Poverty is Not a Dirty Word

[bobbolink]

bold mine

Poverty is Not a Dirty Word
by Jim Wallis 09-17-2010
Just a few years ago, I remember how often people would be surprised when I told them that one in six children lived in poverty in America. In the richest nation in the world, how could more than 16 percent of our nation’s children be poor?

Well, it just got worse. The new census numbers just came out and we should not be surprised to learn that in 2009, the numbers grew to one in five children who live in poverty (that’s 15 million children). This, of course, is a national average, meaning that the reality for many of the country’s poorest urban and rural areas is much worse.

Now, 43.6 million Americans live in poverty, more than at any point in the last 51 years. And yet, poverty is still considered a four-letter word in Washington, D.C. Political consultants would probably advise candidates for higher office to let loose a string of expletives before they advised them to start talking about “the poor.” Poverty is a dirty word in every branch of government because all the polling suggests that people don’t want to hear about it and, of course, poor people don’t generally vote or contribute money to political campaigns.

It might just be time for people in poverty to get a better PR firm. Maybe a few focus groups and some market testing could really help with their image and make them a sexier issue for this year’s campaign cycle. Maybe instead of “poor” we could use the term: “wealth impaired.” That might sound better to the ears of policy makers. The middle class gets talked a lot about in D.C. and on campaign trails these days, so how about “lower, lower middle class”? What about “not middle class yet”?

But, a makeover isn’t going to change the reality for all of the families living in poverty in this country. And since the official “poverty level” hasn’t been adjusted for four decades, the number of poor people is actually much higher. These new numbers should be offensive to all of us, but especially to the faith community since the Bible says that a nation’s “righteousness” will be judged by how the poorest and most vulnerable are doing. Ouch! The new census numbers should make politicians uncomfortable. The word “poverty” should be on the lips of every White House or Congressional staffer and should unabashedly be repeated at the press conferences of both parties until these numbers are turned around.
http://blog.sojo.net/2010/09/17/poverty-is-not-a-dirty-word/

Note to mods.... sojo is fine with their stuff being posted all over...its what they want. Thanks.

[OneGrassRoot]

1. HUGE K&R

"Maybe a few focus groups and some market testing could really help with their image and make them a sexier issue for this year’s campaign cycle."

I'm glad I was on the right track yesterday when I asked how to make poverty sexy, as I was hesitant to write that even though I feel that, sadly, it's the truth:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9143945

This is excellent. Comments are good at the site.

Thanks, Bobbie!

:applause:

edited to add more :)

[dajoki]

2. The numbers are actually a lot higher...

as the article points out the poverty measurement hasn't been changed in over 50 years. The government can't even come up with a way to measure true poverty. I have no hope for politicians to start using that dirty word.

[bobbolink]

3. Politicians *won't* use the word, until they are PUSHED.

We need to make some very strong efforts to get minds and hearts changed!

This is literally a fight to the death.

[mntleo2]

4. I often find it amazing that ...

...those of us who are willing to admit we are in poverty here on DU are being "brave" like we should be ashamed or something. No I am *not* ashamed. I worked hard, did all the right things, and STILL I am poor heading into my twilight years without so mucyh as a home of my own or ever having had a credit card (which now I am glad about but ...it WOULD be nice to have my own home).

What is amazing me is the ones who fell below the poverty line whom I teach "the ropes" to for survival. They say the same thing as I do. They cannot believe the shame and blame they get even from family members. I tell them not to buy it, and realize like me, they did all the right things. It is our society who is doing all the wrong things ~ and those family members are just adding to it, they are doing nothing to help. If they want to be the Christians they *think* they are, well maybe they need to go back and read their beloved Bible. .

Poverty is an INSTITUTION, it is not because someone poor is somehow "to blame" it is because of racism, sexism, classism and ageism. Get a clue, People! Like Jesus said, "If you have eyes you will see, ears you will hear ..." I think he meant, "If you have a damn BRAIN you will get it, all you have to do is open up your damn EYES and EARS and then you will realize it is right under those NOSES you have so high up in the air ..."

M<y 2 cents

Cat

[bobbolink]

5. that's why I like this cartoon... it speaks to those people who are so clueless

[Jackpine Radical]

7. "Blaming the victim" is an old trick.

It's old because it's effective.

