Why It's Not Your Fault If You End Up Living In Your Car Due To The Economy

The evidence just keeps on mounting that corporations are squeezing their workers into utter penury while they pocket ever-higher profits:

Huffington Post featured a report by the New America Foundation that shows the minimum wage went nowhere as worker productivity skyrocketed:

This means workers did much, much more for so much less.

The brief, 44-page report is an excellent analysis of the problems workers currently face in the U.S. — and provides eminently reasonable solutions that of course won't be enacted because of the lack of political will by the policymakers who serve the plutocracy.

Political cynicism aside, the report shows clearly and concisely how the system is designed to keep people in poverty, whether through lack of a living wage, or a broken Unemployment Insurance system, which doesn't pay enough for people to live on while they look for another scarce and low-paying job.

Read the report. It's easily understandable and you will learn a lot quickly.

And speaking of living wages, a study done by the state of New York revealed that raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25/hr to $9/hr would be far from a living wage in New York. And everywhere else, of course.

As you already know from my book and previous blog posts:

"The federal minimum wage hasn't increased since 2009. According to a 2012 study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the minimum wage would actually be $21.72 an hour if it kept pace with increases in worker productivity.

The same CEPR study found that if the minimum wage kept up with inflation since it peaked in real value in 1968, it would now be $10.52 per hour."

So stagnant wages, increased cost of living, lack of health care benefits, and slashed and shredded social safety net programs all conspire to keep the poor, well, poor. Or poorer. It's why people are forced to live in their cars, and why things will get worse before they get better because the politicians won't do a damn thing about any of it. Even though, as the New America Report shows, the solutions are simple, economically feasible, and proven (in other countries).

As depressing as it is, keep the faith and continue working toward change. The broken system has taken more than 30 years to rot, and it won't be overhauled and replaced in a day. But the more you educate yourself on the issues and policy changes needed, the more you can inform others— particularly your legislative leaders. Remember: An avalanche always begins with a single snowflake...

How to Lie with Statistics About Low Wage Workers

According to a CNBC News report:

A study released earlier this month from the public policy group Demos states that through various forms of government funding in the private sector, nearly two million people are making $12 an hour or less. The number of workers at Wal-Mart and McDonald's together at $12 an hour or less is currently around 1.5 million, according to the report.

So nearly 2 million people make less than $12/hr. Okay, fine. Here's where the lie comes in: Note that the report only singles out Wal-Mart and McDonald's, to come up with the 1.5 million people. Why is that a lie? Because Wal-Mart and McDonald's are only TWO of the worst low-wage culprits--there's still AT LEAST NINE more to factor in:

Source: http://www.raisetheminimumwage.com/pages/corporate-profits

So when you factor in all ELEVEN low-wage employers listed above, the number is a LOT higher than either 1.5 or 2 million. 

The problem is with the private contractors the federal government hires. Low wages are a natural outcome of outsourcing from the public to the private. Costs are externalized (taxpayers foot the bill), while profits are privatized into corporate coffers and shareholder pockets. So what needs to happen is the federal government needs to better police and audit the private companies it doles out the contracts to. From the article:

The biggest offenders came from those companies receiving direct federal contracts. Some 560,000 workers in those firms make $12 an hour or less, says the report...Breaking down the sectors in all government funding shows retail— with 59,977 people making $12 an hour or less—the largest group with low wages.

Companies receiving some sort of government funding are mandated by law to uphold high employment practices including prevailing wages within a particular area of work. But the Demos report states that most firms are not holding up their end of the bargain and are actually creating a wage gap.

So it's a lack of oversight issue, not a "government is paying serf wages" issue. CNBC really missed the boat on this one. (The Demos report correctly concludes the general problem of lack of living wages, one of the primary causes of homelessness). News stories that fudge their numbers hurt, rather than help the cause of reinstating living wages in this country. Because two million is a small number of people compared to the many millions more wage slaves working for all eleven of the corporations shown above. So hit the hardest where it matters most and affects the largest number of people--instead of trying to make it look like the Feds are the worst offenders, when the problem is that they are asleep at the wheel, not that that makes it any better.

Keep in mind two things: 1) The federal minimum wage has remained at $7.25/hr since 2009. 2) If the minimum wage kept up with inflation, it would be $10.70. That $12/hr looks pretty good to the people stuck in $7.25/hr minimum-wage hell. But you still can't live on $12/hr ($12 x 160 hours assuming four 40 hour work weeks = $1,920 GROSS), let alone raise a family. Choosing bad ($12/hr) or worse ($7.25/hr) serves no one. Addressing why corporate profits are going in shareholder pockets (the Dow is currently above 15K) and not employees wallets goes a long way in showing what's wrong with this picture.

