Talking about Poverty

          Americans don’t like to talk much about the poor. Our own families are barely making it. Besides, the American Dream is to get out of poverty, to create a better life for the next generation. So we don’t talk much about it. We have Government programs for that sort of thing anyway. We’re perfectly comfortable criticizing how much money Government spends on “welfare programs”. See, we’re talking about the poor already. Good job.

          Most of us don’t think there’s that many “poor” people around anyway. Most of the people we know are Middle Class, right? There might be poor areas in our town, but we don’t go there or think about them. We might think of the poor as comprised of single welfare mothers gaming the system, drug addicts, lazy bums who want a handout, or “disabled” people who don’t want to work. I also include those punk kids who need to get off my lawn. For many of us, poverty stems inherently from moral flaws.

          Surely, the good old US of A, the golden land of opportunity, doesn’t have too many poor people when compared with other countries. A report a few months ago by the OECD comparing the US with other countries reported that 17.3% of the US population is in poverty. This rate places the US 31 out of 34 developed nations. Only Mexico (21%), Chile (18.4%) & Israel  (19.9%) had higher percentages of poverty in their populations. Lower rates of poverty are noted in such luminary places as South America and Eastern Europe. The world landscape is changing. In addition, social mobility (the American Dream) is much higher in Europe than in America. What’s wrong with that picture?

          Comparing the poverty rate of European countries with our own, the UK (11.1%), and those damn socialists France (9.9%) and Germany (7.1%) had a much lower rate than our own. The average for all developed countries was 11%, much lower than our own.

          If we compare childhood poverty across developed nations, the United States led the pack (we’re number one..whoo) with a rate of 20.6%. Contrast this with Germany (16.3% Note they have a MUCH higher child poverty rate than their adult poverty rate), )Japan (13.7%), Australia (11.8%), the UK (10.1%), and those damn socialists in France (7.1%). Yep, wouldn’t wanna be France.

          We might need to fix the social safety net if it’s broken. Well, it seems to be broken in the area of child poverty. Studies indicate that when children grow up in harsh poverty, they are more likely to drop out of high school, use drugs, commit crimes, be unemployed, have children out of wedlock, and get sick. In other words, poverty leads to unproductive and economically costly outcomes. This perpetuates the cycle of poverty.

          Well, all these kids need is a good education, right? Longitudinal studies of smart middle school kids show those in poverty are less likely to finish college and make much lower income over their lifetime, thus perpetuating the cycle of poverty. Can we please talk about poverty now?

          When infant mortality (deaths during the first year) rates are compared, the US is again number one (whoo, number one) compared to other industrialized countries. For persons remembering a different ranking for our country, the world is changing. Our infant mortality rate is 6.6% (6 deaths per thousand). Europe is around 4% and Japan is lowest with 3.2%. Many mothers in America don’t have access to prenatal care. Malnutrition and poor childhood health care lay the foundation for poor lifelong health and huge costs for taxpayers. Our health facilities and opportunities for those in poverty were worse than for other developed nations, perpetuating the cycle of poverty.

          As previously mentioned, social mobility, the ability to get ahead economically, has stalled in the United States for persons in the lower socioeconomic 50%. I point out that includes much of the Middle Class population. It also means that children born into poverty are likely to stay in poverty. 42% of kids born to fathers whose income was in the bottom 1/5 of the country stayed in poverty. Compare this with the percentages of other nations such as the UK (30%) and those damn socialists in Northern Europe (27%). The socialists in Northern Europe have twice the social mobility as the United States. The world is changing.

          Child poverty is reversible. Tony Blair’s Labor government made child poverty (which was much higher than ours in the mid-90s) a priority and halved the rate in ten years. Comparatively, our rates have increased since the 1990s. It might be wise if we make poverty a priority here. In order to make poverty a priority, we have to view it as important enough to include in the national dialogue, along with the merit of Whitney Houston tributes. Can we all please talk about poverty now?