How poor people survive in the USA DW Documentary

[Newest Reality]

Homelessness, hunger and shame: poverty is rampant in the richest country in the world. Over 40 million people in the United States live below the poverty line, twice as many as it was fifty years ago. It can happen very quickly.

Many people in the United States fall through the social safety net. In the structurally weak mining region of the Appalachians, it has become almost normal for people to go shopping with food stamps. And those who lose their home often have no choice but to live in a car. There are so many homeless people in Los Angeles that relief organizations have started to build small wooden huts to provide them with a roof over their heads. The number of homeless children has also risen dramatically, reaching 1.5 million, three times more than during the Great Depression the 1930s. A documentary about the fate of the poor in the United States today.

(emphasis is mine)

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Reality Check Folks.

On pay check away is all it is to be in this situation. And for many,couch Surfing and living in Vans or Cars while earning this last paycheck is a Reality.

[marieo1]

2. Breaks in life

Oh, no, don't tax the rich!!! They have been raping this country for a long time. So they've had some breaks in life, it doesn't hurt them to pass some breaks along to the poor and other people. With all the wealth they have, they should be more than willing to help people that have nothing and have no way of getting ahead. When you're born in poverty and have no money for education, how can anyone get ahead? Most of the rich are disgusting. It all is about the breaks in life.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

5. We need to force the rich to pay taxes

They evict people at gunpoint.
Why not force the rich to pay their share at gunpoint.

Yes, I hate rich people.
It's so sad the poor in Appalachia
Are so brainwashed.

The rich are complicit in murder by proxy.

[Farmer-Rick]

3. A nation of sales clerks can't afford rent and food.

Let alone exorbitant medical services.

The filthy rich are killing us.

[Sherman A1]

8. And those sales clerk jobs are even now being automated away

We need a Universal Basic Income as proposed by Andrew Yang.

[Newest Reality]

12. Exactly!

Why this is not a distant issue for many people who think they are immune revolves around two factors:

The first is as you said, automation and AI are "coming for the jobs" rather quickly in the next phase of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. I am not all all satisfied with the meager response to what jobs will replace the one's lost and I see little resemblance here to previous revolutions and the outcomes.

I see little to nothing be done pragmatically to address what looks like a real and severe crises brewing right now, as per that documentary and other sources of information. It is as if this is largely being ignored because the reality of it is so disturbing about the real state of the ENTIRE economy, not just those whom it is working extremely well for right now, (and better than ever).

We could all be very concerned about the potential to lose our income and possessions and then find no alternatives or support after that. Unless you are really well to do and with plenty of assets in the upper-echelons or are living on a huge trust fund, this all may apply.

Why I make it an issue is that dealing with it now is better for everyone. Waiting means, sorry, too late for you!

You are right, something like UBI is essential to keep things rolling at all. At the end of the line, you need consumers to buy what is produced. They are JUST as important as the so-called "job creators", (what a joke) et al.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Good jobs, wages, and benefits

began declining after Reagan began the assault on organized labor. Wages are stagnant for 25-30 years. Meanwhile, life is about consumption, and paying for it all, with jobs that are stripped of wage growth and benefits. Good jobs were plentiful for laborers and factory workers when the USA manufactured goods here at home. Now, not very much.

Economist Lester Thurow in the 1980s told America we needed to produce goods that the world wants. The economies of nations are often built around investment in specific industries. At various times and various countries these have been dental products, BSR turntables, televisions and radios, cars. We make all those things, but so does everyone else nowadays. We have no comparative advantage. Post WWII we were the only major economy producing lots of everything because we were the ones left standing. We rode that for 40 years. What have we done lately?

[Skittles]

6. Reagan made greed and idiocy fashionable

I absolutely DESPISED him.

[Farmer-Rick]

9. A nation can supply good jobs to its citizens by promoting the manufacturing of basic necessities

But service jobs will never pay enough to support a family. There was a moment in time when England's majority occupation was service to the filthy rich. Waiting-on, feeding, dressing, cleaning for the filthy rich is what the average English man did. But those same servants always lived on the edge of poverty. Always hungry, always underpaid, always pushed to meet extreme labor demands the majority of servants ended up in poor houses in their old age. The rich man of the manor had no obligation to give them a pensions, take care of their illnesses or provide them with decent pay. So the poor houses were filled with those servants who could no longer meet the labor demands of the filthy rich.

