From: elg@elgamy.sccsi.com (Eric Lee Green)
Date: 11 Sep 92 22:55:12 CDT
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton,tx.politics,alt.politics.bush
Subject: Re: Poverty
Distribution: world
Organization: Eric's Amiga 2000 @ Home

From article <1992Sep10.210606.21998@gtephx.UUCP>, by forda@gtephx.UUCP (Andrew Ford @ AGCS, Phoenix, Arizona):
> In article <21470@rpp386.lonestar.org>, jfh@rpp386.lonestar.org (John F. Haugh II) writes:
>> In article <00715727470@elgamy.sccsi.com> elg@elgamy.sccsi.com (Eric Lee Green) writes:
>> >The poverty level, as a percentage of population, declined steadily from
>> >the year 1964 to the year 1979. Then it started a sharp increase. The
>> >increase was especially large in the early 80's.

>> By the time he left office, it was down to 18%.  Your "sharp increase"
>> DOES NOT exist.
>
> May I add that 40% of the "poor" own their own homes!

My grandmother owns her own home. She has an annual income of around
$4,300/year. Her home was built for her by a church group using donated
materials. She also owns her own car. It is a 1980 Chevrolet Chevette that
costed $800, and it was bought with the insurance money from her old car,
which she had bought with her husband's life insurance money back in 1972
when he died and she had to learn how to drive.

The land, of course, had been bought by my grandfather when he was still
working. It is worth about $16,000. The house itself is worth maybe another
$10,000 (naturally, it's not the greatest house in the world).

> The average value of these homes is 43,000 (about 60% of
> the average value of all homes).
>
> Something like 60% own a car.  Around 50% own microwave ovens.

My grandmother owns a microwave oven. I know. I bought it for her. She also
owns an (apartment-sized) washer/dryer set. My mother bought that for her.
It's not as if she could turn these into cash. You can't buy food with a
microwave.

> The census bureau's statistics do not count any welfare that a
> person receives, either.  There a lot of new poor who just found
> that they could earn more by not working, so they quit.

Huh? You seem to think that all you gotta do is go down to the local
welfare office and presto, you're on the rolls?

Think again, buddy. In the state of Texas, at least, if you ain't a single
mother with kiddos, you don't get shit. It's out on the streets with you,
mister.

As far as welfare assistance for intact families -- hah! All there is are
food stamps. There's also subsidized housing, but there's a five year
waiting list for that here in the city of Houston. Most of the time what
happens is that both parents end up working two or three part-time (no
benefits) menial minimum wage jobs PLUS getting food stamps just to keep
the lights on and the refrigerator stocked. Maybe there's some state
somewhere where there's "welfare nirvanna" (California? New York?). But you
don't find anything of the sort here in the Midland.

As for the kids, don't ask. I teach them. I often end up buying clothes and
school supplies for them out of my own (meager) salary, because I just
can't stand it anymore. They see their parents struggling just to stay
alive in poverty, often working sixteen hour days, working harder than any
engineer or businessman on this newsgroup, then in Civics we start talking
about the American Dream and how, if you work hard, you'll get ahead in
life. Then we wonder why these kids turn off on school. As if these kids
are too dumb to know hypocrisy when they see it. We lie to the kids -- and
the kids know it. And I'm part of that, because if I don't say the lies, if
I don't lead them through the Pledge and pretend that we are one nation
under God with liberty and justice for all, I'm probably quietly told maybe
I need to go somewhere else.

Then we get these rich shit Republicans on this board trying to say that
the numbers are bullshit and that most of the poor aren't really poor and
that we need to cut back on some amorphous entity called "welfare" (which,
curiously, they seem to think gives my students a country-club life) and
then somebody wonders why I get upset?

The Fifth Ward is still there, and the blight is getting larger.

As for John Haugh's contention that poverty increases are caused by the
aging of the population -- the elderly, by anybody's statistics, have the
lowest level of poverty, thanks to the wonders of Social Security. Great.
But what about the kids?

> How much do you wanna bet that within 9 months of Clinton's
> being elected (God help us if it happens), the census starts
> adding in entitlements and (miraculously) the number of
> poor starts to drop again.

It wouldn't surprise me. Nothing would surprise me. The Fifth Ward has been
there as politicians come and go. Nothing has been done. I don't think
anything ever will. There is not the political will, and, besides, it would
cost money. Money that currently the AARP feeds to the elderly, and that
many middle-aged voters support because otherwise, why, God forbid, Dad
might have to move in with the family!

Kids don't vote.

--
 Eric Lee Green  elg@elgamy.sccsi.com         Dodson Elementary
 (713) 437-6908  uunet!nuchat!elgamy!elg      Houston, TX
                "Kids are kids, no matter what"
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton