The High Cost of Being Poor

From AlterNet, progressive writer Barbara Ehrenreich on how much it sucks to be poor in America:

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:

* 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.

* 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.

* 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.

* Poorer people pay an average of one percentage point more in mortgage interest.

* 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.

* 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.

Click here for the rest.

So it's not simply that poor people have to make do with less money: it's that the economic deck has been stacked to make the poor literally pay more for everyday items and services than do people who are not in poverty. That is, because there is virtually no voice in government for low income Americans, the law favors predatory economic practices which victimize the poor. Throw into the mix the continual right-wing dismantling, by both Republicans and Democrats, of New Deal and Great Society programs that have historically greatly eased the burden of poverty, the permanent outsourcing of low skilled jobs that provide livable wages and benefits, the ongoing healthcare crisis, and the skyrocketing cost of college tuition and fees, and the concept of "upward mobility" becomes a sick and twisted joke.

The President recently spoke to the NAACP about how his "Ownership Society" is the best way to help out economically struggling African-Americans. Most of the audience simply rolled their eyes: they know as well as anybody that the economic barriers erected by the white power structure make joining Bush's "Ownership Society" all but impossible for blacks in poverty. And when I saw the President's remarks on television, I rolled my eyes, too. White Americans in poverty are obstructed by the same barriers.

I think I'd be much more willing to buy into the neoliberals' Horatio Alger myths about pulling oneself up by the bootstraps if the concentration of economic powers that run our country hadn't already foreclosed on the boots. The bottom line is that public discourse about poverty in this country is a sick fucking joke, and the situation is only going to continue its long decline until we can get some honesty into the conversation.

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