Tuesday, October 31, 2017

[NJFAC] If You’ve Never Lived In Poverty, Stop Telling Poor People What They Should Do

If You've Never Lived In Poverty, Stop Telling Poor People What They Should Do, Olsen, Everyday Feminism 7/17
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The Most Common Advice Doesn't Add Up

The over-simplification of poverty is often apparent in the advice that gets disseminated by people who have money and companies who make money off of other people's financial predicaments.

Earlier this yearan infographic circled around which underscored this fact. Created by a company called InvestmentZen, the infographic showed how to "build wealth on the minimum wage."

Aside from the fact that it contained numerous logistical issues – it used the federal minimum wage, which isn't accurate in most states, either because their wage is higher or lower due to tip-crediting – the graphic also seemed to be concerned about moralizing the decisions of poor people and less about actually helping anyone.

Advice from the graphic included "learning skills on YouTube," only eating in-season produce, and remembering that "the best things in life are free."

"You can make excuses, or you can do something about it," the graphic chided. "It's your choice to make."

Twitter instantly took it to task; the response was so heated that it eventually led one of the men responsible for circulating to issue a retraction, calling many of the criticisms "fair."

I suspect that the graphic was so easily mocked because the advice it selected was familiar. Despite the myriad systemic reasons that many people live in poverty, there are a handful of "tips" that well-meaning (most of the time) folks recycle with alarming regularity.

Move somewhere cheaper. Buy in bulk. Get rid of your car. Get a roommate. Eat out less.

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June Zaccone
National Jobs for All Coalition
http://www.njfac.org

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Friday, October 13, 2017

[NJFAC] Oct 27-28: NEW “NEW DEAL” FOR NYC & THE USA; We Can Guarantee Jobs and Build

 A NEW "NEW DEAL" FOR NYC & THE USA/WE CAN GUARANTEE JOBS AND BUILD GREAT THINGS AGAIN
       
Upcoming Event
The New New Deal
October 27–28, 2017
The New Deal's Forgotten Legacy: Then and Now
The New School and Columbia Law School
New York, N.Y.


Sponsored by Columbia University Seminars, National Jobs for All Coalition, New School for Social Research, with support from the Levy Institute

New "New Deal" for NYC & the USA
The New School, Theresa Lang Community and Student Center
55 West 13th Street, Room I-202, Manhattan
October 27, 5:00–8:00 pm

Strategizing for a New "New Deal" for NYC & the USA
Columbia Law School  
October 28, 10:00 am–4:00 pm

For information, reservations, or to RSVP, please visit NJFAC.eventbrite.comwww.NJFAC.org
Download Event Poster and Program 
To register through eventbrite, please go to https://njfac.org/index.php/2017/07/29/strategizing-new-new-deal-nyc/

The publication in Spring 2017 of a Map and Guide to New Deal Public Works and Art: New York City by Living New Deal, is an occasion to Celebrate the "dual legacy" of the New Deal—employment of millions of jobless workers whose work vastly expanded the nation's physical, environmental, and cultural resources. It is also an opportunity to Advocate a Job Guarantee implemented through an updated model of the New Deal Job Creation programs. Clearly, the nation, with its infrastructure given a grade of D+ from the American Society of Civil Engineers, deficient human services, out-of-reach affordable housing, and a looming environmental crisis could use the work of the millions of men and women, especially minorities in lower-income neighborhoods, who are jobless and often not counted.
 
This Public Meeting is the culmination of a series of events to Celebrate and Advocate. The planning group has worked with the staff of the NYC Public Advocateon a Job Guarantee for this City. NYC Public Advocate Letitia James will speak at the meeting of her plans to introduce Job Guarantee legislation. Gray Brechin, founder of Living New Deal (Dept. of Geography, University of California, Berkeley) will present highlights from the NYC Guide and Guide showing how many of the landmarks and cultural treasures that we associate with New York City are New Deal legacies.  A panel of outstanding economists will discuss current conceptions of full employment or job guarantees….
 
In the currrent issue of Dollars & Sense (p. 6), NJFAC Chair Trudy Goldberg has an article on the Living New Deal and the need for a New, New Deal based on an upgraded model of the job creation programs.   http://dollarsandsense.org/d&;s-sept-oct17-full-color-FINAL--high-res.pdf 

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June Zaccone
National Jobs for All Coalition
http://www.njfac.org

