Session 14 Update Immigration and its effect on Poverty

Immigration seems to play a much larger role in our economy than I previously was aware of.  The irony of the fact that this country was founded on immigration and improved by their labor is that now, many of us refer to immigration as a cause of poverty instead of a side effect of it.  In the film depiction of Siler City, NC, both white and black culture have had to adjust to no longer being the simple majority and instead having to carve out a smaller piece of the social pie.  The view from the white perspective seems to be one of fear of the loss of values and American traditions.  Overcrowding in schools, loss of control of the economic markets, and perhaps even fear of having to acknowledge another prevalent language.  The white relationship with blacks was one of financial control and a subservient society willing to accept the Christian based rules of engagement when justifying the unequal treatment.  The white relationship to the Hispanic or Latino is vastly different as the Latino seems to be rapidly dominating the other cultures and generally defiant as he refuses to adapt the white culture, customs, and languages.  The booming Hispanic population in Siler City is representative of the changing social environments of many other larger cities and I believe the film used Siler City as a sample of the larger population.  The Hispanic workforce has a significant positive impact on the local and regional economies while a relative negative impact on education, crime and community.  The collective black view of the Hispanic culture seems to be one of competition.  Where at one time, most of the service jobs or undesirable positions were reserved and expected to be filled by black people in that city.  Despite the negative considerations to the non-glamorous job descriptions, those jobs still provided some economic and social stability within the black community.  With the widespread illegal immigration issue that has become prevalent in the city, employers can offer less money to illegal immigrants and therefore not have to hire legal ones for the same non glamorous positions.  Without an opportunity for regress, the displaced black worker may eyeball the Hispanic as the villain in the unemployment and instability of their neighborhoods.  I see a different vantage point.  The villain in this is clearly not the Hispanic people, whether illegal or legal workers.  When they are illegally employed, the employer can underpay them, refuse to pay overtime and take advantage of their cheap labor.  The industries that employ the illegal workers are the villains.  Another caveat is that the governments who allow the employment of the illegal workers fail to enforce laws already established to prevent such conditions, they too become villains.  So it seems that all three groups in the sample are struggling to deal with the new face of their social structure.  However, identifying the true culprits of the negative aspects and forcing them to be accountable is a great step towards addressing the issues.  Once again, greedy, profit driven capitalistic corporations are the evils that are causing the ripple effects in Siler City and across the nation.  Simply put, the illegal aliens’ justification for trying to get here is work.  It appears all too easy to control the invitation and then lessen the blow to the social considerations.  Lastly, immigration is not wrong in and of itself.  The very idea of immigration is what has helped this country to flourish and be one of the strongest countries in the world.  Evil corporations use media driven distractions to keep the public focused on the wrong issues while they pad their coiffures and enjoy their spoils.  Isn’t it time for a revolution?

Session 13 Housing and Community Development

Housing seems to be a critical component of poverty in the United States and particularly here in the local metropolitan Atlanta area.  This session showcases many of the problems in public housing and offers a few solutions.  Mon Valley Institute is a collaboration of CDCs working together to revitalize a local Philadelphia neighborhood.  Philanthropic groups like The Visionaries dedicate time, pool resources and build relationships to help under-privileged and the ex convicted criminal.   Adequate Housing seems to be a core goal for the communities they serve.  Like the MVI, the LISC organization works in the Palm Beach County region of Florida attempting to pool political, banking and human resources to revitalize distressed neighborhood plagued with blight and foreclosures.  Their goal is to rehab communities using local sources to build from within.
Here in Atlanta, housing continues to be an issue despite the Atlanta Housing Authority’s mission to decentralize poverty and tear down project housing communities.  One problem I cited earlier in the course is the huge problem with relocating a family from project homes into single family homes in great neighborhoods when no or little education is given.  Lawn maintenance, property cleanliness, contributing to the peaceful enjoyment of the community is a huge issue.  While the problem that is sought to be addressed can appear to be noble, homeowners, like myself, do not want to live next door to someone who has no sense of community, thinks that the home is best suited for a loud party and that there is nothing wrong with parking the non-running car on the lawn.  As a former employee of a large housing authority, common complaints were of excessive fighting and boisterous activities from section 8 voucher program participants as well as unauthorized inhabitants, private businesses being run out of homes, excessive police presence, and even discharging of weapons.  Renee Glover’s vision could be an eventual model for local housing authorities everywhere to demolish their projects and relocate the indigent families, but in its current status seems to be a monumental failure.  Program participants are notorious for destroying their landlord’s homes, stealing appliances and being general nuisances to the communities they have moved into.  Atlanta Housing Authority should create resources to help families transition into their homes and provide training on how to be a good neighbor.  Their Compliance team should be enlarged and allowed more discretion when it comes to holding the families to a standard of family obligations.
While poverty is certainly affected by lack of proper housing and even concentration of it, the rush to correct it seems to exacerbate the community issues and stigmas placed on poor people.  Voucher holders are allowed to move every year which not only adds to the vagrancy of a neighborhood, but costs the landlord considerable money to rehab the properties and get them ready for the next renter.  Also allowing such movement does not create an incentive for being a good neighbor.   There is very little expectation for the program participant to improve the communities they move to.  The current economy causes landlords to be desperate and rent to anyone with a voucher.  This condition can lead to the demise of an otherwise quiet and peaceful neighbor.  Both LISC and MVI should employ the training of life skills to make sure that the people that they help to find housing are willing to be homeowners willing to work hard to preserve the homes and communities they live in.