This is the same thing that will happen to a nation of sales clerks. We do not have poor house....yet. But most of the elderly will never have a retirement because being a sales clerk does not pay and will never pay enough. In England, the people stopped servicing the filthy rich and took on manufacturing jobs as the world hit the industrial revolution. And manufacturing jobs paid better.

But we have allowed the American filthy rich to get rid of our manufacturing jobs and turn us all into a nation of sales clerk and servants.

I'm not sold on the universal basic income and I would like to see it in action. If we give say $20,000 to everyone it will only mean the price of everything will rise to meet that additional $20,000 everyone has now. Poverty level would be $20,000+ the current poverty level.

I think the solution is to transition out of capitalism into an economic system where we all share in the wealth we create. Get rid of stocks and owners and replace it with worker run manufacturing organizations. Share all the profits with workers, share all the decision making with workers, the workers take the place of the overpaid, corrupt and destructive CEOs and corporate boards.

[bucolic_frolic]

10. if you're a farmer you're familiar with production in-house, for home use

unbelievebly profitable and satisfying to do your own work at low cost. Saves $$$. But we all become experts in everything and wind up hiding in our basements and garages. Like ... you know, didn't GWB announce a solution to global warming that someone in Florida cooked up in his garage? Whatever happened to that?

[Farmer-Rick]

11. I've done that... value added sales instead of just raw farm produce

At first the regulations were prohibitively too expensive. But then TN relented.

When I first tried to sell my cage free chicken and duck eggs, there were these restrictions that the eggs had to be washed in bleach, in a special room that was only designed for washing eggs and with many restrictions on that room and adjacent house. I had to get an annual inspection to be able to sell my eggs. One of the restrictions was no pets in the house, not just the room. The house the room was in could not have pets. (These eggs come from the butts of messy chickens but pets are a problem if they live in the house where eggs are washed?) The room use to be a laundry room and was off the kitchen. In the living room two rooms away, I had my daughter's gold fish.

I failed my inspection and I could no longer sell eggs because one inspector said fish were pets and I had to be remove them from my house. I was NOT going to get rid of my daughter's gold fish and what about all those restaurants that have aquariums or lobster tanks? Why are they allowed to cook food near "pets"?

It was ridiculous regulations like this that prevented small farmers from competing with the corporate producers. It was kind of weird because about that time they had that huge tainted egg scare where millions of eggs had been contaminated with salmonella. The eggs were from Ohio and the facilities where the eggs were wash had not been inspected in over 7 year. But my place was inspected every year.

About 3 years later TN changed the law.

Regulations are good and they are necessary but they need to be reasonable and not designed to limit the small guys.

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. Washing removes the coating on eggs that keeps them from being contaminated.

That coating is what keeps the eggs healthy, which is why a hen can lay a clutch of eggs over a few days time and they all hatch at the same time once she starts setting.
The only time I washed my chicken's eggs was when i was gonna crack them. They can stay fresh for 3 weeks in the fridge.

When I sold my eggs, I told people to wash them before using.
but, luckily for me, I am talking about a rural local farmer's market we had, some years ago.
Different time entirely.

[Farmer-Rick]

23. Yeah, I know, but TN insisted I wash off that natural coating

And when I did, my eggs rotted quicker. Stupid regulations.

[Uncle Joe]

7. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread Newest Reality.

[Newest Reality]

13. Thanks for the K&R

I am very glad that this thread has had some visibility and comments. That's comforting.

We have a real crisis here, but it is not getting enough exposure even though it is growing.

[erronis]

14. This touches on so many ways that the "American Dream" isn't. Thank you

for giving us this view.

I wish some of those people that are being actively harmed by the corporatist$ would be able to watch.

[Newest Reality]

15. Thanks for watching and caring.

It is an issue that is helped by more awareness of what's going on.

We seem to be getting a rosy picture as far as the "economy" and such go, but for whom?

Getting this out in the open is, at the very least, a step. To know about it is a good start.

[geretogo]

16. This is the result of 40 years of trickle down poverty brought to us by Ronnie Raygun . I never

heard of homelessness before 1980 .

[Multichromatic]

17. Unbelievable!

How disgusting our country has become. In 3rd world America you can half starve to death, be forced to live out of your car in a parking lot, and STILL be working a full time job! After all that hell some of these people still vote for Trump.

