Millions of Working Poor People in US

Often times in this field, we hear ignorant comments about poor people. I stopped counting how many times someone has told me that the poor or homeless should just get jobs.

It comes from the myth of meritocracy–the false belief that rich people have earned their wealth via work and production and that poor people have caused their own poverty through laziness or stupidity.

In reality, the few rich and powerful people use their wealth and power to manipulate the government and social structure to leach off the labor of the working class. As a result, working class people struggle to pay the cost of living despite their long and hard hours of labor. Bluntly, simply getting a job won’t keep a person out of poverty. Statistics demonstrate this:

Depending on who counts, the number of working poor in the United States is between 7.8 million and 28 million.

The low number comes from a report by the U.S. Department of Labor and the higher number comes from a report by Business Week. Either way, we can all agree that millions of working people live in poverty in the United States.

LIFT

Larry Esposito recently pointed me towards LIFT on his Morning Prayer thread in the Hunger & Poverty Forums.

‘Lift’ stands for ‘Leading India’s Future Today.’ The program  provides “leadership excellence training” to poor but extremely talented children in India.

By creating relationships with over 100 villages, LIFT can find the most capable leaders within the groups of children they help nurture.

I appreciate their efforts, because, most of all, they focus on finding and developing leadership potential. This gives these poor children the chance to help not only themselves, but also their communities. LIFT can make a difference in the lives of talented children, and those children will make a difference in many more lives for years to come.

Single Women Face Poverty Risk

Pamela Yip recently wrote an article about how single women face a strong possibility of poverty in their later years. I include an excerpt:

It’s when an elderly spouse dies that the financial equilibrium suffers. If the husband dies, it’s much more devastating to the wife. Nearly 30 percent of older non-married women are either poor or near poor, according to a recent report by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

“Of all the factors associated with poverty in old age, the most critical is to be a woman without a husband,” the center said.

Take a look at these sobering statistics compiled by Nadia Karamcheva, a graduate student in economics at Boston College, and Alicia H. Munnell, director of the retirement research center:

~ 17.4 percent of single women older than 65 fell below the poverty line in 2004.

~ An additional 10.8 percent were “near poor,” with an income less than 125 percent of the poverty threshold.

~ As a whole, 28.2 percent of single older women are either poor or near poor — a clearly vulnerable group.

Single women also constitute a significant portion of the elderly population, a share that steadily increases with age. Among those 80 or older, non-married women account for 56 percent of the population.

I think this results from various factors.

Namely, I think patriarchy obviously contributes. Women of equal merit receive lower pay than men for doing the same jobs just as well. Culturally, women have not traditionally dealt with finances, such as banking and investing.

In addition to patriarchy, I think the problem lies in the fact that we do not ensure that people make enough to secure a complete retirement. We do not consider a person poor if they make enough to buy food, clothes, shelter, etc. right now, but we do not take in consideration that they need to also earn enough to pay for these needs after retirement.

We need to include retirement costs when calculating a living wage and the cost of living. Then, we need to make sure every person can make a living wage in a feasible, honest and non-degrading way.

MDG Failures

The AP recently reported on the lack of progress in reaching the UN’s MDGs. I include an excerpt:

Halfway through a 15-year global development plan, millions of people are being lifted out of dire poverty and millions of children are going to school, but the world is failing to sufficiently cut hunger, maternal mortality and infant death rates, the United Nations said Monday.

Progress in reaching the Millennium Development Goals — set by global leaders in 2000 to alleviate world poverty, disease and hunger — has so far been mixed, the U.N. report card says.

[…]

“The lack of employment opportunities for young people, gender inequalities, rapid and unplanned urbanization, deforestation, increasing water scarcity and high HIV prevalence are pervasive obstacles,” the report said. “Moreover, insecurity and instability in conflict and post-conflict countries make long-term development efforts extremely difficult.”

Other worrying data show more than 500,000 women still die each year from treatable and preventable complications during pregnancy or childbirth. Half the population in the developing world lacks basic sanitation, and carbon-dioxide emissions rose to 29 billion metric tons in 2004, from 23 billion in 1990.

“Climate change is projected to have serious economic and social impacts, which will impede progress” toward the goals, the report said.

Read entire article on iht.com.

This shameful news disappoints me greatly. Instead of preventing the preventable death of 500,000 women, we allow the pollution of the earth which will lead to more suffering, hunger, and death. I fear that if we do not radically change our course soon, we will doom ourselves.

New Book Donates 10% of Proceeds

Eurweb.com recently reported about a new book that will donate 10% of its proceeds to charity:

More than 13 million children suffer hunger, homelessness, and illiteracy in the richest nation on earth. In response to this startling statistic, Judson Press has released “Hope for Children in Poverty: Profiles and Possibilities.”

Ten percent of proceeds from sales of this book will go to the Children in Poverty Initiative of National Ministries, American Baptist Churches USA.

Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, sets our moral compass in her foreword for this important new resource. Writes Edelman:

“We all have a stake in improving the lives of America’s children, and for people of faith, this is more than just an opportunity: it is a mandate and a calling.”

I like the idea of donating some of the proceeds of a book about world hunger and poverty, because those issues relate to charity itself. I cannot personally recommend the book since I have not read it yet. I will order it though, and offer my thoughts on it once I read it.

Hunger in America

George E Curry recently wrote an article about hunger in America. I include an excerpt:

Hunger in America is real. And, everyone asking for help on the street is not interested in conning the public or is headed to the nearest liquor store when someone gives them spare change.

Those of us who live in the most affluent country on earth, tend to overlook hunger and poverty among us. When we think of hunger, we conjure up images of famine in Africa or India. Indeed, hunger is a global issue, with 852 million people in the world going hungry, according to Bread for the World. In developing countries, six million children die each year, mostly from hunger-related causes. Sub-Sahara Africa is the only region in the world where hunger is on the rise, with 204 million hungry.

Even with safety net programs in place for the poor, such as free school breakfast and lunch programs, hunger is also a problem in the U.S.

According to USDA, 35.1 million people-including 12.4 million children-live in households that frequently experience hunger or risk hunger. This means 11 percent of all U.S. households fall into this category. Almost 11 million people- including 606,000 children- live in U.S. households that frequently skip meals, consume an inadequate supply of food or don’t eat for an entire day.

The hunger problem involves more than food. The U.S. has the highest wage inequity in the industrialized world. That means that even when people have jobs, often the pay is too low for them to properly feed their families. This country must provide well-paying jobs and expanded opportunities for the poor if it really wants to address the issue. Until we do that, we’ll continue to see people eating out of garbage receptacles.

Read entire article by George E Curry.

I recommend you read the full article by following the above link. In the article, Curry also recites personal anecdotes to which we can all relate. He includes one story in which a 10-year-old girl restores his humanity.

I like the article because he quickly dismisses some myths about hunger in America, such as the myth that all homeless people just waste their money on alcohol and the myth that one only needs employment to dispel hunger.

In fact, millions of working people live in poverty in the United States. We call them the working poor. Additionally, most homeless people are not old crazy drunkards. The majority are young white women who are either employed or actively seeking employment.