what are called "services" really serve the provider. The service economy needs poor people both to work and to be served. You look at one poor person and what you don't see is the number of agencies that have their bucket tapped into that person's veins. And as if that's not bad enough, the media then blames the poor victim, frames them as being lazy,indolent, etc.

[katty]

2. indeed-i don't know if an investigative report/docu has ever

been done on that--it should be

[willing dwarf]

3. I've done a few calculations

For the non profit where I work. We run on a skeleton crew and make use of a lot of volunteers. We're talking about putting together an overnight shelter for the winter months -- we can run the program for about $46 a night with donated snacks and a donated breakfast in the morning. But really when you think about it, maybe the person who'd be staying there would be better off getting a room for the night at a Motel 6 or some such place. I think a lot of people would rather have the $46 than be obliged to participate in our program.

I'm not arguing for privatizing social services or anything like that. Maybe I am a Luddite, but it seems to me that the entrenched poverty of our inner cities is evidence of the complete failure of the social engineering of runaway capitalism.

A generation or two ago, most of the folks we work with had a connection to rural life and still knew how to grow food, hunt, fish and cook. But now, the entrenched inner city poor need to wait for hand outs because they've lost the survival skills that served them well for so long.