What Is Poverty? Surely It Not Heading Your Way, Is It?
by Sarah Anne Edwards
author, Middle-Class Lifeboat
When John Edwards pulled out of the Presidential primary this week, analysts blamed his inability to connect with voters on his message of ending poverty in America. My response was “poverty?” Is that what John Edwards was talking about? I thought he was talking about the protecting the financial security of the everyday working middle class.
That got me to thinking … just what is poverty these days? When I worked for the War on Poverty in the 1960’s, poverty was about those among us who went to bed hungry every night, who lived on the streets, who didn’t have jobs, or who lived in tenements and rural shacks. There are still the poor among us in this sense, but since that time millions of people in the US have risen out of that kind of poverty.
But now millions of the non-poor folks are wondering if they’re only one illness or one lay off away from poverty. Why? When the average household is carrying $9,000 of debt, not including a mortgage, and the cost of health insurance for one year is rising above a minimum-wage annual income, when the average home price in some parts of the country exceeds $400,000 and the cost of a tank of gas to get to work and back can be $60, it’s no wonder.
If we’re feeling less secure about our futures, maybe the seemingly impossible specter of poverty of is lurking around in the back of our psyches. If we own a home, with the tightening on credit for home equity loans that home is no longer a source of standby cash in case of an emergency. To the contrary the sub-prime mortgage situation means 1.3 million homes were already in foreclosure in 2007 and another 1.7 million homeowners face the possibility of losing their homes due to steep increases in their monthly mortgage payments due in the next 11 months. That’s more than the number of people who live in all but the four largest US cities.
Whatever our mortgage, the prospect of selling our home for a gain is looking more and more unlikely. For those of us who were hoping to buy our first home, with housing prices stuck in the stratosphere and credit tightening, that dream seems increasing unlikely.
Then with health insurance cost rising, more employers are dropping or passing on a portion of the heavy costs of health insurance to us, while insurance companies are denying coverage for growing numbers of the most of common health problems. To top that off, the economy just shed 17,000 jobs this months instead of adding the 100,000 new jobs that are needed each month …. so…
Hey! Yes, poverty, even for those of us who have always considered that word reserved for someone else, not somebody like me, is a real honest to goodness possibility. It’s important that we take this possibility seriously, read seriously. But it’s equally important that we not get paralyzed it, but instead get proactive real quick! Proactive, as in:
1. Stabilizing our housing situation, even if it means selling for less than we hoped, planned, or even need to maintain our current level of consumption
2. Simplifying our lives so that we can pay off our debts and use the income that’s been going to interest to invest in ourselves, be it to qualify for a more stable job or re-locate to a lower-cost part of the country.
3. Connecting with our local community to enjoy a wealth of cashless ways to extend our income and avoid further debt.
4. And most of all, changing our definition of what it means to have a good life from one of the constant financial stress of earning and buying more and more to one of having a secure life we can afford that provides us with both enjoyment and the peace of mind.
So, let’s not get freaked out or bail out. Let’s find out what we can do and take the initiative to do it … NOW.