George W. Albee was one of my heroes. 40 years ago, he was President of the American Psychological Association. The following is from his Presidential Address (reprinted in the American Psychologist). I quote it as a sort of reminder that we have not only failed to advance as a society, but in many ways have slid backward. I doubt that any modern APA President would concern himself with these issues.

Albee, G.W. (1970). The uncertain future of clinical psychology. American Psychologist, 25, 12, 1071-1080.

Let me suggest to you, as one example, that racism is a far more serious, pathological, and deep-seated emotional problem in our society than either the sexual neuroses of latter-day Victorians or the existential neuroses of the affluent. Racists do share some of the pathological symptoms we encounter in the clinic. The racist is delusional. He believes things to be true that are not true because such beliefs serve deep unconscious emotional needs, and his belief is unshakable by reason or logic. How much individual case-study have clinical psychologists done with the individual racist, and where have we studied the epidemiology of racism? Unless our society solves the problems of racism, we are not going to survive as a nation. Does this mental condition not merit our attention? Have we tried to do anything in the way of meaningful intervention with the racists? The mental health field has been enchanted in recent years with the development of store-front intervention centers in the slums where local indigenous workers, knowing the language and culture, have been effective in working with the people of these depressed neighborhoods. But why has clinical psychology not opened its own store-front intervention centers in suburbia, staffed by psychologists who speak the language and understand the white suburban affluent culture, to intervene with the local inhabitants afflicted with racism and other virulent forms of prejudice? Why are we so much less threatened by the neuroses of sex than we are by the neuroses of hate? Perhaps, because psychiatry has had little interest in the pathology of aggression, neither have we.

Similarly, clinical psychology has paid almost no attention to the damaging emotional consequences of discrimination based on sex, and yet sexism, like racism, is almost entirely a psychological process, especially a learning process.

I would suggest as a further example that certain economic philosophies that are prevalent in our society are also exceptionally dangerous to others. An economic philosophy that justifies the maximization of profit at the expense of the safety, health, and happiness of the citizen should be as much a concern of the mental health worker, particularly the clinical and community psychologist, as more traditional forms of neurosis. In the last few years, I have been driven to conclude that an affluent white Protestant elite, which controls most of our major corporations and our banking system, and indirectly much of our government at all levels, engages in a mammoth, self-seeking, power- and profit-motivated enterprise which results in inequitable distribution of jobs, resources, and health care, and affects even such fundamentals as life expectancy. The most visible victims are the urban black people, but I would hasten to point out that there arc millions of poverty-stricken whites in Appalachia and elsewhere who, together with the American Indians and the Mexican-Americans, arc also victimized by the economic system. Women are also victimized and exploited by our system. If professional psychologists were truly concerned with human welfare, we could forget "psychiatric patients" for a century and turn our attention to the psychological causes of racism, sexism, and of the profit motive as sources of danger to the human- centered life.

Surely, the cynical manipulation of the masses by powerful elites is a subject worthy of psychological investigation. Which groups are most "dangerous to others"? Our society locks up overt paranoids. But it pays honor and respect to the industrialist who builds automobiles that are death traps, who sprays our fruit with coal tar poisons, and who shows utter disregard for public good in a simple- minded search for profits and power. Why have clinical psychologists not been concerned with the motivations of the manipulators? When the Congress refuses to include farm workers under mini- mum wage and health-legislation, it dooms hundreds of thousands of children and adults to lives of hopeless poverty and disease. When giant chemical companies dump deadly poisons into our streams and lakes, psychology should be involved in apply- ing its knowledge to prevention of such destruction.

[bobbolink]

16. That's a wonderful quote! I have been thinking of that for a long time now...

..turning the tables and diagnosing and labeling those with power over. It is time.

"Surely, the cynical manipulation of the masses by powerful elites is a subject worthy of psychological investigation. Which groups are most "dangerous to others"? Our society locks up overt paranoids. But it pays honor and respect to the industrialist who builds automobiles that are death traps, who sprays our fruit with coal tar poisons, and who shows utter disregard for public good in a simple- minded search for profits and power."

Wonderful quote! Thanks so much for this!! :yourock:

[bobbolink]

44. I've been looking for his books.. which one would you recommend....any like that quote?

Improving Children's Lives : Global Perspectives On Prevention / editors, George W. Albee, Lynne A. B

The Issues / editors, George W. Albee, Justin M. Joffe

Mental Health Manpower Trends : A Report To The Staff Director, Jack R. Ewalt, 1959

Prevention, Powerlessness, And Politics : Readings On Social Change / edited By George W. Albee, Just (I'm thinking this one looks the most promising....?)

