Too Poor to Make the News....

[kpete]

Take a visit into the daily hell that's arisen over the last few months among the lives of America's blue collar unemployed, where joblessness is increasing three times faster than it is for white collar workers.

...............

Too Poor to Make the News
Op-Ed Contributor
By BARBARA EHRENREICH
New York Times Op-Ed Page
Published Online: June 13, 2009 In Print: June 14, 2009

"...the outlook is not so cozy when we look at the effects of the recession on a group generally omitted from all the vivid narratives of downward mobility -- the already poor, the estimated 20 percent to 30 percent of the population who struggle to get by in the best of times. This demographic, the working poor, have already been living in an economic depression of their own. From their point of view "the economy," as a shared condition, is a fiction."

--SNIP--

...The already poor...the undocumented immigrants, the sweatshop workers, the janitors, maids and security guards...had all but "disappeared" from both the news media and public policy discussions.

Disappearing with them is what may be the most distinctive and compelling story of this recession...

--SNIP--

...The deprivations of the formerly affluent Nouveau Poor are real enough, but the situation of the already poor suggests that they do not necessarily presage a greener, more harmonious future with a flatter distribution of wealth. There are no data yet on the effects of the recession on measures of inequality, but historically the effect of downturns is to increase, not decrease, class polarization.

--SNIP--

Maybe "the economy," as depicted on CNBC, will revive again, restoring the kinds of jobs that sustained the working poor, however inadequately, before the recession. Chances are, though, that they still won't pay enough to live on, at least not at any level of safety and dignity. In fact, hourly wage growth, which had been running at about 4 percent a year, has undergone what the Economic Policy Institute calls a "dramatic collapse" in the last six months alone. In good times and grim ones, the misery at the bottom just keeps piling up, like a bad debt that will eventually come due.

more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/opinion/14ehrenreich.html?_r=2
via:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/14/742248/-A-Must-Read-Wake-Up-Call:-Too-Poor-To-Make-The-News

[jwirr]

1. "Nicked and Dimed" is a depression era phrase and it fits.

[Wind Dancer]

2. K & R

Excellent article - thanks for sharing.

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[izquierdista]

4. American poverty vs. the Third World kind

Having traveled a lot over the last two years, I can say that the state of the poor in America is worse than in the Third World, not better. In the U.S., the car is a necessity to be able to find work, go to work, go shopping, etc. Every poor country I have visited has some type of bus transportation, but large areas of the U.S. are so infrequently served by buses that they might as well be on another planet.

Another difference is the cost of food. Even in poor countries, locally grown food is available and much less expensive than what is found in the U.S. You may be able to buy a kilo of potatoes for 20 or 30 cents, but in the U.S., packaging, transportation, and distribution plus supermarket mark ups bring that up to a dollar or more.

[pleah]

5. K&R

[G_j]

6. I heard Wall Street just made up for it's losses since the new year

not tricking down so quickly......
:-(

[FirstLight]

7. Yep I just realized yesterday that I've NEVER

had a time in my life where I had money from one paycheck spill over into the next one.

It has ALWAYS been hand-to-mouth for us, I wonder what it would be like to actually pay my bills all at once or online easily, but I never know how much I will have in my account. I have to pay for a cell phone by buying minute cards at the 7-11 (which are about 20% higher) I have to choose whether to pay the electric or gas first, and deal with the interest or additional fees...yadayadayada

I hate hearing things on TV about "easy-pay" and anything regarding credit. I have none. Becuse my income is not that reliable, I can't take on any thing that requires a monthly payment. Give me a credit card and it will be defaulted in 6 months, and even if I have the best intention of catching up, it just never happens beacue survival takes precedence.

Now I finally got picked up by a program that is helping me get a management certification, but I wonder sometimes if I have been out of the loop too long to be able to handle the corporate life. I communicate differently, I have less professionalism, because I've been working temp jobs my whole adult life it seems...so I am scared that I won't be able to do it. But the change in payscale is like hitting the jackpot if I can get into a good place...and make it stick....

I will be tripling my income by the time I graduate and (hopefully) get a job this fall -
from $10k or less as a single mom with 3 kids per year to probably $35k to start...
I still won't be able to buy a house, but maybe we can begin coming out of the HOLE of POVERTY

I dunno what the answer is. More folks like me being able to find opportunity, and not being afraid to take it?
The fear of failure and fear of success is a really big thing, and there is NO program to help us deal with that - we have to "pull ourselves up by the botstraps"

[Lars39]

9. Best wishes to you, FirstLight.

:hug:

[Mari333]

8. knr