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Here's an article which speaks to the assertation
that I made regarding the true state of this economy. The statistic that I
mentioned in my rant about the grand PooBah Greenspan (the traitor that has yet
to be unmasked by many) was that the inflation adjusted wage for the worker
today is below that in 1970 -- I stand by that claim and will see if I can
locate the article that documented it. If you think about it, how
else can you explain the necessity of two people per household being required to
work in order to survive (the major contributor to the decline of family values)
-- real wages have declined as inflation is rampant (energy prices which
feed into practically everything we consume), housing prices up nearly
everywhere in the US, drastically in many states. The CPI and PPI are
doctored (revised downward) based on subjective 'value/feature added benefits'
which are given an arbitrary value and then removed from the price of the goods
-- as if the consumer could remove the feature and not pay the additional
amount.
<FONT face=Arial
size=2>--------------------------------------------------
<A
href="http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/cnntime/";>http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/cnntime/
Left Out
Despite the portrait of glowing economic prosperity, many of
America's 72 million families feel they cannot make ends meet. They are the
Americans that prosperity forgot - working families that live paycheck to
paycheck amid the greatest economic boom in U.S. history. The number of
full-time workers living in poverty has doubled since the late 1970s as more and
more families, faced with the same problems of skyrocketing housing costs,
utilities, gas prices and childcare, are being pushed out onto the street -
literally. And those who work and remain poor are angry, not just because they
have been left behind, but because they also feel they are being ignored.
When Al Gore and George W. Bush speak of prosperity being on
the ballot and tax cuts for the middle class they seem to be talking right past
the working poor. For some families, just finding a place to sleep is a juggling
act. Spend some time with the Swavings and Holleys at the Dixon Lake campground
in San Diego County and what you get is a sense of desperation and the not so
subtle idea that the major presidential candidates are missing something.
By New Year's Day 2000, Chris Megison knew that there was
something wrong in San Diego County. For the past eight years, Megison and his
wife, Tammy, have operated a temporary winter shelter for the homeless in Vista,
California. Open from mid-December through mid-March, the shelter's clients have
been largely homeless single men and women. "This year, when we opened on
December 15th, our first customer was a woman with five children and soon our
emergency winter shelter looked like a daycare facility. There were kids
everywhere, " says Megison.
Faced with a 500% increase in the number of families with
children seeking shelter, Megison wanted to know why. He heard the same story,
over and over again. Skyrocketing rent prices, high utilities, and childcare
costs were driving people onto the street.
<TABLE align=right bgColor=#dddddd border=0 cellPadding=2 cellSpacing=0
width=150>
<IMG alt="" border=0 height=14
hspace=0
src="http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/cnntime/archives/images/video_red_icon.gif";
width=14>
VIDEO
<A
href="javascript:vod('/video/cnntime/2000/11/02/working.poor1.cnn.html')"><IMG
align=right alt="" border=0 height=45
src="http://www.cnn.com/video/cnntime/2000/11/02/working.poor1.vs.cnn.jpg";
width=55> Chris Megison talks about the
flood of families seeking shelter<A
href="javascript:vod('/video/cnntime/2000/11/02/working.poor1.cnn.html')">Play
video(QuickTime, Real or Windows
Media)
"These families that we're helping, more and more of them are
working. Seventy percent of the people we're helping had jobs. So this is much
different than what we saw a year ago, or two years ago," says Megison. "Mom and
Dad both have jobs and they're making a combined income of $30,000 a year, but
that's not enough. It's a mathematical certainty that when 60% of your income is
going to housing, sooner or later something is going to give, and that something
is usually your house."
San Diego is experiencing the strongest economy in years. The
region's drive to recruit high-tech and biotech companies means skilled workers
are moving there. They earn higher salaries and are driving up the cost of
living, especially housing costs. The vacancy rates in the county are at one
percent and the rents are two to three hundred dollars more a month than they
were a couple of years ago.
<TABLE align=right bgColor=#dddddd border=0 cellPadding=2 cellSpacing=0
width=150>
<IMG alt="" border=0 height=14
hspace=0
src="http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/cnntime/archives/images/video_red_icon.gif";
width=14>
VIDEO
<A
href="javascript:vod('/video/cnntime/2000/11/03/working.poor3.cnn.html')"><IMG
align=right alt="" border=0 height=45
src="http://www.cnn.com/video/cnntime/2000/11/02/working.poor3.vs.cnn.jpg";
width=55> Stephen and Tamara Daly share the
realities of working paycheck to paycheck<A
href="javascript:vod('/video/cnntime/2000/11/03/working.poor3.cnn.html')">Play
video(QuickTime, Real or Windows
Media)
Stephen and Tamara Daly live in the Brighton, Massachusetts
with their two children. He works nights as a security supervisor at a local
university; she works days as a nurse. Their gross annual income is about
$57,000.
Earlier this year, the owner of the house in which they had
been living for 7 years died and the Dalys were forced to move. "We were looking
at doubling our rent. We were telling real estate agents maybe $1,400, that's
what we were looking to rent, " says Tamara Daly.
