Poverty’s Impacts
Poverty brutally diminishes quality of life and it shortens life spans. It swallows up whole families and imprisons multiple generations. Poverty adds to human suffering and greatly compounds the stressful assaults on our physical and mental wellbeing. Living in a community where poverty is rampant is proven to significantly lower life expectancy. Single mothers, their children, elders, people of color and those without the advantages of higher education or professional training are disproportionately harmed by our cultural, economic, social and political biases, policies and practices. Hunger prevents children from learning, yet one out of every five American children goes to bed hungry.
According to a new report from United Ways of the Pacific Northwest and United for ALICE, 34% of Washingtonians struggle to meet their monthly bills. 10% are living at or beneath the poverty level and 24% fall into the “ALICE” category. (Read more.) This group is defined as “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed” people who are earning more than the Federal Poverty Level, but not enough to afford the basics where they live. Oregonians are even worse off, with only 56% living above the ALICE threshold. (Read more.) The National Statistics are troubling and unacceptable.
National Overview (Latest data from 2021)
United For ALICE calculates the cost of household essentials for all counties in the U.S. These costs, outlined in the Household Survival Budget, are calculated for various household sizes and compositions. Of the 126,903,920 households in the U.S. in 2021, 13% earned below the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) and 29% were ALICE, in households that earned above the FPL but not enough to afford the basics in the communities where they live. Together, 41% of households in the U.S. were below the ALICE Threshold (poverty + ALICE divided by total households). [Source: United for Alice – National Overview] (Read more
Poverty in America is a Choice
Whether we are politically misaligned or merely passively detached, we each make the decision to collectively allow this broad level of stress and suffering. America is a high wealth country with the resources to completely eliminate poverty. Those resources are often held in the wrong pockets. We could save 37.9 million people, or 11.6% of all Americans, from the suffering poverty causes with a very reasonable and fair wealth adjustment. [Source: U.S. Census Bureau Mar 7, 2023]
No amount of poverty should be accepted as “normal.” The World Bank recently announced it will not meet its 2036 goal of shared prosperity through the elimination of extreme poverty globally Other developed nations, however, successfully navigate these needs and offer social programs that cover health care, paid family leave and provide a minimum guaranteed income. Medical bankruptcies in those countries do not exist. In the U.S. studies have shown that 62% of personal bankruptcies are the direct result of medical expenses. Additionally, medical problems that lead to work loss contribute to over 40% of all bankruptcies. Imagine how compelling and inspiring it would be if everyone in America had the basics needed to live with dignity. We are not powerless. Let’s become that beacon of hope and restore our reputation as the compassionate, generous people we are.
The Richest Country in the World
Using our gross domestic product (GDP) for comparison, we are the richest country in the world. With our wealth and power we also have a great opportunity. We have the capacity to completely abolish poverty in America, why not just do it? If you have believed those disingenuous fraudsters who broadly proclaim “we don’t have the funds,” follow the money. There is plenty of it concentrated at the top. According to data from Forbes, the United States has the highest number of billionaires in the world. In 1990 there were 66 billionaires, but in 2023 we have 724.
Child Hunger
The majority of Americans are genuinely concerned about poverty, but the majority of us are also insulated by our privilege. We don’t consciously blame the child who is poor, but we have been indoctrinated enough to believe that the blame falls on that child’s family. This is irrational but it is comfortable and provides us cover when we claim to believe that there is nothing “we” can do about it. The trauma of poverty is carried forward for generations. Inequality may be “normal” but it is unnecessary.
Fear Not
Those not wanting to pay their fair share of community support have a strategy. They call the poor “lazy” and infer they are “corrupt con artists,” but the big threat they toss around is targeted at us. We’ll be okay, they shout, but you people will lose your piece of the pie. We will hear the lie and it will scare us. If we do help all those poor families, will it drag our own families down under? Remember the status quo benefits those with the wealth and the power. Choose your humanity and sleep well.
What’s The Plan?
How can we suggest Americans do the right thing for our most vulnerable people? Because that is the right thing to do and the majority of Americans are decent people. First we need to remove the camouflage hiding the wealth disparities in our country. If our national budget is tight, it is because we subsidize affluence. We support tax subsidies for our wealthiest citizens. When our privileged groups are empowered to avoid paying a fair share of taxes, an unfair burden falls on the rest of us. Our country could lift all 11.6% of our people out of poverty simply by taking three meaningful steps.
