Part I
By D L Ennis
Ethics--1) Motivation based on ideas of right and wrong --2) The philosophical study of moral values and rules
With all the talk about ethics in politics lately, I had to put this article together.
"America should always be mindful of the ravages of poverty, for if we are not among its victims, its reality fades from us."
--Dorothy Day, Founder of the Catholic Worker Movement
There is an ever widening economic disparity between the rich and poor. The poor fell to a much lower echelon during the Reagan presidency, and during the Clinton presidency, the rich went forth resplendently well. The top 1% of households accumulated roughly 17% of the nation's income in 1998. And, in 2003, Bush gave us a tax cut which the richest 5% of taxpayers received most of the economic gain. As Jack Newfield said so well, "This is a class-warfare policy of shooting the wounded and looting the amputees."
This mounting absorption of wealth has given the exceedingly wealthy dominion over politics by means of exuberant campaign contributions, and mass media possession, whose commentary makes them sound like constituents. Few politicians whom have nationwide followers are disconcerted about the ever-increasing gap betwixt rich and poor and the attrition of democracy by means of vast wealth. American politics can be summed up by Gary Hart's quoted statement in a February 2 New York Times Magazine profile: "How do you make the principles of equality and justice and fairness work in a time when everyone's well off?"
Ever increasing apartment or home rent, a minimum wage that has been moribund at $5.15 an hour since 1997, and the rising costs for health insurance are amongst the causes of hunger among the working poor in the United States. The greater majority of poor people work. However the roughly $10,700 a year that $5.15-an-hour minimum-wage jobs pay is in no-way adequate to keep a family together. More than 90% of Americans trapped in low-wage jobs are adults, more than 75% work full-time. They are not substance abusers, alcoholics or the mentally ill; they are average, hard working Americans trying to make it in a world where our country's elite work to keep them down.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Dave Nalle
Someone's not keeping up with their reading here on BC:
>>Ever increasing apartment or home rent, <<
Rents are down nationwide over the last 5 years.
>>a minimum wage that has been moribund at $5.15 an hour since 1997,<<
A false statistic since virtually no one actually makes minimum wage. The real market-set minimum wage is over $7/hour.
>> and the rising costs for health insurance are amongst the causes of hunger among the working poor in the United States. <<
The working poor don't actually pay for health insurance. If they are in the income ranges you mention elsewhere in your article they qualify for medicaid.
You also reference the 'living wage' movement, which wants to move the minimum wage to over $10. Would your working poor be better off as non-working poor? That's what such a pay hike would result in. In addition, it's quite possible to live on a minimum wage income if you make sensible sacrifices which the working poor have made in prior eras. The criteria used to set the 'living wage' are completely unreasonable. For a full explanation see this articke
Dave
2 - Maurice
" There is an ever widening economic disparity between the rich and poor"
This is a very interesting statement that has the ring of truth. I thought you were going to continue this theme. Instead you belabored the tired mantra of those that have suddenly awoke in the wake of capitalism.
I suggest you buy 'The Bell Curve'. It is a fascinating book that supports your first statement as a natural consequence of free market capitalism. One thing it points out over and over is that the rich should get richer by definition. In other words if you are now ranked with the rich then you theoretically should mantain your status unless your status is anomalous.
BTW the rich becoming more rich is not a bad thing for the poor. The poor become wealthier also just not at the same rate as the rich.
Another interesting thing to note is that IQ is a weightier factor that race or education (Bell Curve author Herrnstein) as an indicator of potential earnings.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0029146739/qid=1114176248/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-8577291-8651358
3 - D L
Dave, I apologize if some of my info is out dated. I'll admit that I collected my sources some time ago and never used it at the time.
However, living on $5.15 an hour is not possible if you care for living indoors. I don't know where you live but where I live, most who make minimum wage live outdoors, in shelters or several families to a household; rent is too much if you like eating too.
In a sense the working poor do pay a sort of health insurance, they pay with their health itself. If they have any health problems they pay with worry over how they will pay for what Medicaid doesn't pay.
You must be healthy and wealthy, Dave.
It's easy to kick others when they are down...isn't it?
DL
4 - D L
Hi Maurice,
"BTW the rich becoming more rich is not a bad thing for the poor. The poor become wealthier also just not at the same rate as the rich."