Prevention Through Political Action And Social Change / Justin M. Joffe And George W. Albee, Editors

Primary Prevention Of Psychopathology / editors, George W. Albee, Justin M. Joffe.

Readings In Primary Prevention Of Psychopathology : Basic Concepts / Justin M. Joffe, George W. Albee

[Jackpine Radical]

45. I think that's a good choice. Also the one he edited with Joffe, but

that stuff is all pretty old and a lot of it is relatively speculative. Here is a more modern book that I think carries on the work in Albee's spirit and was written not by academics, but by people on the ground and doing the work (albeit mostly in Central America):

TOWARD PSYCHOLOGIES OF LIBERATION represents decades of collaborative work between two psychologists who have taught extensively, engaged with liberationist practitioners in Latin America even when this involved entering dangerous situations, and traveled the world to witness and help build socially engaged restorative practices and networks that address the psychological effects of poverty, genocide, environmental devastation, and other globalized catastrophes and collective traumata too vast to fit into the therapist's office.

Towards Psychologies of Liberation (Critical Theory and Practice in Psychology and the Human Sciences)
Helene Shulman (Author), Mary Watkins (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/Psychologies-Liberation-Critical-Practice-Psychology/dp/0230537693/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1284857538&sr=8-1

Maybe you can get it at the library or through Interlibrary Loan. It's about $24 on Amazon (but I understand that your circumstances are likely to make that sort of expenditure difficult). Anyway, here is a segment from one reader's very thoughtful and perceptive review of the book on Amazon:

Arguing against colonial models of the autonomous self that move health and pathology into the heads of individuals instead of tracking them in our relations with each other, Watkins and Schulman call for and describe emerging psychologies that deal with people as they really live: embedded in contexts of cultural, ecological, and political forces that frame and disrupt their lives. Drawing on interdisciplinary sources (the arts, the humanities) and on local work by those who fight for justice and sovereignty, the liberation psychologies described in this book hold social justice and mental health together in ongoing experiments and envisionings of the kinds of societies that meet human needs while respecting those of the planet. In this kind of work, people are encouraged to dream up their own ideas about how to live together, to try out new forms of attachment and belonging, and to come up with their own values and norms instead of being the passive recipients of normative models imposed by "experts" from the top down.

A key ingredient in liberatory work is dialog: the invitation of all voices to the table. Psychologies of liberation create "public homeplaces" (hooks, Belenky) where normally marginalized voices and visions can be shared safely in ongoing conversations that create community. These dialogs also foster the "critical consciousness" (Freire, Martin-Baro) to break through the internalized fatalisms of oppressive social conditions and begin to entertain a conscious desire for new ways to live humanely together. Such conversational enclaves also open spaces for practicing new roles that give the performer a regenerated sense of agency and personal efficacy. As the authors state it:

"Here the role of the psychologist becomes that of a convener, a witness, a coparticipant, a mirror, and a holder of faith for a process through which those who have been silenced may discover their own capacities for historical memory, critical analysis, utopian imagination, and transformative social action. The psychologist might bring to the table theories and histories that have been developed in the past, but they will be `relativized' and `critically revised' in each local arena where they may or may not apply. Truth in this new epistemology is democratized."

Psychologies of liberation do not confine themselves to far-off places or "third world" countries. As the recent economic downturn, bail-outs for banks, foreclosures rising into the millions, and outright deregulatory pillaging of the American national treasury have demonstrated for all to see, tottering empires eventually turn on their own citizens. By contrast, participatory action research changes institutions from the inside out by involving everyone to be present and available for transformation through participatory dialog and engaged imagination, pooling new knowledge about alternatives and fresh possibilities.

[bobbolink]

46. I have that book through the library right now, and just the preface is amazing!

I'm only up to Chapter 2, but this is a really important book, and I have been recommending it. I wish several of us could do a book study with this one.

Thank you for your suggestions on the Albee books. It sounds like I should stick with the one I'm on now, and look for Albee later.

Also, someone here recommending "Tyranny of Kindness", a different direction, but it looks very good.