[PatrickforO]

18. I watched this. It is very painful to see how these working poor have to live in our

capitalist utopia.

THIS is why I say we need to repeal the giant 2017 tax cut for billionaire parasites and corporations, and instead replace it with a confiscatory tax system that makes the billionaires into millionaires and puts enough money into the treasury to fund programs that materially help the American people.

Like health care.

Like expanded Social Security.

Like debt-free college.

Like massive infrastructure modernization.

Like a green new deal.

And, we need a SANE job training system that is tied to economic development so at the same time we're retraining coal miners and oil roustabouts, we are bringing in jobs they will be able to do and MAKE A DECENT LIVING.

[Newest Reality]

19. Good list!

Let me add: Affordable housing. That's extremely critical issue that is contributing to the problems we face.

The only problem with the job training idea, in the long run, is what to train for. The next wave of industrial revolution is going to take away jobs, (think of telephone operators) from blue collar to white. We need a moratorium on this before it gets too deep or the suffering, poverty and loss could take most of us, (except for the wealthy) fully into a 3rd-World situation. We are, in many ways, already there.

Notice how the list of priorities are not currently being treated as such, except for the mentions from various democratic candidates right now. One thing about Yang, (no endorsement here) is he sees the above problem clearly enough to start a conversation and we really need to get on this like yesterday.

The money addicts need to go into rehab or their "enough is never enough" approach that is being enabled by this system could have drastic impacts on the lives of the people locally and globally. They may feel immune up there, but we, collectively, are what holds them up and that point needs to be driven home.

Thanks!

[PatrickforO]

20. What we've seen over decades has been dramatic, breakthrough increases

in productivity with stagnant wages due to union busting and the whole neoliberal deal.

As to job training, I know because I'm in that system. We're generally much better now at achieving business-relevant outcomes at a living wage. Problem is, we only have enough money to serve maybe 5% of the people who are eligible.

Now, if you look at the most recent permutation, the Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act (WIOA), you will see that we are now 'married' to economic development in that they are formally recognized as a stakeholder. In my state, we have worked successfully and closely with ED partners for many years, and we are often consulted on labor force availability.

A couple of good things are happening:

- Sector partnerships. These are local-business led groups that have common critical skills needs around staffing. These groups usually have an industry champion, but we serve the convening role since businesses don't generally have time to 'herd the cats.' The obvious value of this is that companies in the same general industry grouping are now working together (applied SOCIALISM! as I often like to say) cooperatively around this training pipeline issue, and pushing back on the schools to modify or upgrade curriculum to meet business need. So that's good, because upwards of 80% of people really don't need a degree if we're honest.

- We are now at the table statewide in terms of planning the training pipeline, and the ED partners on our local and states boards of directors listen and work to attract business in primary industries.

- Our governor is a visionary, which is great. He wants 900 plug in cars on the roads by 2035, and our power utility has announced it will be 100% carbon free by 2050, and by 2035 will be 85% carbon free. That's pretty cool. Lots of effort at policy level here around renewable energy and conservation.

But, yeah, that was my point earlier. You've got to play both sides of the equation. Yes, you can train people, but you'd better, at the same time, be making effort to bring in businesses with good jobs that will employ the people you're training. Can't have one without the other. Not a problem here along Colorado's front range, generally, because of full employment, and we have a very diverse economy.

It is a problem, though, in rural areas and in areas that are excessively dependent on things like coal mines. That's where we need some real smarts applied to economic development strategy.

At least that's my observation from the peanut gallery.

Oh, and affordable housing. Yes, a must. This is a real hard issue to grapple with. Developers develop and they don't make as much money on 'affordable' housing. That's a role of local government, and if you have a strong local government, you can bring some sanity into your mid- and long-term urban planning around housing for middle wage earners - around here that's around $17 to $25 per hour. They have to have places to live that they can afford because if they are paying above 30-35% of their gross on housing they aren't buying local goods and services like they should. Same with student loans. Every dollar that is remitted to student loan payments is a dollar that does not go to purchase local goods and services. It also hurts the sales tax base.

[Newest Reality]

21. Thanks!

I appreciate you taking the time to document some of the proactive work being done there. That sheds some light on the gloom.


Thank you.