Politics Plus

Poverty in the USA sucks. It really does. But I shouldn’t have to tell you that.

Our current economic system is geared against the 99%. The Federal minimum wage has not risen in almost 15 years, even though the cost of everything has. People have been fighting tooth and nail for years to get it increased to at least a living wage. Some cities and states have raised it locally, but the national minimum is still an absurdly low $7.25 an hour. For tipped workers the minimum is $2.15 an hour, so they depend on tips to eat – literally.

And what happens when people scream at their elected officials, demanding an increase? The stooges of the 1% spew propaganda about robotized cafés, lost jobs and $20 hamburgers. Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish! Towns and cities that increased their local minimum wage have experience none of the above.

Poor people have a hard time keeping up with bills. Thus, they frequently get charged late fees that they really can’t afford. Some power companies allow customers to donate in order to help those having a hard time keeping up, but I doubt enough people do this. If a utility shuts you off for nonpayment, you have to pay another fat fee to have your water, electricity or gas turned back on.

Poverty hits children hard. Undernourished kids have lower IQs, receive scanty health care, learn fewer valuable skills, and are more likely to be swallowed up by the insatiable Prison-Industrial Complex. Some estimates place the cost of childhood poverty in the United States at over $1 trillion a year.  That’s even more than the Pentagon’s bloated budget!

Unless you have a bank account, you must go to check cashers to get moolah – and they charge fees. If you’re late on your rent, your landlord can slap a penalty on you. If you get a traffic ticket, not paying on time leads to penalties. And if a collection agency gets its paws on your debt, fees can pile on fees for the most arbitrary reasons until a couple hundred dollars in debt balloons into thousands.

A few times I have read about workers who need heavy boots, but can afford only cheap ones. Quality boots last a long time, but they are quite spendy and thus out of the reach of the struggling. They buy cheap boots, which fall apart so they have to buy cheap boots again. In the long run, the expensive boots are cheaper because they last much longer; but the poor cannot afford them, so they end up spending more on footwear. I could go on and on and on and on with more examples of how the impoverished get screwed.

You may have heard the story about the man who suffered an ankle injury, and despite having health insurance he can’t get the surgery to fix it done. Why? His insurance has too high a deductible, which he can’t reach. With a bad ankle he can’t work and provide for his family. I like to think that his friends, coworkers and neighbors scraped together enough money to help him.

Do NOT get me started on education loans. Those companies have been given free rein to charge as much interest as they like, crushing graduates under boulders of debt that they are very unlikely to escape without a miracle.

All too often the poor get snark about pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps. The old meaning of that phrase refers to something that is impossible to do. Poverty is very difficult to escape in the USA, and getting harder and harder as wages remain stagnant while prices increase. Millions are working multiple jobs but still barely keeping their noses above water.

The money to provide living wages, affordable housing, affordable healthcare, and affordable – If not free – education is out there. This country spends obscene amounts on “defense” and maintains hundreds of unnecessary military bases overseas, while giving away billions upon billions upon even more billions in tax breaks for the super-wealthy and highly profitable mega-corporations. But when budget trimming time comes, those are the last items to be considered. If Washington had failed to raise the debt ceiling, you know that necessary programs like Social Security and SNAP would have felt the budget axe first, even though they account for only a sliver of the Federal budget.

The recent building collapse in Davenport, IA illustrates our society’s contempt for the poor. The building collapsed during the evening of Sunday, March 28th, and rescue operations ended on Monday the 29th. As of this past Thursday, June 1, three residents are still unaccounted for. How long did search and rescue operations go on after the collapse of the original World Trade Center in New York City?

We as a society view poverty in entirely the wrong way. We keep the poor out of the mainstream, ignoring the fact that just about anybody could wind up impoverished. 75% of all US residents will experience at least one year of living in or near poverty between the ages of 20 and 75. Also, poverty is not restricted to people of color – two-thirds of those regarded as poor are white.

Republicans – and false Democrats – serve the fat cats and mega-corporations. They don’t want the poor to have a voice, hence voter suppression in the forms of closing polling places, reducing early voting hours, halting vote by mail, and gerrymandering. We The People need to remind politicians that Mr. Moneybags may have a poop-ton of cash to donate to candidates’ coffers, but he has only one vote. The peons struggling to make ends meet have many – and they will use those votes, if they can. Angry people are much more motivated to vote than complacent ones.

Other countries provide for their citizens by paying living wages, providing affordable education and health care, getting the homeless into simple housing, mandating family leave, et cetera. Why can’t the United States?