Step 1: Collect all unpaid and delinquent income taxes owed.
Step 2: Tax all corporate income regardless of where that entity has formally registered (fair share over tax haven escape).
Step 3: Fund the IRS so it can go after the tax cheats. The middle class unfairly carries the majority of our social burdens because we are easy to find. The landholders, the wealthy, those preserving inherited wealth and the powerful have, from our country’s beginnings, prevented any meaningful redistribution of wealth.
This isn’t a pipe dream. According to Pulitzer Prize-Winning researcher and author, Professor Matthew Desmond, abolishing poverty’s viability can be proven with pretty simple math. The IRS estimates it loses about $178 million in tax collections annually through a combination of unpaid taxes and the sophisticated tax avoidance schemes perpetrated by tax cheats. Congress would need only to authorize a similar amount to lift our poor above the poverty level. It is our duty to share our resources with our fellows and assure our most vulnerable people enjoy these same rights and can live securely with dignity. Dr. Desmond’s newest book, Poverty by America, contains the source data to defend and prove that the elimination of poverty is economically feasible.
The Declaration of Independence states that:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”.
We don’t lack the resources. We lack the social, political and spiritual will to do what’s right. Let’s work together to change that.
If the concept of poverty abolition is of further interest, here is more commentary and other facts about poverty:
Raising the goal beyond poverty reduction
We acknowledge and thank the many individuals, communities, companies, organizations, houses of faith and those in government who serve those living with housing and food insecurity. They are doing good work, but we cannot solve long term social problems operating like an emergency room. We, the American people, are generous, but we are not yet demonstrating that. We believe we can all do better. Social justice is not a pie. Government funding is, and it is about time we all contributed fairly treating all forms of income and wealth building equally. Of course, it is revolutionary to think in these terms. By why shouldn’t we revolt? How much suffering do we have to endure before we make the super rich and uber-wealthy part with a fair share?
Whose fault is this wealth disparity?
Ours. We have not been watching. Instead we have allowed ourselves to be duped into believing that the system is fair. If you are looking for facts and statistics outlining our wealth and income disparities, here is an excerpt from a CNBC review of Matthew Desmond’s book, Poverty, By America. “Since 1979, the bottom 90% of income earners in the U.S. experienced annual earnings gains of only 24%, Desmond writes, while the wages of the top 1% of earners more than doubled. His findings are based on data from a number of sources, including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Pew Research Center. Looking at inflation-adjusted earnings, ordinary workers have seen their pay tick up just 0.3% a year for several decades, Desmond writes. Astonishingly, the real wages for many Americans today are roughly what they were 40 years ago.” Read More
Corporations & Poverty Perks
When workers are underpaid, their communities pay a surtax that supplements their employers’ corporate irresponsibility. To add more confusion, those entities that pay the lowest wages often lobby Congress to expand and retain safety net programs. Of course, this is wonderful corporate PR, but why is this a priority? What better way for these entities to transfer the cost of employee benefits directly to federal taxpayers. The difficulty now in undoing that injustice is the power of entitlement. For those who have held “privilege” their entire lives, any less to them and more equitable to others may seem unfair and even oppressive. This sense of entitlement is where the wires get crossed. Read more.
As Poverty Abolitionists we will continue to fight to lower poverty rates, but make no mistake. Our goal is to completely eliminate poverty. America is the richest country in the world. We have amazing natural resources, human capital and great wealth. The numbers crunch, no matter how loudly the rich and the powerful squeal or threaten a fiscal apocalypse if we feed, clothe, care for and house the poor. Those in power see no benefit in abolishing poverty, because labor exploitation and its accompanying misery is how they make such unconscionable profits. The rest of us are indoctrinated to believe our fortunes rise and fall on what our ruling class decides to let trickle down. We are and feel trapped with no obvious escape routes. We need a job to feed our families, but bad jobs do nothing but allow us to tread water.
If we use our collective power – our votes – we can hold our millionaires, billionaires and our Congress accountable. It is long past time to fully emancipate our economically-enslaved people. When our government fails to lead, we must set the agenda and push them forward.
Taxes… we moan… are already too high. Housing costs break our budgets every month too. Healthcare is a burden on most families, but there’s no living without it. Yes, we hear you, which is why the wealth ratios need a serious correction. The top few percent of a population should not own more than the bottom 50%. That’s not good resource management, it’s not good community management and it’s inhumane not just to the poor but to all of us.
