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Date:         Sat, 19 Dec 1992 17:43:15 -0800
Reply-To:     Marianne Dugan <MDUGAN@OREGON.BITNET>
From:         Marianne Dugan <MDUGAN@OREGON.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: poverty as a smokescreen

>>I'm wondering, can poor folks buy these bags with food stamps?  I suppose
>>this question is rhetorical.  I mean for it to point towards the problem
>>that market-oriented solutions to environmental problems (i.e.,
>>"externalizing costs" in the neo-classical economic language) poses for
>>poor folks...who are, BTW, disproportionately non-white and female.  Are
>>our local solutions equitable?

Just to add to Tracy Logan's comments about the reality of
poverty and its use as a smokescreen:  As a "poor" person myself,
(I put it in quotes because in America, it's all relative; I feel
somewhat ridiculous calling myself poor, but by the numbers, I
am!)  As a poor person myself, I actually welcome opportunities
such as 5 cent-savings if you bring your own bag.  Look at the
reality:  Stores which DON'T charge you 5 cents per bag (or who
don't take off 5 cents for each bag you bring) are spreading that
cost around to everyone.  Fine.  But if I'm resourceful enough to
bring my own bags, they're not going to give me a break.  Stores
which do give the 5-cent break to the resourceful bag-bringer are
actually giving po' folk a chance to make shopping slightly
cheaper and save trees at the same time.

Compare the 5 cent deposit on bottles and cans in the more
civilized states.  When they were proposed, people squawked that
po' folk would be punished.  Bullshit.  We (who are poor,
remember), are not as poor as this guy that lives in the park
across the street ... so we leave our bottles and cans out on our
porch for him.  He does the little bit of labor of carrying the
bottles and cans to the store and makes a few bucks.  Once when
my husband and I were dead broke and hitchhiking on a back road,
we walked along picking up cans; turned them in at a store and
had a buck or two to buy something to eat.  The deposit does not
hurt the poor.  It is an extra opportunity.

The gas tax is another good example.  As a po' folk and an
environmentalist, I drive as little as possible.  If gas were
cheaper, I might be lazier about hopping in my car when I had to
go more than a few blocks.

Let's face it:  what these things are is not unfair to the poor
but rather simply incentives to keep the environment in good
shape, that work BETTER with poor folks than with rich.  It is
unfortunate that the rich will not be as spurred by a gas tax to
drive less, but that's life.  We gotta try various things that
work.

Besides (and this really is my final point; then I'll get off),
here's another point:  one of the very HARDEST things to hit a
poor person, economically, is a health problem, for virtually
none of us are insured.  The more we &*$# up our environment, the
sicker we're all going to get -- the poorer among us being hit
the hardest due to poor diet, etc.  (This is also why I "splurge"
on organic produce -- I figure it's cheaper than health
insurance!)

----------------------------------------------------------------
Marianne Dugan  mdugan@oregon.uoregon.edu
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU