Job Market in WV Defies Efforts to Reform Welfare

[MountainLaurel]

Sophia Diamond was born poor and does not doubt that she will die the same way.

She has just turned 30, but her left ankle, crushed when her Dodge compact slammed into a cliff four years ago, keeps her limping, in pain and out of work. Just getting around is a job. She lives in a hollow where the roads twist like whirligigs and it takes half an hour to get to the grocery store -- 45 minutes if you end up behind a coal truck. But she no longer has a car, so she has to grab rides from relatives when she can.

Diamond received welfare, or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), until the 60-month limit ran out. Nearly two years later, she began receiving disability checks, or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). She gets $479 a month and $160 in food stamps. Still, she says, she can barely afford the electric bills for her trailer or food for her 8-year-old daughter.

She believes this is how it will always be. "I can't work at all," she said, "and there ain't no jobs here no how, except in the coal mines. There's nowhere else for me to go, neither. Without my family, I would not survive."

In the Central Appalachian coal country, where the land is famously rich and the people famously not, welfare caseloads are down, but poverty still flourishes. Since the 1996 welfare reform law, or Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, took effect, the rolls in West Virginia have dropped from 38,404 to fewer than 10,000. In general, the law -- which sets a five-year limit for receiving welfare and requires recipients to get an education, take job training or perform community service -- is considered a success. But in West Virginia, many former recipients are worse off than before, according to research by West Virginia University.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/23/AR2005072300749.html

Great stuff here about the human effects of welfare reform and the pisspoor way in which it was implemented.

[oscar111]

1. 14 million Job Shortage: 14 mil. jobless no matter how hard they try to

find a job.

so welfare reform cannot force people off and into jobs that are not there.

WPA needed. For 1OO% employment. Not phony "4% full", but true Jobs for All.

WPA was an FDR program of governmt jobs ... building bridges, parks, .. today, would fix bridges, hospitals, schools, water mains, potholes, firehouses, housing for the poor, .. all that bush cuts have let fall apart.

see sig below for both documentation of JS and a site on WPA, advised by

GALBRAITH OF HARVARD
ARCHBISHOP OF MILWAUKEE
2 NOBEL PRIZEWINNERS
CLINTON SEC. OF LABOR
DOZENS OF PROFESSORS

WPA harnesses the labor power now unharnessed.. so it does not cost, it pays. Got that? WPA costs nothing!

It ends poverty, which ends street crime ...
--and much of the drug culture {the part fueled by a desire to escape the mental depression of poverty}.

[Sugarbleus]

2. Excellent Post, ML

I talked about the failure of Welfare Reform some time ago. There are sooooooooo many published books out on the subject. It just never comes up in conversation in here or on Capital hill.

Both sides of the aisle mostly support the PRWORA. What a dumbass time to be re instating that damnedable act! Service economy? Wow, what a deal. Those jobs will REALLY help won't they? No raise in minimum wage? Wow, who thought up that brilliant strategy? No health care for Sophia Diamond to get her ankle fixed? Woohoo That's four for four :thumbsdown:

I get so damn pissed off with people, including in my own party, who act as if there are only a few things going wrong in this society. The sky is falling, foreign wars-right or wrong, the prez is a thug, conspiracy theories, etc..................not one word or activism towards the plight of our OWN CITIZENRY. It's outrageous. Then some turdblossoms in here, at or around the last election, had the nerve to say such crap as: the poor people deserve what they get because they don't vote (??!!??) Why should anyone on the bottom vote if no one CARES enough to ease their suffering??!!

Except for DU, I've decided that I will NOT send one red cent to any party this time unless they ACTIVELY address the issues the work a day people and poorer people deal with all the time!!

LOTS of people are actually SUFFERING in America and so few "Americans" give a shit!

Thbbbbbbb SB

[sadashivan]

3. French riot an unemployment explosion

Recent French riot in the streets of Paris suburbs and other parts have awakened the world, that even unemployment can be a reason for unrest among the population. Before, burning cars and stores the French government never realized there could be the problem of unemployment crisis too with such a developed country. Thanks to media for its efforts to spread information. French is always ahead for the revolutions and this riot is the revolution that made Government to rethink of its policies. It is beginning!!!!

There is ethnic division in the country but has less effect on the country’s culture. People in this country are more modern and understanding so ethnic or racial crisis is negligible. People believe their weekends in seacoast rather than going to church. Most churches are empty even on Sundays but recently some Muslim communities have begun their presence effective. Nearly 10% of population is Muslim from Africa or other parts, and 10% are Chinese, east European, Sri-Lankan, and other Asians. All together form 20% of total population of the country. 90% of them have sheltered in urban cities and 70% of them live in poverty.

Therefore, we should not blame racism alone for the riot rather the blame should go to inequality due to wide gap between poor and rich. Major crisis among these communities is the lack of suitable opportunities to upgrade their standard of life. They have to content with limited choices. Governments have never tried to uplift their standard of life. They find employment problems due to ineligibility for better opportunities. They are not still improved enough to fit into French economic growth and the government too has not initiated to promote them.

Working class including the white population is unhappy, as there is wide gap between the demand and supply of employment opportunities. Because of high supply of employment with less demand, most of them work in minimum salary. Trade unions can only fight for the minimum salary but the issue is different. The main issue is lack of demand for employment to determine worth of job. Automation has reduced the scope of employment opportunities. I visited one liquor industry in Normandy and found 2 people running the show, also the self service in many sectors have contributed to reduce employment opportunities. Therefore, the government has to reevaluate the situation and open more areas and scopes of employment opportunities.

Link to this article: http://www.sadashivan.com/frenchriotanunemploymentexplosion/

[newyawker99]

4. Hi sadashivan!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: