Most of us will endure poverty during a portion of our lifetimes. If you haven't been poor yet in your life, odds are that you will be at some time. Some will experience it during childhood; others will be poor during their golden years. Still others, through accident or misfortune, will be poor for a period during their working adulthood. The social safety net is there to help us through periods of poverty when we need help. Some are in and out of poverty repeatedly while others never escape. It is the safety net that some want to further dismantle. The would-be dismantlers say that poverty is a person's own fault. Anyone can escape poverty if they really try. That is not true.
Seventy-five per cent of the poor are poor through no fault of their own. Some are children too young to work; others are the aged, 65 and older. Still others are adults aged 18 to 64 years who have physical or mental disabilities that prevent meaningful employment. In toto, these groups make up three quarters of the poor. The remaining poor work for a living at jobs that pay little or they cannot find work. That is a problem that our society faces, not enough good paying jobs to go around. I will discuss that in Poverty, part 2, but first I want to digress a bit and discuss my own encounters with poverty.
I think that the only time I was really poor was as a child. We had enough to get by, but all my friends and relatives had more. I felt poor. I worked hard in school and got good grades. I went to college but did not graduate. Then I found employment and worked my way up to middle management. By the time I was forty, I was a financial success. The rising tide had lifted my boat along with many others and I could afford some of life's luxuries. Then the tide turned, and my boat started to drift downward with many others. Hard work was not enough to keep up with the Joneses or inflation. I used debt to try to maintain a lifestyle that became more and more difficult to achieve any other way. Finally in 2003, my wife and I moved from California to Utah to extinguish our debts and get a new start.
We sold our home in California and bought a larger home in Utah and paid cash. We also planned to use a portion of our proceeds to eliminate the rest of our debt. It did not happen according to plan. Shortly after moving to Utah, I was involved in an auto accident in Las Vegas that destroyed my vehicle and left me with a sore shoulder that is not completely healed six years later. Then six weeks later I fell and broke a leg that prevented me from working for seven months. A veritable one two punch. Our small nest egg disappeared in a hurry. We paid our bills using credit cards and dug a deep hole of debt. Six years later, we are still trying to dig our way out. I am not poor, but I can see how easily an accident or illness can devastate the best laid plans.
To be continued
Those of us who support Barack Obama belong to the Party of Yes.
Yes we can.Yes we can pass affordable healthcare reform.Yes we can defeat al-Qaeda.Yes we can provide affordable college educations.Yes we can give the able-bodied good jobs at decent wages.Yes we can lead the world by our example.Yes we can.
The Party of No is looking for new recruits. If you qualify and want to join, please go their web site, www.gop.com , to signup. If you don't qualify, they will cheerfully accept your cash donation, the larger the better. These are the qualities they are looking for. They realize that these are the ideal and most people will not possess all these desired attributes.
No heartNo eyes to see the truthNo nose to sniff out corruptionNo tongue to taste the false and misleadingNo spine to stand up for what is rightNo compassion for the less fortunateNo lips to speak one's mindNo brain to think for oneselfNo strength of personal convictionNo two legs to stand onNo feet firmly planted to resist liesNo intestinal fortitudeNo guts, no glory
No birdsNo beesNo leaves on treesNo sunny daysNo starry nightsNovemberNovember 2010
In November 2010, the Party of No will seek to regain power in Congress. Here is their platform. Please consider it and then vote your conscience.
No healthcareNo healthcare reformNo healthcare reform at prices we can affordNo jobsNo jobs here in USNo good jobs here in US that pay wellNothingNothing for youNothing for you, everything for me and my contributors.Vote for meVote for me or don't voteVote for me or we will obstruct your right to vote.No, no, noNO, NONO
I have always loved to play with words. Now that lifetime of experience is helpful when I want to express myself in poetry. Some poems just write themselves like the three below. When I must struggle, the results are not as pleasing. Two of these poems were written for fun. The third, In Afghanistan, is an attempt to distill about a dozen books into a few lines. It incorporates what I have learned from The Kite Runner, An Unexpected Light and others into what I think is a successful poem. I tried something different in Minneola. The rhyme between tangerine and orange is not in the words, but in the flavors.How
How black was the catHow blue was the kazooHow brown was the noseHow red was the roseHow pink was the skinkHow orange was the bowlHow purple was the grapeHow great was the apeHow tall was the giraffeHow later was the alligatorHow wide was the riverHow high was the skyHow round was the ballHow square was the nerdHow bright was the sunHow dark was the nightWhat did the Indian say?How
Minneola
Minneola, Osceola, tangerineLemon, lime, orangeSprite, 7Up, Diet CokeDr. Pepper, Dr. ThunderMr. Pibb, root beerBud, Miller, HeinekenPut mine in a steinPlease pass the chips.
In Afghanistan
In AfghanistanBright light, great heightIn AfghanistanBobbing kites take flightIn AfghanistanWarring tribes always fightIn AfghanistanThey pray to AllahIn AfghanistanMuslim faith, infidels bewareIn AfghanistanTaliban means student zealIn AfghanistanOutsiders welcome if invitedIn AfghanistanInvaders must convert or dieIn AfghanistanEngland, Russia and USAIn AfghanistanConfront destruction/defeatIn Afghanistan.
I have not made a final decision about earmarks. I suppose that one person's valued project is another person's wasteful spending. The money will be spent and someone must decide how it is spent. In Congress, as in life, it may be necessary to go along to get along. In his book Catastrophe, Dick Morris has a list of earmarks that he disapproves of, I believe. They are listed by title and amount which is insufficient information to decide the merits of the expenditures. One earmark caught my attention, $1,791,000 for swine odor and manure management research in Iowa. Apparently Dick has never lived near a pig farm. I have not either, but I understand the smell is horrific. If he had lived near a pig farm, I am sure he would support increasing the funding.
I sometimes must drive from Southern California to Northern California on Interstate 5. In Central California along the east side of the freeway is a cattle feedlot. The animals are packed tightly and the odor is terrible. Rolling up the car windows and closing the air conditioning vents is insufficient to keep the odor out. All one can do is speed up and hold one's breath. I cannot hold my breath for the five minutes required to escape the odor entirely.
Shareholders own the corporation and those owning common stock can vote on items presented to them by the board of directors. Shareholders vote on board members and it is the board of directors that sets policy, hires the corporate officers and sets their compensation. That is how it is supposed to work, but does NOT in practice in many cases.
Ownership of stock is divorced now from exercising the rights of ownership because so much stock is now held by mutual funds. Mutual fund managers are interested mostly in making as much money as possible. If management delivers, then the mutual fund managers don't exercise their rights as stock owners. They frequently buy and sell stock quickly, holding it only for a short time. They support current management most of the time. That allows management to pack the corporate boards with friends who go along to get along. Congress enacted the law creating mutual funds, and now it needs to revise the law so that the rights of shareholders receive greater protection.