Session 12 UPDATE Social Security as it relates to poverty

Social Insurance’s intentions were to prepare the American worker for a retirement free of indigence or relying on family members.  Workers meet a minimal requirement of ten years of work history to be eligible for benefits.  Social Security is paid for by contributions from both the employee and the employer.  The benefit is paid commensurate to inflation, and allows both seniors and disabled Americans to survive without a working income for the rest of their lives.

The Social Security Trust Fund is a fund currently designed to bring in more revenue dollars than it needs paying benefits out to participants while maintaining a cash reserve of the funds.  Old age and survivor benefits  make up a significant portion of the Social Insurance trust fund while disability, hospital care and part D make up the remainder.

Our Government has repeatedly borrowed against the surplus funds over the years to payoff outstanding debts and stimulate the economy.  However, this practice has left few means of actually sustaining the fund and ensuring its security in the future.  Analysts have predicted that the fund may be depleted as soon as 2017 and that within 75 years actually experience an almost five trillion dollar deficit.

Since this forseen eventuality seems eminent, bean counters are dramatically cutting back benefits to participants in the program.  These people are being forced into and below the poverty line simply because they may not have had any other plans for retirement and they must live on reduced benefits.  Our government needs to make good on the loans they have taken from the Social Security funds and create viable plans to generate more revenue to ward off the pending doom of the immediate future.

Session 11 update HEALTHCARE

Obamacare should be renamed.   Robinhoodcare, Jesuscare, Ghandicare or just Care For the Expendable.  This session’s material on health care reform coincides with our discussions on poverty in this class.  Our group assignment exercise showed that in addition to childcare, healthcare costs are a huge part of many household budgets. 

For the poor, uninsured and underinsured, learning that healthcare is important always comes at the worst times.  A cancer diagnosis for an unemployed person struggling on unemployment insurance can mean death.  Health insurance companies are businesses dedicated to turning huge profits.  Benevolence is not the issue for them.  Denying healthcare coverage is not a means to making a profit, rather a means to increasing it. 

According to the course material, people without healthcare in the United States has dramatically increased over the last two years.  Considering the economic downturn and the fact that most healthcare insurance is paid for by employers, I am confident that these numbers will increase.  People under the age of 30 are least likely to have health care insurance and represent the highest amount of uninsured.  Senior citizens and children under 18 are most likely to be insured because of governmental programs.  The southern states have the highest uninsured rates including Texas, Georgia and much of the southeast and the numbers of uninsured have grown over the years in these regions.  Racially enumerated, it seems that Hispanics and African Americans have the least access to healthcare, followed by Asians and finally, whites.

I have personally been affected by the greed and evil of health care insurers.  After leaving work to return to school, I am forced to purchase my own health care insurance in cash through COBRA.  Since the premiums are extremely high, I applied for direct pay coverage through Kaiser Permanente.  I was immediately denied coverage for a pre-existing condition.  This means I am an unemployed student paying $410 a month for healthcare coverage through COBRA with the only option is no health insurance at all.  Oddly enough, my car payment for my 2008 car is $409 a month.  Since my only financial means is student loans and my retirement savings, I have recently been forced to choose between one of these items as my resources have dwindled.  I have personally lamented over the decision and have struggled to keep both payments current in hopes that the Obamacare initiative would provide some relief for those of us who have preexisting healthcare conditions.  It appears that I will have to allow my car to be voluntarily repossessed so that I can continue to have adequate health care.  My logic is that I can live without a car, using a bicycle and a train pass to get me around Atlanta while I attend school.  I can try to purchase another car sometime in the future and rely on neighbors to help me get groceries.  My sister can lend me her car to get to important appointments and I will figure the rest out as it comes.  I cannot live without health insurance and the medications that I need are very expensive without it.  The first wave of relief for Obamacare is important and encouraging but my relief is still on its way. (I hope)

I see that health care coverage is in need of major change and its impact on the poverty stricken has been horrible.  With no income, I understand its impact like never before and applaud our government for doing what it has done.  I am proud to have cast my vote for the current administration and am making my way to the polls to vote for the mid-term elections.  I feel personally responsible to ward off attempts to repeal healthcare reform by a republican controlled Congress.

