You’ve got plenty to do. Starving the poor isn’t one of them. [View all]

[sheshe2]

A bit of political (in)sanity today in the House. Many congresspeople feel starving the poor isn’t the solution to eliminating the impoverished in this country. That’s the “sane” part. And some of them feel that it is — that the “in” part. Many Republicans felt the cuts in food stamps weren’t deep enough. Oh, my! So they voted against the bill, hoping deeper cuts are forthcoming

SNIP

C’mon, Congress, you want to deprive the underprivileged, the destitute, and their children of sustenance? Then you want to make them work twice as hard? Instead of spending time for 39 votes on Obamacare, how about spending a few hours on job creation? How about putting some money into fixing our crumbling infrastructure. See how quickly that makes unemployment numbers drop and the need for food stamps along with it.

You are a year behind on veterans medical benefits and health care. How about some effort to fix that? Veteran’s health claims are still being serviced by hand instead of computers… Reward our brave returning soldiers with jobs. Bring veterans affairs departments into the 21st century.

http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2013/06/20/feed-the-rich-starve-the-poor/

The Working Poor: Invisible in America is a 2004 book written by Pulitzer Prize winner, David K. Shipler

According to examples from the book, the working poor, many that have never attended university, often live in dangerous neighborhoods. The book depicts the working poor purchasing homes with high lead paint toxicity that are cheaply priced. However, their investments in this kind of capital are often wasted. As they possess little money to renovate their homes and get rid of the lead paint, the working poor usually sell their homes at prices lower or equal to the original prices they had purchased them. In addition to the lack of financial capital or purchasing power, the working poor also lack social and human capital they needed to escape poverty. Living neighborhoods with atrocious living conditions, the working poor also have to face higher crime rate. With higher crime rate, the book implies, the working poor living in these kinds of neighborhoods often do not trust or care about one and another. With lack of trust and care, these neighborhoods not only are economically inefficient, but the working poor do not have the adequate human network and support from their communities to escape poverty. Because many of the working poor do not have degrees or sufficient technical skills, it is difficult for them to obtain high paying jobs and lift themselves out of poverty.

It is not just that the working poor do not have the proper capitals, but it seems society does little to help them to escape poverty. Often, households that are considered to be working poor are headed by mothers. Frequently, when mothers could not find inexpensive and proper child care services, they have to quit their jobs and remain on welfare.[2] Though caring for their children will help to bring next generation of workforce to our society, it seems that these mothers are unpaid for their work and penalized for doing care work. This is a phenomenon known as care penalty. Often, single mothers cannot afford the replacement cost for child care, so they have to stay home to take care of their children, and pay the opportunity cost by forgoing their opportunity to earn income for care work. As the United States have grown more industrialized, the price for services such as child daycare is increasing, as production of goods is becoming relatively inexpensive. This social phenomenon is known as the Baumol effect, and many of the working poor are at the short end of this effect as they have to spend higher percentage of their incomes for services.

In the chapter Importing the Third World, Shipler explores some flaws of comparative advantages. One such case is that clothing companies hire contractors who hire illegal immigrants who the contractors could pay under the minimal wage to work in atrocious sweatshops for hours exceeding legal limit.[3] Additionally, some American companies go overseas to acquire cheaper labor. Because of these flaws, markets - often for the sake of saving money and for efficiency - hire workers who accept wages, working hours, and working conditions not on the standard set by the U.S federal government. As more companies go overseas to capture the upside of foreign trade, they provide no jobs for American working poor, which ultimately increases inequality gap between the poor and the rich, and contributes to economic inefficiency.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Working_Poor:_Invisible_in_America