Miplaced Animosity or When Things Turn Ugly

The place where I reside, Ocean County New Jersey, is generally speaking, a comfortable place to live.

It has one major flaw, however, and I'm sure it's one shared  with many other communities like it throughout the United States.

As the United States has become more oligarchical (its concentration of wealth and political power owned by fewer and fewer people) communities by and large have not adjusted to this new reality. In fact, according to a report by the progressive advocacy group Upworthy, the majority of Americans have a very unrealistic and uninformed understanding of what the actual distribution of wealth in America is. To see a video of the report click here.

What the report essentially says is that of the 54 trillion dollars of annual wealth the United States creates, the wealthiest 1% of Americans own 40%. And it does not trickle down evenly or equitably from there.  The bottom 80% own only 7%, and the lowest 20% -- our poor -- own none.

It's not always been this way. In 1976, the top 1% owned 9% of the nation's wealth. (That's still a lot of wealth owned by relatively few people. But, evidently, not enough.) 

My point here is that economic reality in America has changed (radically) but peoples perceptions, for the most part, have not adjusted to it at all. (We can get together and drink and sing Kumbaya all night long and wish back the 'good old days' -- but they are gone, at least for right now.)

Which brings me back to the subject of this post: the present reality and 'Misplaced Animosity'.

In the charming sounding County of Ocean, there is not a single shelter for people and families that have become homeless and destitute in this 'new economy'.

As a result of this, the local homeless have taken it upon themselves to provide their own shelter . They created what has become somewhat infamously known as 'Tent City', a cluster of about 80 individuals and families. It's 'infamous' because I have heard reports about it on National Public Radio (NPR) and The British Broadcasting Company (BBC). Like the protestors who occupied Wall Street last summer, Tent City has become something of a dramatic symbol of the direction the US has chosen to go economically.(The 1% and the rest of us.)

Well, that's the way it's perceived from a safe distance. Right here at home, in lovely Ocean County, it has become a contentious (and vitriolic) issue, bringing out the best, and worst, in human nature.

Last week, a judge ordered the residents of  'Tent City' to evacuate and that the state would then provide them with a year of housing.

Some people saw this as simply a humane solution to a vexing and intractable problem.  But just as many, if not more people, resented the state for providing them with housing.

Why?

The 'new American economy' has not only increased the number of Americans living in poverty, but it has also taken a significant amount of wealth away from those living in what used to be called the middle class.  In real, everyday terms, it means that more and more people are struggling financially, and as their frustration grows, so does their anger, which needs a target. Unfairly, in my opinion, that animosity all too often gets misdirected at the poor. 

It is very understandable that when you are struggling to make ends meet and you hear about some one else getting a 'free ride' you are going to feel slighted and get angry about it.

But pick the right target for that well-deserved anger. The poor receiving assistance are simply the most visible and easy target.  And, in truth, what state and federal governments pay out in assistance to the poor is miniscule when taken in context to the economy as a whole.(The poor in America are, quite literally,  subsisting off of the crumbs that somehow manage to find their way to the bottom.)

I'm not advocating 'blaming' anyone for the present state of the economy. But  if you want to vent your anger and frustration about it, then how about directing it at the exorbitantly wealthy and the milquetoast politicians they so easily manipulate and control? (By the way, the recent surge on Wall Street added over 100 billion dollars to the economy. 'How did that affect your wallet?'  If you still believe in 'trickle down', then God bless you?!)

So, besides armed insurrection, what can one do about this blatant monopolization of wealth and power?

I wish I had an answer

All I am calling for here  -- until the answer reveals itself -- is to not make the poor the brunt of our collective anger and frustration over the present state of the economy.

They don't deserve it, and it's a waste of  our time and energy to misdirect it at them.

I've initiated a petition to address one important aspect of this problem, insuring that there is housing assistance available to those Americans who need it.  Here's a link to the petition.

Please, in turn, let me know what you are doing about this growing problem of economic inequality in America -- besides fretting about it and cursing the poor.  

Please send your comments and suggestions to my Facebook group, Advocate for Economic Fairness!

In the meantime, Que vaya con Dios!

The Predicament of Impoverishment in America

In 1968, CBS aired a documentary called Hunger in America. It awakened many Americans to the fact that a very large number of their fellows citizens were underfed and malnourished. 

This led to significant legislative initiatives aimed at combating poverty and hunger in America during the late 1960s and 1970s.

Then, in 1976, came this ditty: "She has eighty names, thirty addresses, twelve Social Security cards and is collecting veteran's benefits on four non-existing deceased husbands. And she is collecting Social Security on her cards. She's got Medicaid, getting food stamps, and she is collecting welfare under each of her names. Her tax-free cash income is over $150,000."

The 'she' is the infamous 'welfare queen' and the person making the lumpen remark would become president of the United States in 1980.

Words matter. And the remark marked a significant turning point in American attitudes toward their fellow citizens receiving financial and/or food assistance from the government.