I agree that becoming richer is not a bad thing. It's how they are becoming "more rich" and the reasons for doing so.
Read "CAPITALISM'S BOIL By William F. Buckley Jr. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=128&e=1&u=/ucwb/20050419/cm_ucwb/capitalismsboil
Also what are they going to do with all of their wealth? As they say, "you can't take it with you" and if you leave it to your kids, look at what they are likely to become, in today's society...the Hilton sisters. Just what we need more of.
Use it for good I say. Use it to help your fellow man!
Thanks Maurice!
Dl
O Dave, we all have our opinions, it's just that yours are wrong!
You are like the man who knows all there is to know about war, but has never been there.
Take care.
DL
5 - Dave Nalle
>>However, living on $5.15 an hour is not possible if you care for living indoors. I don't know where you live but where I live, most who make minimum wage live outdoors, in shelters or several families to a household; rent is too much if you like eating too.<<
Not only is this not true, but it's based on the false premise that people are actually paid minimum wage. Take a look at the BLS statistics. Almost no one is actually paid minimum wage and those who are are almost always in entry level jobs with rapid advancement, or are kids working part time.
And what's wrong with people sharing living space? Housing is most peoples single largest expense. Throughout history people have expected to live in families or extended families to cut housing costs. Why is that no longer acceptable for the poor?
The entire premise that some of the wealthy getting richer is bad for the poor is also based on a faulty premise. You assume that wealth is a zero-sum game, when the reality is that the wealth the wealthy accumulate represents growth in the economy and not money taken away from the poor. Bill Gates isn't getting richer by going into the ghetto and mugging old ladies. They get wealthier because they create more wealth, and in fact that also creates more jobs and more opportunity for advancement for the poor.
>>You must be healthy and wealthy, Dave.
It's easy to kick others when they are down...isn't it? <<
Hey, go screw yourself you sanctimonious fool.
Dave
6 - D L
Dave, you don't have to get nasty. Grow-up!
7 - Dave Nalle
I got nasty? You accused me of kicking the poor when they are down. Maybe you should spend a little more time reading what you write and thinking about it. Since you can't get basic math right, and don't seem to have much of a grip on any facts - like maybe some citations for your claims - you're walking on pretty thin ice throwing insults around.
Dave
8 - Mark Saleski
i bet ya can live on the minimum wage in connecticut as they have no sales or income tax.
9 - Dave Nalle
If only 'twere true, Mark. But you know, the poor pay no sales or income tax. They're below the cutoff for income tax and the EIC is supposed to offset or more than offset sales taxes they may pay.
Dave
10 - D L
OK, Dave. I think enough insults have been tossed around. Peace my friend!
11 - Steve S
But you know, the poor pay no sales or income tax.
I don't know if it's nationwide or just in this state, but the foods that are not taxed (milk, produce, meat, basically anything that is not ready-to-eat), NOBODY pays tax on, rich or poor. But everything else, clothing, housing, transportation, etc. the poor pay the same tax as the rich, just with less money to do so.
12 - Dave Nalle
Yes, Steve, but not only can the poor claim their state taxes as a deduction on their federal income taxes, but they also can file for the Earned Income Credit which is essentially a reverse tax which gives them money to compensate them for some basic expenses. In fact, a working poor family of four - $35-$40K gross income - could actually end up not only paying nothing, but actually making several thousand dollars profit on their taxes if they take advantage of the opportunities built into the tax system to benefit the poor.
Dave
13 - Richard
Wow!
Dave: "don't seem to have much of a grip on any facts... - you're walking on pretty thin ice throwing insults around".
Is that the pot calling the kettle black?
14 - Dave Nalle
Richard, my articles are generally replete with links to factual sources as you ought to know if you've read any of them.
Dave
15 - Steve S
In fact, a working poor family of four - $35-$40K gross income - could actually end up not only paying nothing
and who tells the poor how to fill out all these tax forms? H&R Block?
16 - Mark Saleski
something like the eic can provide some help, but not on a daily basic.
those living at or below the poverty line are generally living hand-to-mouth.
i've been there & it ain't pretty.
17 - Temple Stark
Still off-topic of course but citing national BLS average stastics or any national statistics is a faulty practice that enables ignoing those who fall below the average.
