For Poor, America's a Sinking Ship

[dajoki]

Laura Flanders's blog
The F Word: For Poor, America's a Sinking Ship
by Laura Flanders | June 3, 2010 - 10:10am
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/node/29221

Last week in New York authorities announced that at Harlem Hospital Center, the largest health facility in that historic neighborhood, doctors had failed to read 4,000 heart tests -- for three years -- and that 200 of these patients died. These were not simply routine tests, but echocardiograms, ordered when patients showed severe symptoms. That does not happen in affluent neighborhoods.

Among other reasons, heart sickness is elsewhere an enormous profit opportunity -- heart valve and bypass surgeries are a go-go business. But not for sick, poor people. Their Medicaid coverage fails to fully incentivize America's insatiable medical industrial appetite.

According to a cardiologist brought in on an emergency basis to start reading the long backlog of tests in Harlem, approximately half were abnormal and 20 to 30 percent needed immediate medical care. "This is very, very appalling," he told the New York Times. And it's not just in Harlem.

Across the US, poor communities are grossly under-served: education, nutrition, housing and health care. To a large extent, this explains the chasm in life expectancy between white people and so-called minorities.

How much worse does it get? A Brandeis University study recently underscored the growing wealth divide. According to the Federal Reserve, for every dollar of wealth owned by a white family, a black or Latino family owns just 16 cents.

And as this -- the great marginalization of America marches on -- Democrats, including the president, wrestle with Republicans for smidgeon of reform. Is it anywhere close to enough? For all the talk of Wall Street reform, and new consumer protections, and talk of alternative energy policy, the fact remains that for most people, America is a sinking ship. And minority communities are the first to be thrown over the side. Where are the lifeboats?

[Captain Hilts]

1. Has been since 1970. nt

[DJ13]

2. poor communities are grossly under-served: education, nutrition, housing and health care

"Today, I am announcing my Deficit Reduction Committee"

- President Obama


This wont end well.

[dajoki]

5. The Deficit Reduction Committee...

is in place to cut Social Security, but you can bet that they will slash as many social programs as possible. And no, it won't end good.

[Forkboy]

3. The whole world is.

[skeptical cynic]

4. As the world "develops"

resources will become a limiting factor (Those paying attention know resources are already a limiting factor).

The majority of US citizens are going to undergo a conversion to legitimate peasant status, meeting the workers of the rest of the world somewhere closer to their current level of affluence than ours.

The rich, however, by virtue of controlling the the politicians who control the money and guns, will remain quite well off.

I recommend careers in law enforcement, which will become a growth industry as civil unrest increases. Those who control the money and guns will be willing to pay enforcers a wage large enough to give them a stake in the status quo.

[Greyhound]

9. Gangster pays better. n/t

[skeptical cynic]

11. Another growth industry

But they'll be viewed as Robin Hoods, not gangsters.

[Greyhound]

13. If they're as smart as the last time, you're right.

It doesn't take much to make people happy, that's why it's so shameful that the parasite class begrudges even that tiny bit.

[Scuba]

6. Well, our economy is in a mess....

...so the poor better tighten their belts. Only tax cuts for the wealthiest will save us.

[bobbolink]

8. Thank you so much for your compassion and concern.

:puke:

[Scuba]

10. Sorry, I forgot the sarcasm emoticon.

[dajoki]

14. Why is it always who must tighten their belts?

Its a friggin shame that in this country the poor are the ones who are expected to carry the load.

[dajoki]

19. CORRECTION:

Why is it always THE POOR who must tighten their belts?

[bobbolink]

7. "the great marginalization of America marches on - Democrats, including the president, wrestle with

Republicans for smidgeon of reform."

EXCELLENT!

I heard on Thom Hartmann yesterday him pleading with people to get more active in politics... to take more action.

No, Thom.... when I have been left out so totally of any real action on the behalf of me and millions like me, and when I meet resistance time and time again on DU for even very simple actions, NO...

WHEN "progressives" start caring about us poor folk and start taking us seriously and make improving our lives a priority, then give me a call.

Until then.... go peddle your onions elsewhere.

[skeptical cynic]

12. I'm satisfying myself with planting the seeds of dissent

Whenever I have the opportunity to have a discussion with a minimum wage worker or some other variant of the working poor, which I do often as I walk through my community, I never miss the opportunity to help them acquire a clear picture of their place in society--producer unit, consumer unit, and disposable citizen/worker/soldier--a means to an end from which they will derive no benefit.

