Read Disclaimer Clause First and Last
In my 1994-1995 ethnographic evaluation research in Kansas City, with the University of Kansas, on a national anti-poverty demonstration project, that was conducted across different cities and towns throughout America, I had a chance to interview a group of mothers over their forced "welfare-to-work" training program, and its poor success. They were able to demonstrate to me, what later research confirmed, that being on welfare was not only hard enough economically, but working, in poorly paying jobs with few benefits, made their economic condition worse. Something Conservatives, who love to shame and stigmatize welfare recipients and the welfare system, never admit.
It was hard enough for many single mothers to manage their rent, even in dilapidated buildings in run down neighborhoods, let alone pay for food, electricity and heating for themselves and their children. But when these women are forced to work, usually in low status jobs with poor pay and no benefit, they incur additional expenses that did not exist when they were on welfare.
Working mothers have to pay for childcare, health care, dental care, transportation and other miscellaneous expenses that they do not have to worry about when on welfare. It was obvious to me, during my research more than fifteen years ago, that the men who had designed welfare policies and welfare-to-work programs had not lived, or even observed up-close, the lives of women they were affecting. There was a social-economic-gender distance, fed by race, class and sex, between welfare program designers, enforcers, and aid-cutters and the poor single mothers of color trying to survive on a measly handout.
Michael Moore's touching film The Big One, made in the 90s, about the corporate mentality that had taken over some State governments, had a scene where a group of Black welfare mothers attempted to convince a Wisconsin legislator, who is supposed to represent them, that they wanted to work...if they could get a job, and the job provided enough so they did not have to beg, borrow or bow to hunger in the middle of a pay cycle.
These women, of course, were at the extreme end of poverty that most working and middle class protesters at the Wisconsin march of 2011 do not belong to. These poor mothers were begging to not have $50 or $100 cut from their meagre welfare checks. They were not protesting against benefit cuts or the repeal of collective bargaining rights. So, why did Wisconsinites take this long to wake up to what minority and some immigrant women have been acutely struggling with for a long time in their own State?
There is a popular belief that problems in the US do not receive social recognition, attention and importance unless it affects rich White boys or mainstream (middle class) America. Feminists have often joked on how "abortion" would be a sacrament if American Conservative Anglo men could get pregnant. Inner city Blacks, concerned about gangs and school violence, predicted that these problems, once hidden and segregated to poor minority communities, would receive public and policy attention only when it spilled over to middle class or/and suburban America. Problems with schools, guns, drugs and mental health services for our youth (or lack of one) did become part of our national debate and public policy concern with the shooting in Columbine - a predominantly Anglo community in the State of Colorado.
Middle America, Middle Class America and Mainstream America have woken up to problems that plagued immigrants, minorities, people of color, women and the poor mostly, and sometimes exclusively. But is this wake-up "too little too soon" as Michale Moore, a Middle Class Midwesterner, claims?
Are we, as Michael Lewis (of The Big Short, 2011, fame) and I worry, merely tweaking some marginal policies rather than doing real structural reform in Wisconsin and elsewhere?
The protests in Wisconsin are understandable and require support...but have too many changes already been introduced into our system that make it impossible for real reform - beyond a mere negotiation over breadcrumbs?
States' assertion to gain control over our debt and deficit is admirable - though the processes and the controversies (on what should be cut and how much) are going to be painful and difficult. But will the right decisions that balance responsible fiscal spending with socio-economic justice be made...and adequately implemented? That is a trillion dollar question! The two critical issues are at loggerheads - not in a long conversation and collaboration as they should!
America is still at the top on many things - though it maybe failing. But, as Niel Ferguson of Harvard University admits, "We maybe at the top of a cliff...a great place to feel good, important and superior from. But you can also fall off a cliff!"
Of course, the most realistic Americans - optimistic or pessimistic - are still at the bottom. Like the poor everywhere they endure more, they are more humble, they are more generous and they see America with the kind of eyes that few in the middle or at the top do.
My homeless friend Jim in Berkeley, California, noted, "We are not superior or exceptional. We are not that stupid either. We have a hard time saying, 'I am an average Joe' without becoming mediocre. I find homeless peers of mine more sensible, fair and value reading (more homeless people in California read voluntarily than high school students), than the guys driving nice cars and throwing profanities at me. We Americans always find one thing to blame, fixate on or fix. To create improvements, not just changes, we need a whole lot of people doing a whole lot of things at many levels of our system! If I were elected I'd start with education...I read and write better than kids who work in WalMart and K-Mart, and then our elections. We have too many elections, too much campaign money in those elections and too many candidates focused on the election victory exclusively. How are we ever going to have a smart citizen' society with that kind of a system?"
This from a homeless guy who pretty much says what academics at Harvard, Stanford, USC (my Alma mater)...have been saying - except he puts it crudely.
