XPost: uk.politics.misc, alt.politics.british, alt.conspiracy.princess-diana   
   XPost: alt.conspiracy, alt.conspiracy.new-world-order, alt.america   
   XPost: us.politics   
   From: vandar69@yahoo.com   
      
   oO wrote:   
   > The High Cost of Being Poor   
   >   
   > By Barbara Ehrenreich, AlterNet. Posted July 21, 2006.   
   >   
   > From food prices to auto insurance, when did poverty get so expensive?   
   >   
   > There are people, concentrated in the Hamptons and Beverly Hills, who still   
   > confuse poverty with the simple life. No cable TV, no altercations with the   
   > maid, no summer home maintenance issues -- just the basics like family,   
   > sunsets and walks in the park. What they don't know is that it's expensive   
   > to be poor.   
   >   
   > In fact, you, the reader of middling income, could probably not afford it. A   
   > new study from the Brookings Institute documents the "ghetto tax," or higher   
   > cost of living in low-income urban neighborhoods. It comes at you from every   
   > direction, from food prices to auto insurance. A few examples from this   
   > study, by Matt Fellowes, that covered 12 American cities:   
   >   
   >   
   >   a.. Poor people are less likely to have bank accounts, which can be   
   > expensive for those with low balances, and so they tend to cash their pay   
   > checks at check-cashing businesses, which in the cities surveyed, charged $5   
   > to $50 for a $500 check.   
      
   If they're poor, they don't have $500 checks to cash.   
      
   >   b.. Nationwide, low-income car buyers, defined as people earning less than   
   > $30,000 a year, pay two percentage points more for a car loan than more   
   > affluent buyers.   
      
   Poor people don't buy new cars. They buy jinkers from "old man Joe" down   
   the street for $250   
      
   >   c.. Low-income drivers pay more for car insurance. In New York, Baltimore   
   > and Hartford, they pay an average $400 more a year to insure the exact same   
   > car and driver risk than wealthier drivers.   
      
   Bullshit. My auto insurance company has no clue whatsoever how much   
   money I make. It's none of their business and they don't have a right to   
   know.   
      
   >   d.. Poorer people pay an average of one percentage point more in mortgage   
   > interest.   
      
   Poor people don't have mortgages.   
      
   >   e.. They are more likely to buy their furniture and appliances through   
   > pricey rent-to-own businesses. In Wisconsin, the study reports, a $200   
   > rent-to-own TV set can cost $700 with the interest included.   
      
   Where does this guy get this shit from? Poor people don't buy their   
   furniture and appliances through rent-to-own stores, they buy it (or   
   have it given to them) from someone in the next building or the   
   occassional yard sale.   
      
   >   f.. They are less likely to have access to large supermarkets and hence to   
   > rely on the far more expensive, and lower quality offerings, of small   
   > grocery and convenience stores.   
      
   What? Less likely to have access to large supermarkets!?   
   Do the automatic doors not open for the poor?   
      
   > I didn't live in any ghettoes when I worked on Nickle and Dimed --a trailer   
   > park, yes, but no ghetto -- and on my average wage of $7 an hour, or about   
   > $14,400 a year, I wasn't in the market for furniture, a house or a car.   
      
   Which means the above analysis is crap.   
      
   > But   
   > the high cost of poverty was brought home to me within a few days of my   
   > entry into the low-wage life, when, slipping into social-worker mode, I   
   > chastised a co-worker for living in a motel room when it would be so much   
   > cheaper to rent an apartment. Her response: Where would she get the first   
   > month's rent and security deposit it takes to pin down an apartment? The   
   > lack of that amount of capital -- probably well over $1,000 -- condemned her   
   > to paying $40 a night at the Day's Inn.   
      
   There are myriad places to get the initial capital. Tell her to get off   
   her ass and find it.   
      
   > Then there was the problem of sustenance. I had gone into the project   
   > imagining myself preparing vast quantities of cheap, nutritious soups and   
   > stews, which I would freeze and heat for dinner each day. But surprise: I   
   > didn't have the proverbial pot to pee in, not to mention spices or   
   > Tupperware. A scouting trip to K-Mart established that it would take about a   
   > $40 capital investment to get my kitchenette up to speed for the low-wage   
   > way of life.   
   >   
   > The food situation got only more challenging when I, too, found myself   
   > living in a motel. Lacking a fridge and microwave, all my food had to come   
   > from the nearest convenience store (hardboiled eggs and banana for   
   > breakfast) or, for the big meal of the day, Wendy's or KFC. I have no   
   > nutritional complaints; after all, there is a veggie, or flecks of one, in   
   > Wendy's broccoli and cheese baked potato. The problem was financial. A   
   > double cheeseburger and fries is lot more expensive than that hypothetical   
   > homemade lentil stew.   
   >   
   > There are other tolls along the road well-traveled by the working poor. If   
   > your credit is lousy, which it is likely to be, you'll pay a higher deposit   
   > for a phone. If you don't have health insurance, you may end taking that   
   > feverish child to an emergency room, and please don't think of ER's as   
   > socialized medicine for the poor. The average cost of a visit is over   
   > $1,000, which is over ten times more than what a clinic pediatrician would   
   > charge.   
      
   And wherever they get the $1000 to pay that bill is where they can get   
   the cash for security on an apartment.   
      
   > Or you neglect that hypertension, diabetes or mystery lump until you   
   > end up with a $100,000 problem on your hands.   
   >   
   > So let's have a little less talk about how the poor should learn to manage   
   > their money, and a little more attention to all the ways that money is being   
   > systematically siphoned off. Yes, certain kinds of advice would be helpful:   
   > skip the pay-day loans and rent-to-pay furniture, for example. But we need   
   > laws in more states to stop predatory practices like $50 charges for check   
   > cashing.   
      
   Bullshit. Business is business. No one is forcing them to cash their   
   checks there. Open a bank account.   
      
   > Also, think what some microcredit could do to move families from   
   > motels and shelters to apartments. And did I mention a living wage?   
   >   
   > If you're rich, you might want to stay that way. It's a whole lot cheaper   
   > than being poor.   
      
   What a load of crap.   
      
   > Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of 13 books, most recently "Bait and   
   > Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream." This piece first   
   > appeared on her blog.   
      
   Internet access? I thought she was poor?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)