This is the way things bounce in American politics and American peoples' opinions.  It's a democracy; things should bounce and change.

In the meantime, though, the problem of poverty and hunger in America got worse: The percentage of Americans living in poverty, in real terms (adjusted for inflation) has increased from around 11% in the 1970s  to 15% now. That's a lot of people. This took place while at the same time our national income per person is now more than twice as high as it was in 1970.

So what's up? (And down?)

A couple of things: one, there's a recognition, based on statistics, that many of the 'anti-poverty' programs of the 1970s did work to reduce poverty and hunger. And two, our attempts to deconstruct these programs in the name of improving them has failed -- failed to reduce hunger and poverty, which is the only yardstick I'm interested in here. (If it makes you feel better knowing that government cuts increased the number of your fellow Americans living in poverty and going hungry,  well that's another gauge for someone else to measure -- perhaps your shrink or pastor.)

The point is, we already know how to reduce poverty and hunger in this country because we've done it. (Was it perfect -- yeah right, tell me what is?) But instead of learning from those programs how to make them better, we've taken a step back and made things worse.

Like I said in the middle of this essay, we are a democracy, and democracy's bounce.

So let' s bounce. 

Please read and consider signing the petition below that seeks to protect housing  assistance from budget cuts: http://signon.org/sign/exempt-housing-assistance

  

How the Hell Have We as a Culture Become so Inauthentic

This does, of course, beg the question,''What do I mean by 'inauthentic'?'"

Being a story-teller, I prefer to answer the question this way. There was, once upon a time,  an infamous  gun-slinging Western cowboy who became so vexed with angst, so desperate, so fraught with anxiety, that he sought out the counsel of an American Indian healer, or Shaman.

The Shaman wanted to help him, deeply, but had to turn him away saying,  "Son, you have gotten so far away from who you really are that I don't think I can bring you back to your self."

Did you know that in the 19th Century our first 'psychologists' were know as 'alienists'? They defined themselves that way because they felt they were treating people who had become alien to themselves.

Okay, so to my point here: we are presently living in a culture that not only supports being inauthentic (or being alien to oneself) but promotes it.  Not to shoot at sitting ducks, but have you watched morning TV talk shows lately? It's a competition among the hosts as to who can be the  more superficial, inauthentic and unengaged in any real way with either the news they report or the guests they interview. Not actually being there is evidently more charming, interesting, and profitable, than being there with the people who have done something in order to get on the show. (Sorry, but I only recently learned how much money these a-list, a-holes earn.)

But in a larger sense, I feel, these kinds of goings on are a reflection of who we are and what we are becoming: alien to who we really are; and no longer fully  engaged in our own experiences.

Seeing that, as a result of recent experiences, I have become a defacto spokesperson for the neglected, downtrodden, homeless -- pick your epithet -- I would like to point out that we as a society  have our least authentic relationship to these people. We fear them, label them, ignore them, (alienate them), do anything but engage with them personally (authentically).      

Therefore we exist, culturally, in a 'Make Believe Ballroom', in which all the guests come to the party on equal terms and everyone gets their fair shake. Would be nice, if it were true. But we don't all come to the party in the same shape; though, with help, we can all learn to dance -- at least adequately.

So enough with the metaphors. We are living in a society that has become alien to itself as a people, as an organic entity  in which all persons depend on and nurture one another for the greater good of the whole.   

Pollyanna? Maybe. But ask yourself this: Do you feel more authentic when you feel connected to your fellow citizen, or when you feel alienated and separated?

It's a choice; and a choice that makes a big difference in the lives of many people living  in America who are feeling alienated from their own society and nation. 

It's not necessary; it's inauthentic.

(Please check out the petition below. Stop Sequestratian cuts to Housing Assistance.)

Petition

http://signon.org/sign/exempt-housing-assistance

How the Hell Have We s a Culture Become so Inauthentic

Why All the Anxiety (and Self-Destruction)

Cold Hard Fact: Incidents of chronic anxiety, clinical depression, and suicide are taking place at epidemic rates in America.

Why?

Is it because we are a nation of weaklings who can’t deal with ‘real life’ without resorting to freaking out, falling into deep depressions or killing ourselves?

Or is it in our collective DNA, or ‘something in our water’?

Or could this thing we call ‘real life’ actually be a collective cultural nightmare we’ve unconsciously constructed by repeating the same actions over and over that make us feel anxious and self-destructive?

The highest rates where these chronic ailments and lethally self-destructive behaviors take place is among two (relatively) small but important segments of our nation’s population: our military personnel (including their families) and the working poor and unemployed.     

Unfortunately, too often these two groups converge.

But taken separately, the first group, active and former military, can hardly be blamed personally for showing the wounds of the physical and emotional damage they experience while defending our nation on the  front lines. There does not exist, nor will there ever exist, a pill that can make one immune from the effects of partaking in the horrors of war.    