Thanks! :hi:

[OneGrassRoot]

9. I keep thinking of when AIDS came onto the scene...

and how people shunned AIDS victims and those who knew AIDS victims...how they were made to feel at fault and dehumanized. It's very similar, don't you think? It took a long time to gain support, attention, destigmatize it so the victims weren't ashamed, and then work collectively toward alleviating it.

At the heart of that dehumanization was fear; people were afraid if they got too close to someone with AIDS, they'd catch it.

I think the same is true of poverty. And, poverty has different levels of course. One can be living in poverty yet still not be homeless. Often low-income persons ignore people who are homeless out of that same sense of fear.

They don't want to look into the mirror.

And different groups of people are ignoring it for different reasons. Unless the wealthy or politicians can benefit from it being an issue in some way (or make money for them, as discussed in your wonderful OP (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9130694), they won't pay attention.

A large percentage of the rest of society is living in fear of their own level of poverty getting worse, so they judge and dehumanize in order to protect themselves. Or they simply act like it doesn't exist. The ignorance is bliss method.

Those are my thoughts and observations, at least.

[w8liftinglady]

15. funny you should mention that-I was a nurse when AIDS arrived in Tx.

the reaction against the GLBT was horrific.I went out of my way to see that their extended 'families" could visit.
as a nurse,I am seeing the same response to the uninsured,impoverished.A reluctance to help,a denial that they deserve empathy or assistance-that they brought it upon themselves.It sickens me.

[bobbolink]

17. Blame and denial to the point of denying existence.

I will never forget a friend telling me that her brother worked with AIDS patients, and how many of them weren't able to even have a survival-level life.

This wasn't that long ago.. one of his patients bought a gun, but no ammo, and held up a 7-11, just to get arrested so he would have a bed and medical care.

We are detestable as a nation!

[PDJane]

6. The problem with poverty,

and why it is always with us, is that the rich are always with us. Those who have and take more than their fair share, because they can......and the more than their fair share they take it from are the poor.

That's part of the imbalance that taxes are supposed to rectify.

[bobbolink]

20. How many rich, and how many middleclass and poor?

We ALLOW them.

[Dappleganger]

8. One thing that my mother used to tell me...

when you're poor all you got is each other.

We're all in this together.
:grouphug:

[OneGrassRoot]

10. ...

:grouphug:

[unapatriciated]

11. K&R

[w8liftinglady]

12. Thank you for posting this.I needed a jump-start for my next editorial-this is it.

[w8liftinglady]

14. More Texans living in poverty...

I will present this to the religious right "small-government" pigs that live near me...


http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/09/16/2474711/more-texans-living-in-poverty.html

-snip


Poverty: An estimated 428,000 Texans fell into poverty last year, bringing the total to 4.26 million, or 17.3 percent of the state's population. That compared with 15.9 percent in 2008. A family of four is below the federal poverty level if its annual household income is less than $21,954.

Uninsured: Texans without health coverage rose to 6.4 million last year, or 26.1 percent of all residents, compared with 6.1 million in 2008, or 25.1 percent. More workers lost coverage through their employers in the weak economy. But the number of uncovered children dropped to 1.15 million from 1.2 million as more moved into programs such as Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, analysts said.

Income: Median household income rose to $47,475 from $46,490 but is essentially flat over the past two years.While Texas has long been a leading state in the numbers of uninsured and poor people, the new data show that the state is feeling the effects of the recession, said Steve Murdock, a Texas demographer and Rice University sociologist.

"You see it in city budgets, you see it in state budgets, you see it in everything," Murdock said.

By 2009 data, Texas ranked sixth in the percentage of people in poverty, behind Mississippi (23.1 percent), Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia and the District of Columbia.

"People who were teetering on the edge tended to fall over into poverty. That was largely affected by our dramatic increase in the unemployment rate," said Frances Deviney, a senior fellow at the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin. The state's jobless rate jumped from 6.1 percent to 8.2 percent during 2009.

The Texas poverty rate likely would have been "quite a bit higher if not for the great infusion of money" that came through the federal government in extended unemployment benefits, she said.

[bobbolink]

22. That's great! Will you please give us a heads-up?

[w8liftinglady]

28. Of course...hopefully finished by Sunday...

[Forkboy]

13. K&R

[TheBigotBasher]

18. I am always amazed about how much American politicians

concentrate on the middle class and not ordinary workers, working low paid jobs to try and feed either themselves or a family.

