JUUF

Looking at Poverty in America

I remember when I was a young Social Worker, in my late 20’s. I had my shiny new Masters Degree and I was out helping those in need. Since I was now an expert, my father asked me a question. He asked what was wrong with these people that they were poor. He was a very compassionate man and believed that if we knew “what was wrong” that we could fix that thing and then none of my clients would be poor anymore. He asked, “was it lack of education, or medical problems that made these people poor?” I answered that they were poor because they didn’t have enough money. That seemed like circular logic, and I guess it was. But this dialog highlighted a perspective that is very common in our society. Those who are poor are lacking something – something that keeps them down. If we can just find a way to give them what they lack, they can rise up to the middle class like the rest of us, or even higher if they work very hard. We all know of people who grew up without much money and managed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and escape poverty. These are our American success stories – proof that the American dream is real. Many of those who have had this kind of success will credit a lucky break, or a relentless drive to achieve their dream. If only other people could harness that energy and use it to get ahead. Middle class people read the self help books that these successful people write and are reinforced the belief that, with the right secret ingredient, anyone can make it.

The trouble with this optimistic view of upward mobility out of poverty is that assumes two facts that might not be true. One, is that there is an even playing field – that we all have the same chance to succeed given the right tools and efforts. The second is that everyone can succeed – there is room in our society for everyone to be a winner if everything were to work right. I am afraid the evidence does not support either of these assumptions. I believe that the playing field is not even and that the system is based on not everyone being able to succeed. These facts are essential in understanding poverty in America. Understanding this unfortunate situation is key to making our efforts to help those in poverty to be useful and respectful efforts. So that when we do the right thing we are closer to the mark of what is right. I don’t want to make the problem of poverty in American sound simpler than it is. It is not simple at all and there are many complicating factors. But I do want to point out a couple of truths as I see them.

I’ll take the second assumption first – that we can all succeed if everything works right. I am afraid this is just not the case. According to social policy historians and economists, one of the mathematical realities of Capitalism is that that it is based on having at least 5% unemployment amongst those who can work. Pure theoretical Capitalism does not work with everyone having a job. It is necessary that there are hungry and eager folks waiting to take the jobs of those who are less productive or more demanding workers. Being out of a job needs to be a fear for those who might want too much money and this only works of there are other folks who are ready and eager to take their jobs at the lower wage. Now if there is too much unemployment, as we have now, that is a problem too. It is a problem because there are not enough people with paychecks who can buy the goods made in our factories and create demand for goods. But if unemployment goes too low, that is not efficient for the business climate. There have to be folk who will settle for low paying jobs so they can have a job at all. Like I said, the system is built to work best with 5% of those who can work and want to work being unable to find work. Not all Americans can prosper. We will always have poor among us.

Now I am not necessarily advocating the pure form of traditional Communism as a solution to this problem. If you look at Russia and China, pure Communism has not lasted very long in those countries – less than 100 years. Since moving into the Capitalist sphere, many in those countries are enjoying a better standard of living and the citizens like it. Even in Cuba, folks are finding Communism is just not working well any more. I think Communism is one of those things that works better in theory than in practice. No large society seems to be able to be happy with it for the long haul.

The second assumption I mentioned earlier is the even playing field. There are a number of factors that make it easier for some people to succeed than others. For the most part these are out of our control and are more about birthright than hard work. Here is an example from my life. My parents were able to pay for me to get a BA, from a good school, and I graduated at 22 with no debt. I soon married a man who also had a debt free BA from his parents. We met at this good school. My young husband’s salary was used to pay for my master’s degree as well as our living expenses in the early years of our marriage. That meant that when I went into the professional workforce, I was able to put all of my extra money into saving to buy our first house. One of my co-workers, who was very bright and hard working (probably more so than I was), had enormous debt from her undergraduate and graduate school college loans. Her parents had not been able to help with her educational costs. We did the same job and had the same wage, but I was able to put the down payment on a house within two years. Meanwhile she was struggling to make her rent payment, was up to her ears in debt, and was constantly worried about money. The only difference between us was the financial situation of our parents, and the fact that I was married and she was not. It wasn’t about us or our job performance or hard work.

