Simple solutions to end complex poverty in USA

Right after I attended CNN’s “Today’s Other America: Living in Poverty,” I came home and watched one of my favorite movies, Contact, a 1997 science fiction drama adapted from a book of the same name by the late astrophysicist Carl Sagan.

Some of the dialogue in the movie directly relates to poverty in America: “You are capable of such wonderful dreams and horrible nightmares….take small moves…Simple solutions are the best choices.” These are recommendations we should contemplate when tackling our country's destitution disgrace.

Henry Cisneros (3rd from left) talks to speakers and organizers before the event.

CNN’s Dialogues event was generated in partnership with Emory University’s James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference, and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.

The Dialogues’ theme “Today’s Other America” came out of left field, for the poor ARE America, making up 15.1 percent of the U.S. population in 2010, according to the University of Michigan’s National Poverty Center. This theme itself signifies the reality of our country’s economic divide and places “Us against Them” in an unhealthy mentality, an unlawful segregation that empowers some and demeans others.

The Dialogue

It took about three hours for Donna Beegle, Henry Cisneros, Renee Glover, Michael Rich, and Robert Woodson, Sr. to convey their message to a crowd of around 500 who attended the forum held in Georgia State University’s Rialto Center for the Arts last night.

Thomas R. Carter and Robert Woodson, Sr.

“I didn’t hear a lot of solutions to the problem, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself,” said Thomas Carter, a community activist from Marietta, Ga. “I think the dialogue made everyone in attendance think about how each individual can attack poverty personally,” said an anonymous attendee.

The presentation began with a video featuring poor people and their situations - not being able to afford diapers while hopelessly raising kids on welfare, no adult support because parents were in prison, forced to vacate section 8 housing, gridlocked without options, regimented to drinking broth for their one course dinner.

The people in the video watched from the auditorium’s front row. To some of them, the God they pray to appears not to be listening, their government doesn’t supply enough to survive, and their fellow citizens have turned away in silence.

CNN's Poppy Harlow

The dialogue was facilitated by CNN’s Poppy Harlow, anchor of CNNMoney. “We're talking about the forgotten,” she said.

“We 're in danger of slipping back,” warned Henry Cisneros, former U. S. HUD secretary. “We have developed a callousness that allows people to suffer in poverty...what kind of people are we?”

“The real conversation right now is should we pull up the ladder,” added Renee Glover, CEO of the Atlanta Housing Authority. “Poverty is not a hopeless situation…the poor need structural opportunity.”

Beegle was homeless for several years.

“Martin Luther King, Jr. said, ‘If we're silent about race, we will have racism’...that is how I feel about poverty," testified Dr. Donna Beegle, President of Communication Across Barriers who said when she was poor, she had $18 left after paying rent and was appalled when she was referred to a money management class.

What are the simple solutions?

Perhaps the solutions are simpler than we think, but we have not been replicating what works, according to Glover. “We have to start with the children and focus on the future,” she said, adding no child should live in poverty in America.

Furthermore, we need to address the “profitability of poverty” which is evident in how our justice system makes prisons profitable, how predatory lending and higher interest rates charged poor people is fueling bank profits, and the psychological effects of poverty which are destroying generation after generation.

Renee Glover talks with attendees.

Emory Professor Dr. Michael Rich said, “We need the political will to reduce poverty by making work pay.” Rich said the United States needs to take a few lessons from the United Kingdom of Great Britain. “They are investing in families there.” Rich said the Brits are using large child tax credits, funding early learning programs, shifting expenditures, and have cut poverty levels in half. 

Dr. Rich discusses his research with students.

“When you make work pay, you get people out of poverty,” Beegle said about the need for the poor to earn a living wage for working some of the worst jobs in America. She suggested that families of four need to make at least $40k annually to survive, yet the poverty threshold for the same family is $22,113.

“Stop predatory lending is a great solution ...they are the ones bilking the poor,” added Robert Woodson, Jr., president of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise. Woodson had a more conservative approach and claimed that the rich have helped the poor. A few examples he gave were philanthropy by Doris Buffett and the Hershey family. 

Woodson said more people should concentrate on giving to the poor instead of financing S.O.B's – more commonly referred to as symphonies, operas and ballet companies.

“We have to push the reset button,” Cisneros concluded.

About 500 people attended the event.

Thinking outside the Box

Looking at this issue myself, I have the following thoughts.

1. Put aside the messianic approach to ending poverty. One has to analyze how the Judeo-Christian ethic reinforces the notion that poverty is o.k., as something which can be tolerated because Jesus may have said the poor will be with us always and that they will receive their rewards in heaven. This interpretation of Jesus’ mission is hogwash!

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God…Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled...Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” Perhaps Jesus was talking about spiritual poverty, not material needs.

2. Criminalize predatory lending, from paycheck loan establishments, to 30 year mortgage holder liens, to student loan scams, to high rate credit cards.

3. De-romanticize high interest loans to poor people, like those based on the philosophy of the Grameen Bank.

4. Embrace green living.

5. Make sure people forgo buying “money pit” foreclosures. Counsel realtors on how to offer clients ethical recommendations. Work with banks to end foreclosures, refinance with lower interest rates, and offer principal reductions.

6. Pass laws that protect workers.

7. Urge morality over theft and greed, compassion over divisiveness.

8. Stop making it profitable to misuse the poor. Stop rewarding rich people at the expense of poor people.

9. Make affordable health care work. Research ways to help health insurance companies remain profitable while insuring people with preexisting conditions.

 

10.  Listen to the poor to formulate solutions.

11. Work with churches and non-profit organizations to make sure donations made to help the poor don't end up in the pockets, homes, and garages of preachers. Make it mandatory for churches and non-profits to have unemployment counseling/support, food, clothing, etc. project plans.

12. Provide psychological and economic counseling to those who request it, making sure the request doesn't jeopardize their ability to get a job or receive health insurance.

13. Make student loans bankruptable if graduates are unable to find a job after three years.

14. Give incentives to businesses to pay employees a living wage.

15. Support affordable healthcare legislation.

©2012 Tomi Johnson. All rights reserved.