Feature: United States of Division- A View of the Ugly American Nightmare

Photo by Franco Folini

The United States of America has many problems, but there is no problem more harmful to the American people than poverty. Everyone sees the effects of poverty every day in cities all across our country. From the homeless man on the street begging for change, to the people collecting cans out of alley trash cans. In Barbara Ehrenreichs’ non-fiction book, Nickel & Dimed, she steps out of her middle-class journalist life, and works at minimum wage jobs all across the country. She collects information about the conditions of these low wage jobs, and studies the ways that poverty affects minimum wage workers in the United States. Ehrenreichs’ work is an emotionally charged expose that makes a very valid point; America’s low wage working conditions make life almost unbearable for those who are poverty stricken. In Herbert Gans Essay, “The War Against the Poor Instead of Programs to End Poverty,” he gives a factual look at what poverty can do to some Americans. Gans brings to light the repercussions caused by the U.S. government and the view of the poor from upper class citizens. What becomes clear throughout both texts is that; Poverty creates a myriad of issues that most Americans will take years to recover from--if they recover at all.

       Being poor darkens the lives of many Americans and causes a separation by class. The upper and middle class become apathetic about the problem, and even see the poor as miscreants. Gans says that the rich need to, “try to reduce unwarranted fear and anger toward the poor—with hope that they would then be more positive about reviving anti-poverty efforts.” The lower class receives 1.1% of the nations wealth while the upper class receives 35% of the nations wealth. The upper and middle class turns a blind eye towards the poor because a restructuring plan may give them a smaller piece of America’s wealth. There is clearly a dividing line that has been slowly destroying the way wealth is distributed in our country for many years, and if this problem isn’t addressed soon--America could become the next third world country.

Photo by Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious

     Poverty shouldn’t be defined as just a lack of monetary value, it is much more broad definition, because of all of the facets of life it has a negative effect on. Poverty is driven by apathy, and greed. Over 46.2 million Americans are impoverished. 15.7% of the country is scratching by, paycheck to paycheck, with little chance of ever feeling secure. These poor Americans live their lives, handing over almost every dollar they earn, just to survive. It becomes easy for any impoverished person to feel victimized by their plight, causing them to break away from the other classes in society. Ehrenreich experienced this first hand, stating,“…I’m not a victim of poverty but of prosperity. The rich and the poor, who are generally thought to live in a state of harmonious interdependence—the ones providing the cheap labor, the others providing low-wage jobs—can no longer coexist.” When poverty is studied, it simply cannot be seen as equitable. It becomes something much worse than just not having money. The upper class would rather believe that the poor have caused their own problems, and don’t try to solve the situation. Gans believes the rich need to, ”…try to reduce unwarranted fear and anger towards the poor—with the hope that they would then be more positive about their antipoverty efforts.” Poverty is seen as something dirty, something undignified. It is seen as someone else’s problem, when in reality it’s everyone’s problem. Poverty would be better defined as misery perpetuated by the apathy and greed of the government and middle to upper class citizens.

      Many people might say that, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” While this may be true, when it comes to rising out of poverty, the “ways” they speak of may not be good. The conditions of poverty lead to a gateway of temporary solutions. Many problems are temporarily solved by thievery and substance abuse. The problem isn’t solved by simply finding a better job, ”There are no secret economies that nourish the poor; on the contrary, there are a host of special costs.” These costs lead to many poor people becoming thieves while whatever legal job they may or may not have is providing them not more than $11,406 dollars a year. Without money, depression sets in, and may lead to drug use to escape reality. The drug use just perpetuates all of the other cycles one may get stuck in because of poverty. “It is common, among the non- poor, to think of poverty as a sustainable condition--austere, perhaps, but they get by somehow don’t they?”

Photo by Ed Yourdon

       Poverty is leading America into a dark age, where we may end up being the next third world country. In 2012, the top 1% of wage earners received a 6% pay increase, while the bottom 10% received little to no change in pay. The number of impoverished citizens is at it highest in more than half a century. With the median dropping, and unemployment rates at a very slow decline, many are turning to other means of financial stability. Is it fair for the American Government to dictate who gets the wealth and who doesn’t? Without legislative changes, poverty may be the next Hitler.

    
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Census finds 46.2 million impoverished U.S. citizens as median drops in 2012. That's 15.7 % of the country.

That makes the current amount, the highest amount of impoverished U.S. citizens in more than half a century.

