Looking at the right-wing insistence that the poor aren't really poor because the poor aren't starving to death and dying in the streets in mass numbers, I was initially baffled. Over 40 million Americans receive "food stamps" via the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. That's over 13% of Americans. And the eligibility requirements for that program are high -- for example, if you are a single male, you basically aren't eligible. Over 50 million Americans are enrolled in Medicaid. That's around 17% of the population of the USA. And again, the eligibility requirements for that program are very stringent -- e.g., if your car is worth more than $2,000, forget it, no Medicaid for you, and single men aren't eligible period -- so this undoubtedly underestimates the number of poor people. And finally, thanks to Social Security propping up the incomes of older Americans, a larger percentage of the young than the old are poor -- 20% of children are being raised in poverty.
Given that we have close to 20% of Americans requiring monthly food assistance and medical assistance to keep from starving to death or dying of treatable illnesses, the notion that they aren't poor doesn't pass the laugh and giggle test. Yes, our poor have it better than the poor in Somalia thanks to these government programs that keep them from starving to death or dying of treatable illnesses... but do right wingers seriously submit that receiving food and medical assistance makes you somehow NOT poor?
But of course, the whole point of this exercise, for the oligarchs who run the GOP, has nothing to do with facts. It didn't occur to me until this morning what's going on: It's that old game of the New Confederacy, NIGGER KNOCKING, where Southern politicians competed to tell poor white trash, "You may be poor, but at least you're not a NIGGER! And we're going to keep those niggers in their place!" The point being that if the oligarchs could keep one class down further than the white trash, then they didn't have to address the lack of educational opportunities, lack of healthcare, and lack of adequate housing amongst poor whites. Because if a white man complained about his status, he was told "hey, look, you have it better than niggers at least!"
And of course Somalis and Mexicans are the new niggers in this scenario -- two nations basically destroyed by the United States or its proxies, kept down just like the black population of the New Confederacy prior to the Civil Rights Act. And now the poor white trash are being told "hey, you're not rich, but look, at least you're not a MEXICAN!" As if that somehow makes them any less poor, the fact that some other group of people has it worse than them.
Will it work? Well, it worked in the New Confederacy for generations -- by keeping the blacks down, the oligarchs who ran the New Confederacy managed to avoid the sort of investments in human capital that turned places like New York and California into thriving engines of innovation. Will it work today? Well... I haven't seen that poor white trash have gotten any smarter. After all, that's the oligarch's plan, as it's been for generations -- to keep the majority of their constituents so poor, working so hard, and so undereducated that they'll buy whatever drivel the oligarchs are handing out. So why *wouldn't* it work?
Or as JzB is fond of saying: WASF.
-- Badtux the Once-poor(*) Penguin
And yes, it sucked big time -- I much prefer my current situation where I'm in the upper quintile rather than the lower quintile.
I think one of the reasons Ol' South nigger-knocking worked was that life was still getting better for the crackers. Not as fast as it could or should have. But the whities were still getting food that didn't give them pellagra, cars, air conditioning, other mod cons. They could legitimately aspire to that stuff. Kept a lid on the unrest.
ReplyDeleteNow we're in an era of contraction. Peak Oil is eliminating the "energy slave" surplus wealth that comes from lots of hydrocarbons. Things are going to slowly shrink for everyone (except the top Corporate Lizard Overlords). So lets see how nigger-knocking works when so many white and formerly middle-class people are being turned into neo-niggers.
Husband and I own some property, and plan to retire in another couple of decades, to the rural strip of California east of the Sierra Nevada. This is NOT wealthy country; people who live there often work more than one job to make ends meet. Yesterday I looked up the state assemblymember, state senator, and U.S. representative, for the area. Rethug, rethug, rethug. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteMind you, one of the rethugs is on a mission to reduce regulatory burdens on small businesses, which certainly describes all of the businesses up there. But the general gist from their websites was Conservative Values and Small Government. A county of people who are struggling, represented by politicians solidly in the Lizard People camp.
The poor are simply getting out of hand. snark We hope the Penguin will share his biscuits when things get worse !
ReplyDeleteI live on 938 bucks a month and do quite well with it. Not my problem if others are so stupid that they can't do that.
ReplyDelete"You may be poor, but at least you're not a NIGGER! And we're going to keep those niggers in their place!"
ReplyDeleteExactly how Jesse Helms won and kept his U.S. Senate seat (N.C.). The majority of his constituents were one step away from starvation but at least they were white and Jesse would see to it that the blacks got nothing. Of course, the poor white people got nothing either but apparently that was o.k. as long as the cupboard was locked to the blacks.
I continue to think the D's miss a bunch of potential voters by talking about "poor" people and how blacks and Mexicans are badly treated. That just makes the divide deeper, in my opinion. If the argument were phrased rationally about working people, middle class people, and economic discrimination I think more people would identify with that definition.