Despite contant people saying that peole DO make th eminiumum wage, there is still the obstinant belief that because "no one in my area" (as if that could really be accurately assessed witohut a cite or five) earns the minimum wage, then no one in the country does.
Falsehood. Not worthy of even shallow consideration.
18 - Dave Nalle
Unless someone points me to a comprehensive nationwide wage study, all I can find to go on is the research I've done locally and the BLS figures. The BLS figures, btw, are broken down specifically by state and by occupation, so they give a great deal of detailed information. They're not just some sort of vague nationwide aggregate. When I wrote on the minimum wage on my blog - but I don't think I ever posted it over here on BC - I called businesses in the Austin area to confirm what the BLS stats reported. I suppose I could mount my own survey on a nationwide basis, but no one is actually paying me for the time and other expenses associated with that.
I will point out that Austin is one of the areas which the 'Living Wage' folks have targeted for their lobbying and publicity efforts - yet it's virtually impossible to find a job in Austin paying less than $7.25 an hour. They may have chosen Austin for its inherent liberalness rather than for its actual need for wage reform, of course.
Look, I'm not saying that there aren't poor people and that we shouldn't take appropriate measures to help them out. But I do believe - with some evidence to support the belief - that things are not as bad as the doomsayers on the left make them out to be. The poor in the US are better off than the average citizens of most countries in the world, and they are not being left behind as the economy grows as some would have us believe.
Dave
19 - Maurice
Hi DL
I read your link and I think that is a topic well worth discussing. How much money is too much?
For example, if we continue at our current rate of growth there will come a day when we will have Trillionaires instead of Billionaires. The rest of us will be better off as well. The poor will be brought along with us. All boats rise...
How wealthy is wealthy enough?
BTW I don't know how you ever curb the overpaid CEO problem. Is there a way to not over pay sports/movie stars?
20 - Steve S
The poor in the US are better off than the average citizens of most countries in the world, and they are not being left behind as the economy grows as some would have us believe.
I agree with the first part of that sentence but not the second.
The best way to combat poverty IMHO, is to offer more counseling. Whatever is appropriate, whether it is credit counseling, drug counseling, counseling on self-esteem, or even free education/the teaching of new skills. Draining money from these social programs would be leaving the poor behind, in my opinion. Someone who defines helping the poor in different ways, might not agree with that. And I guess it would be subjective rather than right/wrong.
21 - Phillip Winn
Try this: The healthy poor in the US are better off than the average citizens of many countries in the world.
I think that statement is supported by evidence from many sources, while the omission of the word "healthy" makes it either false or debatable.
22 - D L
Very well said, Steve S.
DL
23 - Richard
Dave, You mention your articles, I didn't.
24 - Dave Nalle
Steve - your idea of how the help the poor is a good one. Just throwing money at them certainly isn't the answer. Quick fixes rarely are. What holds the poor back is their family backgrounds, the neighborhoods they live in and lack of education. Many of these problems could be solved by things like the inner-city school voucher program they're trying out here in Texas. It lets those kids escape from their environment and their poor schools at least for half the day and gets them access to enormously better education. That's why inner city leaders have supported it.
As for the issue of healthcare for the poor, as we've discussed before, we do have public healthcare for the truly poor, it's the marginal working poor who need help the most. I've already written at length on this, but what I still don't understand is why, if our current system addresses the needs of the well off adquately, we only ever talk about universal healthcare, rather than merely supplementing our private system with some sort of augmentary health care program for those who can't or won't pay their own way.
Dave
25 - MDE
re:"The best way to combat poverty ... is to offer more counseling."
While counseling is a way to deal with individual poor people, and, as such, is actual 'hand to hand combat' with poverty, it will not reduce the level of poverty overall which is more of a systems problem. Some of that promised investment capital would work a lot better.
re:"that things are not as bad as the doomsayers on the left make them out to be. The poor in the US are better off than the average citizens of most countries in the world, and they are not being left behind as the economy grows as some would have us believe."
Living in a world economy where a few hundred thousand are murdered through imposed starvation and slaughter here and there, now and then, and where slums unimaginable to us in the US are commonplace, this seems a parochial attitude. Lots of the world's resources end up here. Is it surprizing that there is dross for the poor?
Mark