The Toll of Homelessness on Children

By far, the hardest chapter I had to write in "Car Living When There's No Other Choice" was the chapter on children. The numbers were staggering and heartbreaking.

Today, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics released a report about the connection between children's health and homelessness, reflecting what I wrote in the book about the devastating health effects homelessness has on children. To wit:

According to the article summary, "There are 1.6 million homeless children in the U.S. -- that's one out of 45 children." The article states that physicians can be another line of defense in helping homeless families find the aid that's available to help them through their situation:

"The authors listed several steps for pediatricians to take when treating homeless children or teens, including helping or increasing access to Medicaid, familiarizing themselves with best practices for caring for homeless patients, and delivering comprehensive care during visits, such as providing updated immunizations rather than waiting for a follow-up visit."

Thankfully, the article concludes:

"The authors also suggested pediatricians advocate local, state, and federal officials to enact legislation that provides support and care for those in this population, such as violence protection policies, low-income housing, schooling availability, child care voucher systems, and reform for foster care programs."

I left no stone unturned in my research of the book, and it's nice to see such a high-level medical journal mirroring my findings. Let's just hope that even more people will be helped thanks to alert pediatricians pointing people toward the social services they need, along with engaging them in the reforms to eliminate the problem of children's homelessness to begin with.

A Sad Day for the Homeless in Portland, Oregon

Today I found out that the Portland, Oregon-based non-profit, Shower to the People, has had to suspend the service due to lack of funding. I mentioned the great work they do as a full-service mobile shower unit in my book Car Living When There's No Other Choice.

I'm hoping that it is only a temporary delay that will allow Peter Fournier, the owner/proprietor of Shower to the People, a well-earned summer respite. He has logged an enormous amount of time and a major personal fortune into this effort over the last couple of years. May he and his great service come back stronger, swiftly.

Winning Losers: States With the Highest Number of Homeless People Per Capita

Here are the top three states with the largest number of homeless people per capita:

1) Washington, D.C. 
2) Hawaii
3) Oregon

To get an idea of what triggers homelessness in any given area, here's a random snapshot of the Harris County (TX) region, showing that Houston, you DEFINITELY have a problem:

Source: Houston/Harris County Coalition for the Homeless: http://ow.ly/jtteX.

Right off the top, you can see that 50% of it is due to issues with income. My next blog post will cover a recent study about that.

Meanwhile, the National Coalition for the Homeless runs a fantastic Facebook page that I encourage everyone to check out and "like":

https://www.facebook.com/NationalCoalitionfortheHomeless

Sequestration & Deficit Scaremongering Is All a Really Big Lie All of Us Will Suffer For

When Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) was in the area last month for a Town Hall meeting, his opening remarks to the crowd were about how the sequestration was a bunch of phony theater and scaremongering on the part of the Party of No. The essence of his comments:

“We need to end the sequestration, and once and for all stop lurching from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis. This is no way to run a country."  

 
“The sequester is a D.C.-created disaster in the making.  It’s time to take Congress’s foot off the economic brake, make some smart choices about how we build for the future, and spare Americans from a politician-induced recession.”

Today, there is a really great article over on Bloomberg News, where Josh Barro further illustrates how completely full of shit the Republicans are about deficts. In the article titled, "Boehner Accidentally Explains Why His Deficit Position is Phony," Barro writes:

"Boehner doesn’t really care about the public debt, as he made clear when he repeatedly supported debt-expanding measures under a Republican president. What Boehner and House Republicans really want are excuses to cut federal spending, particularly on programs such as Medicaid and food stamps that support low-income Americans. But those cuts are unpopular, so Republicans frame fiscal debate to make such cuts appear necessary to avoid disaster. If you can’t borrow or tax more, and can’t cut old-age entitlements or the military, which command the majority of federal spending, you’re not left with many options but to soak the poor."

"Soaking the poor is a policy option. It is not, as Boehner would have it, a policy necessity dictated by the inability of the federal government to borrow or tax sustainably. But if the debate instead becomes about tax and spending priorities -- is it more important to provide universal health care or keep tax rates low on high earners -- it shifts to turf unfavorable to Republicans. So they pretend."

So there you have everything you need to know about deficits in a nutshell. Read the brief, full article anyway, since it explains how the U.S. has done just fine with deficits for 55 of the last 60 years (before the bankers stole everything from the public treasury), and that comparing running the federal government to running a business or a household is a bogus analogy.

People Living Out of Their Cars -- "Like" Them On Facebook

There is a Facebook page that is an aggregate of articles and tips about homelessness and car living as specifically related to the economy and housing crisis. Visit them at https://www.facebook.com/PeopleLivingOutOfTheirCars and "like" them so they will be encouraged to continue their important compilation work.