But if we are going to continue to ask, and depend on, literally 1% of our population to physically defend  the rest of us, shouldn’t the other 99% be willing to do whatever it takes, or costs, to insure that they are taken care of when they come home – including, especially, receiving counseling and jobs that pay a living wage?

Now imagine yourself in the latter category, trying to support yourself and a family by making a wage at or near the national minimum ($7.25/hr.)?  I hope you have a good imagination, because you simply  cannot do it in realty.

In 20012, it cost the US economy (its taxpayers) more than 40 billion dollars in uninsured medical care to cover the cost of ‘collateral damages’ done to people (inlcuding many veterans) living at or below poverty in America.   

Would it not be cheaper, and more humane, for us to simply provide proper care for our veterans and provide livable wages to our working poor.  It would cost less in the long run, and not have such a devastating effect on our fellow citizens.      

Please read and consider signing the petition below:

Help  Reduce Poverty & Homelessness
  

The Human Cost of Maintaining Our Economy & the Creative Challenge to Change It

Contrary to some modern myth-making that suggests our economy was created organically by ‘market forces’, (or 'blessed' winds of fate) the economy we find ourselves in is the one we have created for ourselves.  

If it were a purely free market capitalist system, we would not have government financed assistance programs for the aged, unemployed and disabled;  and if our economy was engineered exclusively by socialist dictates,  the ‘super-wealthy’ would no longer be welcomed here, and the ‘horse-trading’ of our basic living commodities, including money itself, would not be tolerated.

We have a hybrid system that combines elements of a variety of economic practices and social ideals.  

Which is my point: it’s an amalgam, and a peculiarly American one that we have collectively created over time. As such, does it directly reflect our attitudes about how an economy and nation should function?

To me, it seems there is a fundamental contradiction between the values most Americans maintain and promote, and the economic system we find ourselves in. On the one hand, when there is a major catastrophe taking place in the world -- be it an earthquake, tsunami, or other form of natural disaster – Americans, through their government and individually, are usually the first and most generous providers of aid. 

Even while, at the same time, there exists an ongoing tragedy of catastrophic proportion taking place right here in our own nation, affecting the lives of one out of every six Americans. It’s a problem that we largely ignore and deny, squabble over briefly during election cycles, but do nothing to fix: domestic, American poverty. And the real potential social, political and economic cataclysm is that it’s getting worse, not better.

Right now, there are more than 40 million Americans living at or below the official threshold of poverty; that’s nearly 20 percent of the population. These are the highest rates of poverty since The Great Depression; and, from the 1990s until the present, the most dramatic reversal of fortunes in our history.   

If you’d like to throw around a political football trying to guess at the causes for this dilemma, go right ahead. But the fact of the matter is that this crisis is devastating the lives of millions of Americans, and at the same time depleting the government’s financial resources and helping it to rack up unprecedented and arguably insurmountable debt.

So who or what is benefiting from this socially bankrupt and financially bankrupting situation?

Statistics bear out that it’s the wealthiest Americans who are benefiting the most by owning larger and larger portions of the nation’s economic pie.  Plus, recent judicial legislation has virtually allowed the wealthy to own politicians outright.  The system is, undoubtedly, a mess. And, during this particular swing of the political pendulum, political and economic power appears to be moving decidedly in favor of people who already own wealth.   

But the wealthy do not as yet live here by themselves (or with the rest of us in debtor prisons).

  

This, I feel, must make one wonder whether or not the wealthy know how the rest of America lives? I would argue that a central reason why the problem of more and more Americans living in poverty is being ignored, and is persisting and growing worse,  is that most wealthy Americans are oblivious of the devastating effects living in poverty has on their fellow citizens.

One reason for this – despite the fact that anyone who has not been living in a cave knows about the glaring growing disproportionate gap between the poor and wealthy in America – is that no one,  rich or poor, wants to be reminded of it all the time.

Another reason, I observe, is that we are becoming an increasingly segregated population: the ‘haves’ are safely ‘gated'  in communities among themselves, while the’ have-nots’ flail around where and if they can. For the most part, wealthy and poor Americans live in separate worlds within the same nation. This is not a successful blueprint for maintaining a healthy society, democratic or otherwise.    

I propose that what is needed are not more stats and facts on the issue, or political discussions, legislation,  and 'resolutions'; but more real human interaction with one another and increased actual interface with the problem.

How do we do that?

 First, it starts with individual initiative. Whatever your view is on the subject, express it. If enough people agree with you, that will then lead to group endeavors and eventually the formation of a social movement. This is also something Americans do peculiarly well:  we are very good at expressing ourselves individually, and creatively, and in the process setting in motion movements that in time lead to progressive changes in our society.  

I believe that the social movement of our time, the one that affects more Americans than any other, is addressing the issue of the increasing numbers of Americans living in poverty -- before the problem expands, destroying us individually and socially and bankrupting us financially.    

If you agree (or disagreed) express yourself!

(One small way that you can begin to express yourself is to review the following petition:)


Help  Reduce Poverty & Homelessness