It seems to me those at the bottom get forgotten even at election time.

[bobbolink]

31. After Edwards dropped out, poverty was dropped.

All we hear is "the middle class".

Yet, we are supposed to go vote for them.

:nuke:

[Liberal_in_LA]

19. K&R bobbolink

[bobbolink]

32. Thanks!

:hi:

[phasma ex machina]

21. Thanks for posting.

This is the ultimate national disgrace brought about by OTC derivatives and OTC derivatives only.

A four year normal mild recession with a corrective mechanism of free markets would have been the extreme of this experience.

The greed of sociopath Wall Streeters has destroyed the system. They do not give a damn, but damned they must be. (link)

[bobbolink]

36. Thanks for reading, and please use every opportunity to talk this up!

Let's make poverty NOT a dirty word!

[butterfly77]

23. Kick,kick,kick &recommended!

:kick:

[bobbolink]

39. Thanks, butterfly!

:hi:

[me b zola]

24. K&R

[midnight]

25. It is time the people in poverty get a better PR firm. Listen to Sen. Gregg's worries about Warren.

Sen. Gregg Worries That Elizabeth Warren May Use Her New Post To (Gasp!) Promote Social Justice!http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/sen-gregg-worries-elizabeth-warren-ma

[G_j]

26. excellent article

And if nothing is changed, the next report card will be even worse!
How bad must it get before they will even acknowledge it?

[Starry Messenger]

27. k & r

[maryf]

29. K&R

good find, Bobbie, you'd be great in that PR firm...

[defendandprotect]

30. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it's politicians who don't want to discuss poverty ...

because they're too busy throwing money at the MIC and hiding what's really going on

in America --

I always prefer the term "impoverished" because I think it makes clearer that this is

purposeful doing of the elite. Behind every great wealth is great crime!

Look at our Congress -- 44% millionaires or better -- Kerry $188 million+ -- why?

If I read statistics correctly the other day we have 60 million Americans using food stamps --

and 1 in 7 families living in poverty -- ???!!!

I'm sure every family has someone who is unemployed now -- and other family members are trying

to help!

PLUS -- consider the pressure this puts on workers -- those who have jobs are constantly

afraid of being laid off.

In this kind of climate, how many politicians are going to be arguing for increases in

MINIMUM WAGE or a LIVING WAGE???

Again -- everything is wrapped up in crap -- i.e., military and wars!

All bankrupting our Treasury for the benefit of the elite -- and the detriment of democracy!!



Great post, Bobbie!!

[maryf]

35. "I always prefer the term "impoverished"

because I think it makes clearer that this is purposeful doing of the elite. Behind every great wealth is great crime!"

YES!! And the great crime is capitalism. Thanks for this, I will use impoverished from now on!!

[Yuugal]

33. K&R

[TBF]

34. K&R nt

[Big Bill Jefferson]

37. This is required reading

K&R

[bobbolink]

38. Thanks, Big Bill, and welcome to DU!

:party: :bounce: :hi: :bounce: :party:

Indeed, it should be required reading.... unfortunately, Poverty really is a dirty word. :(

Here is a book that is also required reading... The Tyranny of Kindness.

A great one for understanding what the system does to us poor folk!

:hi:

[Big Bill Jefferson]

40. You're welcome

and thanks for the warm welcome.

[Lifelong Protester]

41. I am gving this a K & R for visibility

Note to Bobbie: Wish I could do more right now for the project we talked about, but man, this school year beginning is just kicking my butt. We have a lot of kids and of course, families, in need, so am busy rounding up supplies, extra socks, jackets for the inevitable cold, etc. But you are on my mind, and poverty should be on ALL of our minds.

Of course also the questions of "Why in the richest nation on earth?" and "What can we do in our own part of the world?" if that is as far as our grasp reaches.

[bobbolink]

47. Thank you so much for helping those right in front of you!

Thank is needed, too!

:yourock:

[GreenPartyVoter]

42. Great big KnR (and bookmarking to read later)

[bobbolink]

43. Thanks!

Be ready for the quiz. :hi:

[saltpoint]

48. Wallis is an impressive soul. If there's anybody out

there who hasn't heard of him by any chance, it wouldn't hurt one bit to look him up on the web or over in the library, etc.

Recommneded.