This is an example of a phenomenon called “privilege”. I received economic benefits due to the circumstances of my birth rather than my own merits. Privilege can really rear its head in issues of race. For instance, many of us know that GI’s after World War II were able to use the new GI bill to buy homes and attend college. This contributed to remarkable upward mobility of millions of retuning veterans. But it didn’t work for everyone. Black GIs also had these housing benefits, but they could only use this financial advantage if their house qualified for a government loan. The racist real-estate practice of the time, called “red lining”, where black families were kept out of white neighborhoods, kept black GIs from being able to get these affordable home loans. Houses in predominantly black neighborhoods did not qualify for GI loans because of unstable property values. So a generation of white families saw a boom in home ownership and all the benefits this afforded, while black families did not. A generation later, white elders were then able to leave a home to their children or grandchildren when they died, where black elders were not. This legacy is impacting many families today. Thus the cycle of uneven advantage continues, even though red-lining has been illegal for many years now. I don’t have to have to have been the one who discriminated against a person of color in my hiring. I may have lived a life consistent with justice in my own actions, treating people of all races with equal respect, and yet I have benefited from the racism of our society through no action of my own. It is a legacy I was born with and there is not much I can do about that.

And then there are other ways that advantage leads to more advantage. Teens that don’t have to work after school and in the summer to make money to supplement the family income are able to take advantage of after school enrichment programs for higher education and unpaid internships in business. Taking part in one of these enrichment programs or internships not only affords kids great learning opportunities, but they make connections with future employers or people who can help them get into good colleges. These kids of privilege also meet other kids of privilege, which opens up even more connections and sets them up to feel like success is normal and expected. Meanwhile, the bright student who has to work in the convince store or fast food restaurant after school and in the summer is not making these connections and is less likely to be surrounded by peers who talk about their plans for higher education. If your parents and all their friends went to college, they will know how to help you choose a college and can help you with the daunting application process. If your parents and other extended family have never done this, they might be as confused as you are.

So the bottom line is that there are always going to be poor people in our current system. Some of those poor people are willing to work, but just can’t find a job. That is how the system is made even in good times. And often, the difference between folks who are doing well economically and those who are struggling is not a difference in their intellect, their ability, or their work ethic. Often times it is strongly influenced by factors beyond their control, like how much money their grandparent’s had. If we are lucky enough to enjoy privilege, we would be well advised to not take too much credit for it ourselves. Be humble. It was not all your strength that got you there. If we know someone who is at the bottom of the economic ladder, it may not be due to a direct personal weakness on their part. Given the facts, looking down on the poor just doesn’t make sense. There are some serious issues of injustice in America. Our success, or lack there of, in this system is often related to accidents of birth.

I have always lived a pretty middle class lifestyle. I have never been wealthy but I have always had enough food and always been able to go to the doctor if I was sick or hurt. I couldn’t be reckless, but if I really wanted something I could usually find a way to afford it. But something turned my world upside down about 2 years ago. I happened right after Christmas. My husband was laid off and local job prospects were grim. We were stunned. My son was able to get some student loans so he didn’t have to drop out of college. I was working in social work (not a lucrative profession) and we calculated that as long as we had absolutely no unexpected expenses, spent no money on anything even remotely recreational, and were able to keep his health benefits, that we could keep our house, and live on my salary and our savings for at least a year. After that – well – that was not so clear. The good news is that my husband was able to get a new job after a few months, but I learned some things about what it feels like to be in a different economic reality during that time in our lives.

I found that window shopping was no longer fun. I have always liked window shopping. I’m too cheap to buy much, but I like to look. Not buying was my choice. Suddenly, when I couldn’t buy things, window shopping became humiliating. Every time I saw something pretty I heard an internal voice telling me that I couldn’t have it no matter how much I liked it. The choice had been taken from me. It made going to the store, even the grocery store, depressing. No, we can’t afford to waste money on ice cream... that is for other people Sarah, but not for you. I couldn’t spend the money to take part in community events, like the local school fund raiser. In fact, my daughter had to ask for money from the scholarship fund in order to go on choir tour with her high school choir. I began to feel isolated from my friends. I feared losing our house, but I really feared losing our medical benefits even more. Without insurance we could be unable to get preventative medical care and would be financially decimated by a major illness. Doctors could just turn us away at the door and we might have to choose between very expensive ER visits or no medical care at all.

I felt angry, ashamed, resentful, afraid, lonely, and very much like my life was not under my control. I began to understand my low income social work clients in a way I have never understood them before – a hidden blessing in this experience I think. I felt like I was unable to take part in what I had considered normal American life. I wanted to but I was not able –on the outside– not allowed by my circumstances. Now I understood why my clients on food stamp would sometimes buy expensive cuts of meat that they really couldn’t afford and why they would collect pop cans to scrape together enough money to buy a lottery ticket. Sometimes you feel like you want to say yes to yourself and your family for a change. You want to live the way you believe you should be able to live. You don’t see any way you can get yourself out of this situation with hard work or careful spending and you figure a lottery ticket is better odds at financial success than getting rich on what you make.