One-in-15 American households earned less than $11,406, the second highest percentage since 1967. More than one-fifth of those under 18 were in poverty. 25.3 percent of Hispanic Americans were in poverty. 27.6 percent of Black Americans were in poverty.9.8 percent of White Americans were in poverty. Unemployment rates are improved in 2012 to 9.6 % from 8.6% in 2011. Women continued to earn 77% of what men earn.

Last years poverty line was an annual income of $23,021 a year, the median is dropping in 2013.

Social Security has lifted over 14.5 million senior citizens out of poverty.

Americans without health insurance is 48.6 million people, 9.4 percent of children do not have health insurance.

The top 1% of wage earners received a 6% increase in pay over the last year, while the income at the bottom 40% remained nearly unchanged. The bottom 10 % of earners made the same amount of money in 2011 as they did in 1994.

Feature: Can Smart California College Students Fix the Foster Care Tragedy?

 By Matthew Mullins

Can a bunch of energized, well-educated Los Angeles college students change the disaster facing kids unlucky enough to be caught up in California's widely pilloried foster care system?

A bright pool of 12 USC students studying journalism, social services, and public relations say no more after getting training in a class called "Media for Social Change," taught by former Los Angeles reporter Daniel Heimpel, who has befriended and helped a lot of troubled foster care kids. n the U.S., over 400,000 children are in foster care. Child abuse and neglect often put them in this heinous situation, and the worst part-- most go into a new home where they face the same abuse. 25,000 will exit the system without a positive adult presence in their lives. They go off into the world alone and unprepared for what awaits them, but there's

Heimpel led his 12 students in a crusade to fix the defunct child welfare program. In the U.S., five children die from abuse every day.

Heimpel said, "I am a journalist who focuses on solutions. I actually think that what we are doing is the future of journalism."

Heimpel founded Fostering Media Connections, to "leverage the power of solutions-based journalism to give voice to children in foster care, inspire individuals and communities to engage on their behalf, and engender political will to create policies that will improve their lives."

Daniel Heimpel started this quest for social change in 2010 and has led two successful classes on the subject. The first was at UC Berkeley, and the second at USC.

Inspired by a class at Harvard, The Art of Social Change, he decided to take his advocacy group, Fostering Media Connections, to the next level.

 "The Art of Social Change" is about bringing the best thinkers in children's issues and have them talk about how they made social change happen, I was blown away." said Heimpel. "I came back to S.F., created a strategic plan and started thinking about how to get an army of journalists."

Last semester, Heimpel's class presented a symposium on how to solve common foster care issues, in a room packed with many students, foster care specialists, journalists, and adults who made it through the system.

 Congress woman, Karen Bass was present to support the cause and explained that congress argues about many things, but fixing the foster youth program requires bipartisan efforts. In a very emotional charged speech, Bass spoke about the the intent to solve foster care problems.

 "The only time you ever hear about congress it's how dysfunctional we are." said Bass. "but what you never hear about is when we work together, and child welfare is an issue that we come together on a bi-partisan basis."

Bass explained that congress created a caucus to go around the country and learn about the foster system, which she believes is completely broken. She believes it is imperative that any legislative changes should involve people who are affected by the problem.

"Building an outside movement that says we need to transform the child welfare system is absolutely critical for us to get the work done inside the capital."

Students enrolled in the class came up in small groups and presented their reports on the subject. Reports on urban planning, pregnancy, parenting, the absence of sexual health education for foster youth, child welfare practices, girls in the juvenile justice system, accountability and academic achievement.

The students ended their symposium last semester, with a very moving piece of spoken word poetry by Christie Renick, who's mother was brought up in foster homes and struggled throughout her life because of it. With a major focus on pregnancy inside the foster system, an article by Renick on the Chronicle for Social Change website, states that:

"California is home to a total of about 56,000 foster youth, a little under half of whom are between the ages of 11 and 20. Experts estimate that a single pregnancy without complications (including prenatal care through birth and care immediately thereafter) costs the state between $5,000 and $7,000. According to research, about 7,500 (30 percent) of foster youth between the ages of 11 and 20 will become pregnant or father an unwanted child while they're in care. If half of these youth are female, then the research predicts there will be about 3,750 unplanned pregnancies within this population. If each pregnancy costs $5,000, paid for by Medi-Cal, the state can plan to spend about $18,750,000 on unplanned teen pregnancies."

With numbers like that, it is more than apparent that legislative changes are needed in the system and it begins with one person.

For more information visit The Chronicle for Social Change website.