The Poor, The Government, and Satire

This is one of eight blog posts that will address the poverty issue in America. I have decided to take a non-traditional stand in my blog while addressing these issues. I have decided to take a look at the satire surrounding the poor and try to derive some real meaning from these comic articles, pictures, and sound bytes. Why are these journalists writing about the impoverished? Is there any truth to their accusations and claims? I think there is. And whoever came up with the saying 'there is some truth behind every good joke', agrees.

The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too. - Oscar Levant

For this first blog post I have decided to write about an article that I found particularly interesting and thought provoking that revolves around poverty and government.

The article that I'm going to be deriving from is 4 Things Politicians Will Never Understand About Poor People

I would like to discuss briefly and raise my own questions about the main points of the article.
#4: Poor Does Not Equal Unemployed
In the first segment of this article, John Cheese explores the statistical facts about the working poor. This article was written about a year ago, so the numbers are still pretty accurate. The author notes Newt Gingrich's idea to 'pay impoverished students to clean up vomit and strewn feces part-time at their schools' to earn money', and then leads into the hilariously accurate statement, 'Not to be out-douched, Mitt Romney's now famous video hit the 'net, showing him calling 47 percent of the country "entitled" and saying that they believe they're victims and they want the government to hand them everything:'

I hear he's running for the underinformed douchebag of the year. Finally! He was due for a win.

Cheese breaks down some facts for us. First, that 10.5 million Americans living in poverty are employed. That breaks down to be about a third of people in poverty. Now, I know what some of you skeptics are thinking. Big whoop. A third. That's like 33.3%, man. What are the other lazy 66.6% doing with our hard earned tax money? Well, friend, I'm glad you asked. Most of them are elderly or disabled. In fact, 91% of government benefits go to either the disabled, elderly, or working households. That's a pretty good statistic. In fact, an A-.

So, by my calculations, if 91% of the government benefits go to deserving (in my book) individuals, but 47% of the population are abusing government benefits and want everything for free, then I'm 89% sure that 78% of people have absolutely no idea what is going on with the government and the benefits that are distributed.

My question to you is how do we change this view of entitlements and the entitled? How do we further the knowledge of our well educated politicians to show that these benefits do in fact go to the deserving? (mostly). Or, how do we target the other 9%? Who are they? My guess is that most of them have applications in for disability or social security. Or - is this small potatoes? Do we just count this 91% A- as a win and move on? Surely, our focus could be shifted to an area of need. I mean, there must be something more attention worthy in the world of poverty than simply the people abusing it...

#3: Poor People are Not Mindless Leaches
In this segment, Cheese makes the argument that it is a common assumption that the poor are not educated and don't want to spend the time to become educated. Cheese throws out an interesting statistic that 47% (here we go again...) of impoverished 18-26 age group have been to college. College might not be the end-all be-all of smarts, but it does show some initiative, strive for further education and a better life, and most importantly, debt. Massive debt.

My thoughts on this are that I would really like to see the poverty levels once they start looking at everyone's net worth, not just their income. Sure, Sally Whoever makes $30,000 a year at her non-profit job, so she's a total $18,510 above 100% of the Federal Poverty Guideline. WOO-FREAKING-HOO!!!

But - what Sally Whoever doesn't get taken into account is that she has $140,000 in debt from her undergrad and Master's program, a rental payment of $800 every month, and a $500 car payment. Oh, and food. But first things first. She better pay off that interest on her student loans before she eats or she'll never be out of debt! *insert sound byte of loan companies everywhere laughing villainously*

So, just to stir the pot... what if we started taking into account everyone's net worth instead of their income? Or, this could go arguably south when we start talking about purchases people can't afford- 'what do you mean you bought a house? WHO NEEDS A FREAKING HOUSE IN THIS ECONOMY?' So I will back track and say what if we took into consideration people's student debt when calculating poverty. I only ask because I can tell you that my debt looks a lot more like a salary I strive to have someday than the impending doom disguised as 20-something normalcy.

#2: Poor People Aren't Rampant Drug Addicts
In the next rant, Cheese notes that when Arizona and Florida did mandate drug testing, they found that the population receiving government benefits is very clean. In fact, Florida lost a bunch of money spending the money to drug test people, and the people who were booted from the programs did not even come close to the money that went to drug testing everyone. Cheese also noted that even when people (albeit rarely) do test positive for drugs, they are probably not the ones suffering the most from the cuts. It's their children. Innocent children born into a world of poverty and even sadder a drug infested environment, now do not have access to food stamps or cash assistance or subsidies that make their day-to-day possible.

                                                         Pictured above: not a real thing.

My question to you all is what is the solution? I don't think that drug testing during the social security/disability application would be a bad idea. After all, you are getting doctors to sign off on your disability anyway. My second question is, do we deny drug addicts food stamps? Should we deny anyone food? I personally think that this is ridiculous. You can't exactly go to Giant Eagle and get three grocery bags full of ground beef and drugs, then check out with your EBT card and go home and get high and make tacos. It's just not how it works. Food stamps are to be used on FOOD. Even things that maybe would be good to include on the list of items that you can buy with food stamps ( Oh, say.. soap? Deodorant? The essential non-essentials) are not permitted to be purchased on your EBT card. Sure, people can sell their food stamps and buy drugs with the money... but that seems like a lot of work that should be policed by the actual police, not the underpaid and overworked staff at your local DPW office.

#1: You Don't Have Real Sympathy for the Poor if You've Never Lived It
The closing segment of Cheese's article explores how members of congress and other highly paid members of society try to identify with the poor. Cheese shows some quotes of people living 'paycheck to paycheck' or complaining about donating or paying taxes and how their take home pay is so minuscule. However, their salaries and take home pay FAR supersede that of people that the rest of us would consider to be pretty well-off. His point is that when they try to identify... they can't. They just can't. You can't complain about how expensive it is to keep up your houseS to a homeless person. To only have SO MUCH left over to live on does not register to a person who has NOTHING left over to live on except the rest of their unpaid bills growing until next payday.

My question on this (again) is how do we change this? What will it take to get a serious vote in government on poverty from a person who lives or has lived in poverty? How do we cross the barrier of stigma about the poor being uneducated when education costs so much that you practically have to be not poor to get it? What data and statistics (or are there any?) that will truly show those not in poverty what it is really like to live in poverty. Cheese also says that these people are getting their false notions about the undeserving poor from that story they heard one time about someone scamming the system. To that I say... 91%. With all the bad, let's give a round of enthusiastic high-fives to the 91% of government benefits doing exactly what they are supposed to do, which is helping poor people in need. 

Thanks for reading! Until next time...