<TABLE align=left bgColor=#dddddd border=0 cellPadding=0
cellSpacing=0 width=160>
<A
href="javascript:openWindow('workinggallery/frameset.exclude.html','windowname','toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,scrollbars=yes,resizable=no,width=550,height=500')">What
Can Boston's Workers Afford for HousingSource:
Boston Tenant Coalition
When there was nothing to be found in that price range, they
looked into moving further away from Boston. The prices were just as high.
According to the Boston Tenant Coalition, the average rent for a two-bedroom
apartment in the city has increased by 77% since the early 1990s. "For those who
think you can just move away from the problem, it's unrealistic. It's you
pushing the problem further away, but the problem still exists," says Stephen
Daly.
Today, Stephen Daly cuts a $1,550 rent check out of his $1,800
monthly paycheck. "My money is gone the day I get paid," says Stephen Daly. "And
when my wife is paid on Friday, we're broke Monday."
<TABLE align=right bgColor=#dddddd border=0 cellPadding=2 cellSpacing=0
width=150>
<IMG alt="" border=0 height=14
hspace=0
src="http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/cnntime/archives/images/video_red_icon.gif";
width=14>
VIDEO
<A
href="javascript:vod('/video/cnntime/2000/11/02/working.poor2.cnn.html')"><IMG
align=right alt="" border=0 height=45
src="http://www.cnn.com/video/cnntime/2000/11/02/working.poor2.vs.cnn.jpg";
width=55> Linda Barrington comments on the
rising numbers of working poor families<A
href="javascript:vod('/video/cnntime/2000/11/02/working.poor2.cnn.html')">Play
video(QuickTime, Real or Windows
Media)
Labor economist, Linda Barrington, authored The Conference
Board report on the working poor that was released in August. She found that
even in this period of unprecedented growth, the number of full-time workers in
poverty has doubled since the late 1970s. Among the explanatory factors,
Barrington says, "if we're thinking about the working poor, we need to
acknowledge what it costs to work. For example, what does it cost in childcare
if you're going to be a full-time, year round worker?"
<IMG align=left
border=2 height=100 hspace=8
src="http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/cnntime/archives/images/125/workingpoor/swavinglunch.jpg";
vspace=3 width=120>
Swaving family lunch
Robert and Michelle Swaving were living paycheck to paycheck
in Los Angeles. His income working for a home alarm company was equivalent to
their childcare costs. Last November, when his wife Michelle was offered a
lucrative job as the regional manager of an educational publishing company,
Robert decided to take on the role of house spouse. The move seemed to make
economic sense, and both parents felt their four children would be better off
not spending up to ten hours a day in daycare.
Then the market went into decline and Michelle's sales and
commission decreased. "Her second check was $3,600 for a week. Now, averaged out
through eight months, she's averaging unfortunately, about $2,000," says Robert
Swaving. "In this day and age, both parents have to work, regardless of how many
kids. Because if one parent falls, they both go. At least if both are working,
one can hold it together."
Unable to make ends meet on Michelle's income, the Swavings
made an agreement with their landlord to use their last savings to pay for half
of August's rent and move out two weeks early. "It's a catch-22, you just sink
and sink and sink, " says Swaving.
<IMG align=right
border=2 height=100 hspace=8
src="http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/cnntime/archives/images/125/workingpoor/picnictable.jpg";
vspace=3 width=120>
The Swaving family at Dixon Lake
CNN&TIME found the Swavings at their new home -- a tent at
the Dixon Lake campground in Escondido, California. They are not alone. "You
could drive by a campground today and say, 'Oh, look at all the campers here,'
and there's twenty or thirty families out there that are homeless, " says
Megison. "You don't see these people. They don't want you to know that they're
there."
Related Sites:<A
href="http://www.tiac.net/users/abcdc/";>Allston Brighton Community Development
Corporation<A
href="http://www.urban.org/workingpoor/playingtherules.html";>The Urban Institute
- Playing by the Rules, But Losing the Game<A
href="http://www.ufenet.org/press/divided_decade.html";>Divided Decade: Economic
Disparity at the Century's Turn<A
href="http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/nccp/cprb2txt.html";>National Center for
Children in Poverty<A
href="http://www.cssny.org/reports/databrief/databrief4_7_00.htm";>The Community
Service Society of New York<A
href="http://www.co.san-diego.ca.us/rtfh/home.html";>San Diego County Regional
Task Force on the HomelessIn
Search of Shelter: The Growing Shortage of Affordable Rental Housing<A
href="http://www.cbpp.org/";>Center on Budget and Policy Priorities<A
href="http://btc.excelland.com/";>Boston Tenant Coalition
You aint seen nothin
Yet.
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![http://www.cnn.com/video/cnntime/2000/11/02/working.poor3.vs.cnn.jpg"](http://www.cnn.com/video/cnntime/2000/11/02/working.poor3.vs.cnn.jpg"){kind=link}
![http://www.cnn.com/video/cnntime/2000/11/02/working.poor2.vs.cnn.jpg"](http://www.cnn.com/video/cnntime/2000/11/02/working.poor2.vs.cnn.jpg"){kind=link}
![http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/cnntime/archives/images/125/workingpoor/swavinglunch.jpg"](http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/cnntime/archives/images/125/workingpoor/swavinglunch.jpg"){kind=link}
![http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/cnntime/archives/images/125/workingpoor/picnictable.jpg"](http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/cnntime/archives/images/125/workingpoor/picnictable.jpg"){kind=link}