We can do the right thing…
Decent and compassionate Americans need to end the intergenerational suffering of families ensnared in poverty. Life is messy, but we don’t “lose” our family’s security by lifting up another. In fact, if we fall on hard times, they may be the ones to reach down and pull us back up. We are sickened when we see the evidence of deep poverty in the homeless encampments proliferating in every town. We all think “somebody” should do something about it. Will that somebody be us? Read these Americans for Tax Fairness Reports and then decide.
A National Affliction and Abomination
Ask any city dweller about the “homeless” once that contingent of resident status spills into their work or neighborhood. This symptom of extreme poverty is viewed as an abomination because it is. Poverty is a community affliction. Some want to re-criminalize poverty, reminiscent of the days when “vagrancy” got you locked up for the night. Of course, those were the days before the massive incarceration movement and private prisons. There were actual vacancies in local jails.
Suburban life helped middle class Americans forget about the less fortunate. Our poor continue to be exploited and limited by lack of municipal services, exorbitant rents and dilapidated housing. These treeless neighborhoods are under-served and present poorly with their potholes and creviced asphalt. A burglary in an inner city apartment doesn’t worry about getting caught by law enforcement. There are not enough bodies to go around, and police know if they fail to serve the high income, high property homeowner, they risk getting suspended or fired. This is all pretty transparent overall. Ask a one-engine fire chief where that engine goes first if a modest family home and mansion catch on fire at the same time. Without shame he’ll tell you the mansion. Why? Because with its higher value, if he doesn’t, his city and his department will be sued for negligence by the insurance companies and the homeowner.
In order to be able to accept human suffering as a cultural norm, we demonize poverty. We insist it was a choice and those enduring poverty must be lazy and shiftless. Otherwise “poverty” could ensnare us. Injuries on the job? Suck it up. Mental health problems that are untreated? Just try harder. Need help with school clothes and backpacks for your kids? Ask your church. Seriously? What’s wrong with us?
All (Rich) Men are Created Equal
America does advocate for those with power and wealth. We also support the expansion of their privilege, greed and hoarding, while we continue to allow their cruel workplace practices and the exploitation of our labor. Sadly, the stress of being poor and disadvantaged is a heartless home wrecker. We don’t take responsibility for the impacts of terrible working conditions and low wages on families. We don’t talk about the parents who abandon their children to avoid paying child support to an ex. We all insist that if “we are willing to work hard,” the American dream awaits us. Self-made. Hmmmm. Yes, if you start with generations of privilege, and hold privilege throughout your adult life, you probably are able to capture that dream. Conversely, the opposite is true. In fact, with few exceptions, moving up one socio-economic level in a generation is in itself a triumph. If you are Black or Brown? The percentages change and not for the better. If you are a woman of any race, your potential is capped at birth by society.
Under our Constitution’s “all men are created equal” phrasing, a literal interpretation fails to capture the unfair conventions our founders codified. Citizenship was limited to land-owning white men who held the privileges associated with wealth. On July 4, 1776, Congress voted to accept the Declaration of Independence, marking July 4 as Independence Day. On July 4, 2022, we began our campaign not to reduce it, but to abolish poverty.
What are we going to do about poverty?
Simply put, allowing our people to live in poverty when we have the capacity to assure every resident has a fair and decent standard of living, is our national disgrace. We will send petitions to Congress, we will run for political office. We will call out media and challenge the poverty principle during our family and friends dinner conversations. We will do whatever we have to do, because we need to right this wrong. Our work is cut out for us. We need to educate the public that living in a state of poverty is not a criminal act. We will get peoples’ attention until they can understand that exploiting labor is and should not be supported by the American government’s policies, tax collections and civic practices. We will highlight the egregious ratio of Leadership/Worker remuneration. We will expose the illicit lobbying that occurs from the Halls of Congress to the Supreme Court, and we will be relentless. We will abolish poverty in this lifetime… because we need to get ourselves “right” as Americans. That’s how we become great.
Please Join Us!
You can be the wind behind our backs and join us as we march forward with compassion, kindness and love. Together anything is possible. Will you join us in our pledge to abolish poverty? To receive our Poverty Abolitionists Newsletter and join our movement, please email Elizabeth Madrigal at president@thegracecontinuum.org.