To the smug opponents to healthcare reform, it may seem easy to devalue the necessity for coverage when a person or family is in the low income groups affected by it.  However, healthcare affects us all.  Disease, sickness, emergency injuries and preventative care are needs that everyone wants to avoid but that no man can eliminate.

Session 9 UPDATE

Our government and our people have a responsibility to acknowledge the indicators of the success, or lack thereof, of the welfare to work reform projects.  Jason DeParle’s in depth look into several Milwaukee families’ path from Welfare to the work force provides a rational view into the Federal Works Program.  Angie’s entrance into the full time works force can be seen as successful on the surface.  Her children, Redd and Keisha seem to be heading down the same road that got Angie to welfare in the first place. 

Angie’s new job, that she loves, pays her only an amount to keep her coming back.  She is oftentimes unable to maintain her familiy’s most basic necessities including food, electricity, gas and other needs.  The reality, oddly enough, is that for Angie and her family, there is no significant improvement in their structure.  If our society insists on being myopic and downright ignorant, we might collectively say that Angie is doing exactly what we expect her to do.  However, those of us who chose to be fair minded, will probably acknowledge that the long term goal of WELFARE TO Work was to improve the life of people so they can see the benefit of not being assisted by the government.

One could argue that Angie has formed associations at work, enjoyed the pride of a job well done, contributed to a tax base that we all benefit from, realized self worth and her ability to accomplish the seemingly impossible, and experienced the reward of sacrifice.  I would simply rebut that Angie’s family financial budget before her working experience has not seemed to improve at all.  In fact, it has worsened.   Additional detriment to Angie through this program is removal of the matriarch of the family.  Angie’s children are left to do the things Angie cannot.   Angie is most suited to teach her children the moral and ethical teachings they desperately need to avoid repeating her mistakes, however, she is forced to be away from the family.

A similar operation with Atlanta’s Housing Authority called CATALYST requires all adults in the household to work full time if they are to continue receiving housing voucher benefits.  Despite its intentions, the program often does not provide adequate job training, transportation, any affordable childcare, or proper assistance in budget management.  Program participants are left to fail as the authors of these ill-considered programs take credit for eliminating dependence on poverty.  In actuality, they have merely conducted a failed experiment.  Just as much energy could go into forcing all businesses to pay a living wage to its employees.

Session 7 Update

It is clear that poverty is the end result of several factors.  Some of the factors appear accidental.  Others are apparently more deliberate.  This session lets us know that my original definition of poverty is appropriate.  It is installed by the leading class of people most responsible for the economy of the nation.  The people that determine the wages of the countries workers contribute to the stratification of the poverty matrix.  While some of the same elite make ignorant generalizations that the poor’s situations are caused by their inability to conform or unwillingness to achieve, that is generally debunked through research.  An overwhelming amount of people that fall below the absolute poverty line are from full-time working, single parent, female head of households.  These women struggle with childcare as an inordinate expense, as discovered in our budget exercise, poor educational opportunities, reduced job opportunities and above all, unequal wages of their male counterparts.

Specifically in households where Single African American females are the only income earner, low or no child support, environmental impacts such as crime and poor transportation also perpetuate the disease of poverty. 

I believe that in addition to programs that need implementing to reduce dependency of social programs, there should be an aggressive mentoring program where families that successfully escape poverty can showcase their stories and help assist other affected by the same.

Session 6 UPDATE

It is clear that poverty is the end result of several factors.  Some of the factors appear accidental.  Others are apparently more deliberate.  This session lets us know that my original definition of poverty is appropriate.  It is installed by the leading class of people most responsible for the economy of the nation.  The people that determine the wages of the countries workers contribute to the stratification of the poverty matrix.  While some of the same elite make ignorant generalizations that the poor’s situations are caused by their inability to conform or unwillingness to achieve, that is generally debunked through research.  An overwhelming amount of people that fall below the absolute poverty line are from full-time working, single parent, female head of households.  These women struggle with childcare as an inordinate expense, as discovered in our budget exercise, poor educational opportunities, reduced job opportunities and above all, unequal wages of their male counterparts.

Specifically in households where Single African American females are the only income earner, low or no child support, environmental impacts such as crime and poor transportation also perpetuate the disease of poverty. 

I believe that in addition to programs that need implementing to reduce dependency of social programs, there should be an aggressive mentoring program where families that successfully escape poverty can showcase their stories and help assist other affected by the same.