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Thursday, October 5, 2017

[NJFAC] "Poverty Down, Jobs Up: It's All Good," by Frank Stricker

Poverty Down, Jobs Up, Everyone Earning More: What's Not to Like?  A Father and Son Discuss the News                                       by Frank Stricker                     
The Son, a college student home for the weekend:  We always have different viewpoints. You are never happy, you're always criticizing President Trump who's bringing more jobs to America. You criticized Obama a lot and you said you liked him. What's the deal? Never happy, are you, Dad.
The Father, a college professor: I am happy you are getting your own ideas about the economy, even if everyone of them is wrong.  But hey, I was a conservative for a couple of years in college. I'm hoping it's just a phase.
Son: I read the paper. I keep track of the unemployment report and saw the latest poverty report. Unemployment is so low that we are really at full employment.  A professor at UC Riverside's Business School said that we have 5.1% unemployment in California and that's full employment. People do need a little time to find a job. That's the 5%. Everyone is making more money. The poverty rate is falling and has fallen for several years. What's your problem?
Father: You've got a point. I am trying to be supportive. But we had 40,000,000 poor people last year and the poverty rates for black people and Hispanics were 22% and 19%. Sounds bad. And here are two more depressing facts. We have a fair number of programs that help poor people, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, but they have not been enough to reduce the overall rate of poverty. The economy stinks for many people. That's one eason we have not been able to get the poverty rate under 11%. We came closest in the 1970s and the late 90s.  
 Son: Hold on. We studied some of this in one of my economics classes. America has some of the richest poor people in the world. Our teacher told us that a guy named Rector discovered that poor people have cars and even air conditioners. How poor is that?
Dad: Is having an air conditioner an indicator that living in poverty is pretty soft? It's almost a necessity if you live in Indio, California where the temps hit 115 in the summer. Or if you live in hot and muggy southern states. It's like needing heat in the winter. One more thing: the poverty line for a family of 4 was about $25,000 a year. So a family that has $26,000 of annual income is not poor, according to our government.  Really? Think about living in a big city, trying to find a decent apartment for four people. You could easily pay $1500 a month. That's $18,000 a year. There goes your income. Not much left for food, transportation, clothing, and other stuff. You're ok with skimping on those things? We should raise our poverty lines by 50% right away. The lines have not been lifted in fifty years, except for inflation. So while the average American, and rich people especially, have seen their incomes rise, poor people are relatively poorer--much farther from the middle.
Son: Fine, people are poor. They need to go to college, work harder, get better jobs. There are a lot of jobs out there. Employers are having trouble finding workers.  I'll bet you don't believe it.  When you went to grad school, did you major in extreme skepticism? Your always criticizing everything.  
Father: I believe that we need more good jobs. I believe the U.S. undercounts the unemployed. You've heard this before. You might have read one of the articles I sent you. You are probably sick of hearing about it, and you want to believe the opposite of anything I say. I hope that's good for your ego-development. But here goes. I and other people, although not many economists, believe that we are not close to full employment. We think that the real rate of unemployment today is not 4+%, but 10%.  We add part-timers who want full-time work and also people who say they want jobs but haven't looked lately. We think more people would be looking for work if there were more half-way decent jobs out there. I told you about the artichoke farmer who faced a labor shortage; when he raised pay a couple of bucks an hour, he had a labor surplus. 
Son: Heard it. Been there. Done that. Just one guy. Artichokes are not important.
Dad: Ok, smarty pants. How about this. Just an example, but think about it. There are quite a few men 25 to 54 years old who we'd expect to be working or looking for work--maybe 7 million. Some are truly disabled. Some have other things to do. But a lot of them are reacting to lousy job markets. If you can only find a job that pays 8 or 9 or 10 dollars an hour, and it is part-time too, you might try to find other ways to get by. Say you have a back problem. Not terrible but a problem. You'd work if it paid off, but it doesn't, so you are trying to get disability benefits.
Son:  Except in the big cities, it's cheap to live. Look at the cost of computers--you could buy a new one for a couple of hundred dollars. Eggs? Sometimes only 99 cents for a dozen. And a lot of people are making more money. Here's a headline from the Los Angeles Times--you know, the one you still have delivered out on the porch every morning. I printed it from the on-line edition because I figured you'd try to forget it. Here it is: "Household Income Rises to New High." Got it?  Taking out the effects of inflation, which I know you love to do, household incomes have risen by 8% in two years. And the median is $59,000. What's your problem with that, Doc?
Dad: I like it. I am happy. I want average incomes to grow. I don't like poverty.  I want fewer poor people--none, really. But there are three things I hope you remember. First, I am always right. You will figure that out some day. Second, a $59,000 median is better than $55,000; but if it is the median, half the households are below it. A lot of people are not doing very well at all. They are making maybe $10 an hour or less in Alabama and South Dakota and dozens of other low-wage states. Even in California many people aren't paid well. Talk to some of the employees down at the grocery store where you buy your organic kale. Or the coffee shop you love. Find out how much they earn. And the third thing to remember. I don't think everyone has to be rich--in fact I don't think anyone should be extremely rich--but $59,000 is not much money if you have a family and especially if you live in an urban area. If you bought a house, and had a low down payment, you may have a monthly payment of $2000, maybe more, so right off the top almost half your income is gone. Then you have Social Security and income taxes taken out of your paycheck, and so on. You get the idea. 
Son:  I do, I really do. For you it's always, "Accentuate the negative." You should write a song about it and sing it. Might cheer you up.
Dad: I think we've had a fruitful discussion.
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Frank Stricker is emeritus professor of history and labor studies at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He has written What Ails the American Worker? Unemployment and Crummy Jobs: History, Explanations, Solutions. This article uses the United States Census Bureau publication called Income and Poverty in the United States: 2016 (September,2017). For encouraging information, check out Isaac Shapiro and Danilo Trisi, "Child Poverty Falls to Record Low, Comprehensive Measure Shows Stronger Government Policies Account for Long-Term Improvement," October 5, 2017, at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities site.  
 
 

 

 

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