Screwing The Poor In America

The July/August edition of Mother Jones magazine arrived in our mailbox today. Among the excellent articles is a two-page report of statistics showing how economics in this country favors the rich and penalizes the working poor. The stats are rather eye-opening.

We hear from Georgie and his cronies that we have a great economy. What they don't tell you is that 25% of all jobs in this country pay a wage less than the official poverty level. Remember, these are working people with full-time jobs, and they don't make enough to raise them above the poverty level. Management can get multi-million dollar bonuses, but the working poor can't even get paid enough to live above the poverty level.

Since 2000, the year Georgie was elected, the number of people living below the poverty level has risen. Now 13%, or 37 million people live below the official poverty line established by the US government.

Poor workers must spend 21% of their income commuting to and from work if they have a car [13% if using public transportation]. Of course, in most parts of the country [including Texas] a car is a neccessity because of the lack of public transportation. It's an awfully heavy hit on your finances to have to give 1/5 of your wages just to get to work and back. In contrast, a worker making
$45,000 a year pays only 2% of his income in commuting costs. Further complicating this scenario is the fact that 2/3 of all new jobs are in the suburbs.

On the medical front, a whopping 46 million people in this country have no medical insurance. This number reflects an increase of 15% since Georgie was elected. Only 24% of those making less than $25,000 a year work for a company that offers health insurance. Even when offered, this insurance can be devestating to their paycheck. Of these uninsured workers, 51% have medical debts of $2000 or more, and 16% owe over $10,000. It seems that our "compassionate" leaders have decided that only those with money have a right to medical treatment. This is just so wrong.

It doesn't get any better when it comes to housing. Even though the federal budget has doubled since 1976, the budget for HUD has been cut by 65%. Of the remaining funds, 63% go to households making more than $77,000 a year. Only 18% goes to those making less than $16,500 a year.

Most poor areas are dotted with rent-to-own stores. For many of the working poor, this is their only way to purchase moderately high-dollar items. By claiming they are not selling or financing a sale, but only renting items, these stores can get away with charging poor customers 300% interest. This means a poor man must pay 4 times as much for the same item as a rich man.

Many of the working poor don't have bank accounts. In fact, 13% of American households don't have a checking account and 10% don't have any kind of bank account. This means these people must pay about 2.5% of their income just so they can cash their paychecks. If an unexpected expense arises, many of the working poor must borrow from payday-lending businesses. Since 1990, the number of payday-lending businesses has risen by an incredible 11,000%. Of course, these payday-lenders charge up to 400% interest. The number of pawnshops has increased by 142% since 1986. And credit card fees are 194% higher than they were in 1994.

It seems this country even wants to screw with poor people at tax time. Around 50% of all tax audits conducted are done on those making less than $25,000 a year. How stupid is that? Anyone making less than $25,000 shouldn't even have to pay income taxes!

I'm going to have to stop. I'm getting too angry. But I urge you to read this article in Mother Jones. [The link to their website is HERE, but I don't think they have the July/August edition posted yet.] Be prepared to get angry when you read the article. It is simply incredible how many different ways we find to screw the poor in America.