Well, maybe. I'm not really sure that the effects of the stupid pills in the water supply can be overcome.
Most of the poor are working people, just in case you didn't know that. In any event, saying that Democrats shouldn't talk about 1/5th of the population of the United States is as bizarre today as it was back in 1965, when people told LBJ he needed to stop talking about equal rights for the 1/5th of the U.S. that was minorities back then.
ReplyDeleteNot that Democrats talk much about the poor nowadays anyhow. When was the last time you heard President Obama talk about the plight of the poor or the plight of the unemployed? Dennis Kucinich and Barney Frank are not the Democratic Party. Just sayin'.
- Badtux the Affluent Penguin
I understand what you are saying and I mostly agree. Working class people know they don't have any money or advantage. However, the people who are held up as "poor" are often folks who do not have much of a work history. Most working people do not think of themselves as being part of that group. At least the folks (black, white, Mexican, etc.) I know who are at the low end of the wage scale for working class know they are frighteningly short of money but nonetheless they think of themselves as working people not helplessly and hopelessly poor.
ReplyDeleteMany of my neighbors are working class and they struggle daily. Some of my neighbors are poor and no amount of social programs, support, or tuition free education (all of which they receive in abundance) will move them off that spot because God himself couldn't make them work steadily regardless of how many jobs are available.
Perhaps it's just a matter of implication or semantics but I still think that the political use of "poor" does not conjure up an immediate image of working class.
Right, the goal is to convince the poor (the majority of whom work) that they're not REALLY poor 'cause someone else has even less than they have. "You may not be rich, but at least you're not an X!" for some value of X in (N-word,Mexican,Somali,crack mom in ghetto).
ReplyDeleteOnce you define "the poor" as "them", then you can cut programs for the poor -- remember, the majority of food stamps go to WHITE WORKING PEOPLE -- with the full support of the majority of the poor, because maybe they lost their food stamps, but THOSE people (for some THOSE who "aren't like us") lost even more. It's been an amazingly successful strategy of our elites for at least a century for getting the support of the poor for programs that hurt the poor, and as you inadvertently point out, it's working today -- the majority of the poor actually buy the "fact" that they're not poor because some X has less. A convenient belief that helps our elites sequester yet more of the wealth of the nation into their own pockets (the 500 richest people in America own more of America than the bottom 50% of America, whoa!).
- Badtux the Class Penguin
Again - I understand your point and mostly agree. However, I must conclude that you and I know a different selection of "poor" people.
ReplyDeleteI am fully qualified as poor in terms of cash as are a great many people I know but I just be damned if I'm in the same group as those who are 50 years old with, as a generous estimate, a 3 year lifetime work history and a pitiful story about the many reasons they could not work. And, yes, it has pissed me off for decades that I worked a full-time job and often a second, part-time job and watched other folks buy enormous televisions, go the beach for vacations from their non-working life, drive a newer car than I, while collecting every social program/welfare benefit in the country. They suck even more out of the system once they get old and the programs are still there in abundance for them. Those same programs seem to be CLOSED to the folks who worked like dogs for 30-40-50 years and now need a hand.
We have it ass-backwards in this country. We reward generously folks who won't strike a lick and punish those foolish enough to work for a living.
I won't even start on the hard working Phillipinos, Ukrainians, and Russians who learn English, work two jobs, take excellent care of their families but can't get permission to bring elderly parents into the country but are told they must learn Spanish so they can communicate with the Hispanic populations in need of medical services. It really, really pisses off the Russians and Ukrainians who have put hours into learning English and are still struggling with their accents to be told they need to learn Spanish.
Actually, you are right. I do think of them as "them." Some of us will work very hard to avoid working (prostitution, drug dealing, stealing copper wire, whatever comes to mind and hand) and some of us will just work really hard at jobs we hate and try to take care of ourselves and our families. Just call us foolish for not identifying with the group that generally serves as an example of "poor."
I am baffled, because I am quite aware of the eligibility requirements to receive assistance and the amount of cash assistance available via TANF (which has a 5 year *LIFETIME* limit) which is the only cash assistance "welfare" program. 1.4% of the U.S. population receives TANF at any given time and the average TANF benefit is $154 PER MONTH. You're saying that people are buying big screen TV's and driving fancy cars on $154 per month? I call bullshit. If you see anybody doing that who supposedly makes only $154 per month, might I suggest that they're engaged in the illegal pharma industry?
ReplyDeleteThe reality is that the roughly 20% of the U.S. population is poor by any definition of the word "poor", and of those, less than 10% of the poor receive cash benefits of any kind. And even there, most states require workfare to receive your lofty $154 per month in assistance. So I have no idea who you're talking about, other than the drug dealers, because it certainly doesn't match up with my own experiences either as a poor person myself back in the day or as someone who taught kids in poor communities.
- Badtux the Numbers Penguin