Bruce Jannson in his brilliant book The Sixteen Trillion Dollar Mistake: How the U.S. Bungled its National Priorities from FDR to Clinton (2001) admits that honest numbers, gotten through reliable and valid data, beyond a level can not digress too much from the truth - though it can be distorted or hidden for political reasons. And the numbers tell us, loud, bright and clear, that social security, medicare and defense budget alone are going to eat up 35% of our GDP.
Added to this horrific truth is the fact - that Neil Ferugson, an economist at Harvard, also admits - interest alone on the treasury debt, not the defense debt, is going to be hard to pay off. Lot of the debt numbers that have been presented to the public do not include defense borrowing. Imagine if it did?
It is easy, amidst this growing pain, frustration and fear, to blame incompetent or inefficient government. That is what profitable businesses, an ignorant public and private media like to do.
American government is not big, bad or bold (with excessive spending). That is a myth! Small government is not necessarily better, efficient or relevant. And spending cuts, without smart planning and hard choices, are not going to save money. Axing aid and assistance to the poor, while subsidizing agribusinesses, bailing out failing financial companies and providing benefits to the rich - old or young, is going to suffocate America, and may push the economy over the cliff.
The real American terrorist might not be some Al-Queda bogeyman wearing pyjamas and a turban. It may be the idiots on all sides who are not thinking right...or doing right!
With growing classism, racism, sexism, xenophobia and Islamaphobia we are forgetting "Thinkingphobia" and "Truthophobia" - fear of thinking and fear of the truth - that is all too prevalent.
Even Tea Party advocates have become soft on their rants and raves about "closing Congress" over extending the ceiling on the national debt...and they have been in Washington less than two months. Few want a shutdown as, unlike Brussels, a shutdown here will be a meltdown. But if young passionate newcomers to Washington, elected representatives who made big statements, gestures, proposals and promises, cannot use a simple vote on a policy they hold dear...imagine these guys, and their peers, making structural changes? It is not happening!
Is Wisconsin fifteen years too late, as Michael Moore claimed? Try thirty! In 1981 Wisconsin passed the Economic Recovery Tax Act which allowed tax-free stock exchanges, tax deductions for merger loans, lower capital gains tax rates - that actually invited big mergers and acquisitions to occur.
Its been downhill for social and economic justice in Wisconsin, and like States, since then!
In my 1994-1995 ethnographic evaluation research in Kansas City, with the University of Kansas, on a national anti-poverty demonstration project, that was conducted across different cities and towns throughout America, I had a chance to interview a group of mothers over their forced "welfare-to-work" training program, and its poor success. They were able to demonstrate to me, what later research confirmed, that being on welfare was not only hard enough economically, but working, in poorly paying jobs with few benefits, made their economic condition worse. Something Conservatives, who love to shame and stigmatize welfare recipients and the welfare system, never admit.
It was hard enough for many single mothers to manage their rent, even in dilapidated buildings in run down neighborhoods, let alone pay for food, electricity and heating for themselves and their children. But when these women are forced to work, usually in low status jobs with poor pay and no benefit, they incur additional expenses that did not exist when they were on welfare.
Working mothers have to pay for childcare, health care, dental care, transportation and other miscellaneous expenses that they do not have to worry about when on welfare. It was obvious to me, during my research more than fifteen years ago, that the men who had designed welfare policies and welfare-to-work programs had not lived, or even observed up-close, the lives of women they were affecting. There was a social-economic-gender distance, fed by race, class and sex, between welfare program designers, enforcers, and aid-cutters and the poor single mothers of color trying to survive on a measly handout.
Michael Moore's touching film The Big One, made in the 90s, about the corporate mentality that had taken over some State governments, had a scene where a group of Black welfare mothers attempted to convince a Wisconsin legislator, who is supposed to represent them, that they wanted to work...if they could get a job, and the job provided enough so they did not have to beg, borrow or bow to hunger in the middle of a pay cycle.
These women, of course, were at the extreme end of poverty that most working and middle class protesters at the Wisconsin march of 2011 do not belong to. These poor mothers were begging to not have $50 or $100 cut from their meagre welfare checks. They were not protesting against benefit cuts or the repeal of collective bargaining rights. So, why did Wisconsinites take this long to wake up to what minority and some immigrant women have been acutely struggling with for a long time in their own State?
There is a popular belief that problems in the US do not receive social recognition, attention and importance unless it affects rich White boys or mainstream (middle class) America. Feminists have often joked on how "abortion" would be a sacrament if American Conservative Anglo men could get pregnant. Inner city Blacks, concerned about gangs and school violence, predicted that these problems, once hidden and segregated to poor minority communities, would receive public and policy attention only when it spilled over to middle class or/and suburban America. Problems with schools, guns, drugs and mental health services for our youth (or lack of one) did become part of our national debate and public policy concern with the shooting in Columbine - a predominantly Anglo community in the State of Colorado.
Middle America, Middle Class America and Mainstream America have woken up to problems that plagued immigrants, minorities, people of color, women and the poor mostly, and sometimes exclusively. But is this wake-up "too little too soon" as Michale Moore, a Middle Class Midwesterner, claims?