I hope that such people will one day recognize that their chains can be used as weapons, that the wealthy exploit them only by means of controlling the money and the guns, and that they have the ultimate power to take control of and change the system that exploits them when they are ready to put down the beer, turn off the television and make that sacrifice.

[Quantess]

18. You really do that as you walk through your community?

I'm curious how those interactions unfold, without causing the working poor in your community to feel even more depressed and want to crack open a beer as soon as you leave.

[skeptical cynic]

20. I just talk to a lot of people as I walk down fast food row...

through the park, on the side of the Walmart where employees take their smoke breaks, the Salvation Army Thrift Store, and out where the internal exiles have bonfires and drink beer they really can't afford. Basically, I go hang out with the people I grew up with, and I tell them what I didn't know when I was where they are doing what they do. There's a homeless guy that lives in the woods near where the bonfires are, and he's one of the most intelligent people I've ever spoken to--a true mendicant. He's an amazing source of information on the history of labor, and he can really get them stirred up.

Yes, they get angry. Sometimes I find myself walking a very fine line. But it's a healthy anger based on reality. Occasionally I meet someone who is a potential leader, so I spend more time with them and invest a few dollars on a paperback copy of "1984." (They're shocked to learn that they're not even members of the Outer Party, they're throw-away Proles.)

I figure that if I can get one more person voting democratically without joining one of the two mainstream parties and parroting the party line, one more person paying closer attention to the news and reading the local alternative press without relying on the mainstream media, one less person willing to join the military to fight for reasons that have nothing to do with defense, and one more person willing to observe a general strike and boycott when a leader willing to take a bold step comes forward, then I've made a small difference.

And once they understand why they are where they are and doing what they do, and who benefits from their exploitation, then they're more able to solve a problem they never understood before. They usually already know they are victims, they just haven't been introducted to the victimizer--a system built on the pragmatic poverty that makes affluence possible for a select few.

It's silly, I know, but when I confided my "conspiracy" to a friend, she told me that she does the same thing when she volunteers. She says there are more and more people coming in for meals and clothing who are destitute for reasons beyond their control, and it's very easy to get them to see the real problem. Most already know the problem, but they've been programed to blame themselves.

[Quantess]

21. Thank you for expounding on that.

At first I wondered if you were being a little over the top, or if you meant it. But now I understand where you're coming from, even though I'm not as outgoing as you are.

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[bobbolink]

25. "Most already know the problem, but they've been programed to blame themselves."

Abso-fucking-lutely!

As I said, this is BRILLIANT, and I would like to hear more. Much more.

Please do an OP on this!!

:applause:

[bobbolink]

24. Thank you so much for doing this! It is so uplifting to know that I have people in "my corner"!

I must, of course, remind you that I am not working, but I consider that I am as important as anyone else. Not more so, but just as.

I encourage you to remember that... those of us who are too old, too sick or too ill to work are just as necessary, and add just as much.

What you are doing is BRILLIANT, and I would like to see this get publicized in some way... to encourage others to do the same. This needs to be written up in a way that others can follow your lead.

Thank you! :yourock:

[skeptical cynic]

27. What I'm doing is too puny and simple to be "brilliant."

About as grass roots and anonymous as it gets. It costs nothing but time and a few bucks for coffee and an occasional used book.

I doubt it even makes a difference, but it makes me feel like I'm doing somehting, and if a lot of people did it...

I got the idea by watching a video about the Wobblies. When I was a kid I learned they were train-hopping hobos, but many were migrant, disposable workers who organized and systemmatically interfered with production--"wobbled"--to get wage concessions and better working conditions. They basically organized by word-of-mouth. I often recommend that people visit the IWW website if they can.

Another book I give away is "Of Mice and Men," which I interpret as another story about throwaway employees with dreams that won't come true because the system is designed otherwise.

[bobbolink]

30. Its usually the simplest things that are BRILLIANT.

And, while it may seem "simple" to you, not many will figure out how to take raw information, and "peddle" it.

I still will hope you write an OP on this, and give some guidelines.

What we know seems simple to us... it is not that simple for others to follow in your footsteps without some clues.

[Hempathy]

15. Eventually, things will gat bad enough for people to revolt.

Maybe even in some of our lifetimes.

[Lance_Boyle]

16. It's craptastic journalism to use 'poor' and 'minority' interchangeably.

I wonder how the Jewish minority communities in Brooklyn are faring? How about Asian minority communities in CA?

[dajoki]

17. But she clarifies who she's talking about n/t

[Hannah Bell]

22. kik

[dajoki]

23. kick

[hobbit709]

26. It's rapidly turning into sinking lifeboat.

[blindpig]

28. kick

[Ardent15]

29. K&R