This is sermon, so let’s talk about how all of this discussion of poverty relates to our values as people of faith. If we look at our Unitarian Universalist principles we read that UUs strive for “justice, equity, and compassion in human relations”. A system where it is impossible for everyone to succeed, where the opportunities are not the same for everyone, and where people feel shame and bitterness when they are not successful is not a system that embraces justice, equity or compassion. It actually flies in the face of our values. Something big has to change for our values to be upheld. Not only that, conditions for those who are unsuccessful at our economic game are unacceptable in a country as rich and bountiful as ours. Thousands of Americans don’t have enough food and don’t have warm and safe place to sleep. This is way past not being able to buy ice cream. It is about the basic necessities of life like food and shelter. This is unacceptable in a country where the wealthy have multiple vacation homes and even those in the upper middle class often have more bathrooms in their house than family members living in the house. And many Americans with jobs, the working poor, struggle with economic insecurity. They are often unable to make ends meet and forgo things like filling their prescriptions in order to pay the rent.

There is no easy solution to the problem of poverty in America. Barring armed revolution, which I don’t support, changes in our system are likely to be slow an incremental. Sitting and feeling powerless and overwhelmed won’t help. If you are not poor, feeling guilty about your prosperity won’t help either. What we can begin to do is try to make the system a little more fair and a little more compassionate – move things in the right direction. We do some of this at the ballot box. Support policies that ensure a living wage for the working poor and some redistribution of wealth. The rich can get a little less rich and the poor can get a little less poor. Support policy that will provide affordable health care for everyone – no exceptions. If we believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person on earth than we must support every person being able to get medical care regardless of their income, their age, or their immigration status. There is no reason for children to go without treatment for things like strep throat and asthma just because they are born into a poor family or they are on the wrong side of a national border. That is just wrong. We can work to support our public school system and keep it strong. Good, free, public education has been so important in giving opportunities to those children who have few educational opportunities anywhere else. And our public schools should include enrichment like music and art programs. If only those who can’t afford or can’t network their way into private schools are left in the public system, our public schools will surely provide dead end educations. This reinforces the privilege gap I talked about earlier. Those who have money or connections get a good education. Everyone else gets what’s left.

Last but not least, we need to support programs that meet the basic needs of the very poor. This includes government programs, like food stamps as well as private organizations, like the Glory Hole and the Food Pantry. There are going to be poor people with no jobs – at least 5% of us. We need to treat all people like people with worth and dignity and allow them to live without fear of going without food or shelter. And we need to remember that saying, “there but the grace of God go I”. The fact that you are not homeless may not be due exclusively to your own strengths, but may be related to a number of factors which are beyond your control.

Sharing our resources, and caring for those who don’t have enough, has a long legacy with people of all faiths. The first social welfare programs in Europe, in the middle ages, were poor boxes in the back of the church where landowners would put their extra harvest so the poor could get what they needed. Ancient Jewish practices in the Torah talk about gleaning and other forms of sharing between people. Jesus was very clear in his urging to care for the poor in his words and in his work to stand up to the oppressive Roman occupiers in his nation. One of the pillars of Islam is the zakah, to donate a portion of your wealth to benefit others and care for those in need. Buddhist teachings not only support the care of the poor but advise people to “right livelihood”, - making your money in ways that do not harm others. Even with the caste system, the Hindu faith also has a tradition of seeing the all people are fed and cared for. Look around America and around the world. A whole lot of the care that is given to people in need is given by people who are inspired by their religious faith to act in generous and compassionate ways.

What are we to do? Work for a more just system. Vote, write letters, sit on commissions – do what you can to work for a more just economic system in America. Help build policy that allows everyone can get their needs met. The work will be slow, but worth the effort. And give to those who have less than you have. Redistribute your wealth and give of your time as well. If you look in peoples faces you will see that we are not really so different form each other, the rich and the poor. All of us want what is best for our children. All of us worry what the future will bring. All of enjoy the spring sunshine and feel the cold wind of winter. All of us want to be treated with respect, to be recognized for our inherent worth and dignity. This act alone, the act of respect, is a powerful act of faith and calls on us to be our best selves.