Are we, as Michael Lewis (of The Big Short, 2011, fame) and I worry, merely tweaking some marginal policies rather than doing real structural reform in Wisconsin and elsewhere?
The protests in Wisconsin are understandable and require support...but have too many changes already been introduced into our system that make it impossible for real reform - beyond a mere negotiation over breadcrumbs?
States' assertion to gain control over our debt and deficit is admirable - though the processes and the controversies (on what should be cut and how much) are going to be painful and difficult. But will the right decisions that balance responsible fiscal spending with socio-economic justice be made...and adequately implemented? That is a trillion dollar question! The two critical issues are at loggerheads - not in a long conversation and collaboration as they should!
America is still at the top on many things - though it maybe failing. But, as Niel Ferguson of Harvard University admits, "We maybe at the top of a cliff...a great place to feel good, important and superior from. But you can also fall off a cliff!"
Of course, the most realistic Americans - optimistic or pessimistic - are still at the bottom. Like the poor everywhere they endure more, they are more humble, they are more generous and they see America with the kind of eyes that few in the middle or at the top do.
My homeless friend Jim in Berkeley, California, noted, "We are not superior or exceptional. We are not that stupid either. We have a hard time saying, 'I am an average Joe' without becoming mediocre. I find homeless peers of mine more sensible, fair and value reading (more homeless people in California read voluntarily than high school students), than the guys driving nice cars and throwing profanities at me. We Americans always find one thing to blame, fixate on or fix. To create improvements, not just changes, we need a whole lot of people doing a whole lot of things at many levels of our system! If I were elected I'd start with education...I read and write better than kids who work in WalMart and K-Mart, and then our elections. We have too many elections, too much campaign money in those elections and too many candidates focused on the election victory exclusively. How are we ever going to have a smart citizen' society with that kind of a system?"
This from a homeless guy who pretty much says what academics at Harvard, Stanford, USC (my Alma mater)...have been saying - except he puts it crudely.
Bruce Jannson in his brilliant book The Sixteen Trillion Dollar Mistake: How the U.S. Bungled its National Priorities from FDR to Clinton (2001) admits that honest numbers, gotten through reliable and valid data, beyond a level can not digress too much from the truth - though it can be distorted or hidden for political reasons. And the numbers tell us, loud, bright and clear, that social security, medicare and defense budget alone are going to eat up 35% of our GDP.
Added to this horrific truth is the fact - that Neil Ferugson, an economist at Harvard, also admits - interest alone on the treasury debt, not the defense debt, is going to be hard to pay off. Lot of the debt numbers that have been presented to the public do not include defense borrowing. Imagine if it did?
It is easy, amidst this growing pain, frustration and fear, to blame incompetent or inefficient government. That is what profitable businesses, an ignorant public and private media like to do.
American government is not big, bad or bold (with excessive spending). That is a myth! Small government is not necessarily better, efficient or relevant. And spending cuts, without smart planning and hard choices, are not going to save money. Axing aid and assistance to the poor, while subsidizing agribusinesses, bailing out failing financial companies and providing benefits to the rich - old or young, is going to suffocate America, and may push the economy over the cliff.
The real American terrorist might not be some Al-Queda bogeyman wearing pyjamas and a turban. It may be the idiots on all sides who are not thinking right...or doing right!
With growing classism, racism, sexism, xenophobia and Islamaphobia we are forgetting "Thinkingphobia" and "Truthophobia" - fear of thinking and fear of the truth - that is all too prevalent.
Even Tea Party advocates have become soft on their rants and raves about "closing Congress" over extending the ceiling on the national debt...and they have been in Washington less than two months. Few want a shutdown as, unlike Brussels, a shutdown here will be a meltdown. But if young passionate newcomers to Washington, elected representatives who made big statements, gestures, proposals and promises, cannot use a simple vote on a policy they hold dear...imagine these guys, and their peers, making structural changes? It is not happening!
Is Wisconsin fifteen years too late, as Michael Moore claimed? Try thirty! In 1981 Wisconsin passed the Economic Recovery Tax Act which allowed tax-free stock exchanges, tax deductions for merger loans, lower capital gains tax rates - that actually invited big mergers and acquisitions to occur.
Its been downhill for social and economic justice in Wisconsin, and like States, since then!
Very astute observations!
ReplyDeleteNot directly connected to this, but what you said about government 'subsidizing agrobusiness' triggered my recollection of what an Indian scientist and activist, Dr. Vandana Shiva, had to say about Monsanto, one of the largest players in the agribusiness. The company's devious strategies have put thousands and thousands of farmers in many developing countries in severe debt and resulted in large numbers of these farmers commiting suicide. Dr.Shiva says that had anyone else been directly responsible for such large numbers of deaths, it would have been labeled as 'genocide.' But (naturally) Corporate Giant Monsanto gets away with it.
Loved the word coinage 'thinkingphobia' and 'truthophobia.' May I also add another disease that singularly strikes these Corporates 'humane-o-phobia.'