Why Anti-Poverty Messaging Doesn't Work in the US

[MrScorpio]

By Francis Holland Posted by Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall

I really like the way you are systematically analyzing and refuting specific the specific macro-messages that have put our minds in a mental straight-jacket.

I wrote an article in 2006 entitled, "Why John Edwards' Candidacy Won't Resonate w/America" (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/12/256787/-Why-John-Edwards-Candidacy-Wont-Resonate-w-America). The article was really about America's attitudes toward the poor and Blacks, and the fact that no one would be elected whose campaign was principally messaged about helping the poor and Blacks.

There simply aren't enough people to who identify as "poor;" there aren't enough Black votes to win a general election based on focusing on helping us Blacks (to the perceived detriment of whites); and the majority of American voters are not so . . . altruistic as to elect a president who proposes to help others, but not me.

It was apparent to me that studies show that very few Americans will admit that they are "poor," even now when Americans' homes, which are typically their largest assets, are "under-water." A striking number of Americans owe more on their mortgages than their homes and condos are worth, should they try to sell them, and so they actually have a negative net worth, particularly when combined with credit card debt and student loans. And their 401(k)s have lost a considerable part of their value.


http://www.opednews.com/articles/Why-Anti-Poverty-Messaging-by-Francis-Holland-110818-932.html

[NYC_SKP]

1. The rich pit the middle class against the poor...

...keeping them distracted while they rob the treasury.

Sheer simplicity.

x(

[TheMadMonk]

10. Combatant classes do soooo much of the Rich's work for them.

And do it all too willingly.

Because "negatively rich", or merely worthless, the average human being generally values material assets far beyond their worth to another. The roof overhead is perceptually a far more tangiblly an asset than a morgtage is a liability. The big screen TV more immediate than the "interest free" store credit which is about to explode in someone's face. Behind which is GE (yes THAT GE) which relies on one defaulter and punitive interest penalties to cover costs and a tidy profit on the several customers who do make final payment on time.

As my great grandfather was wont to say, oft repeated to me by the two intervening generations, "It is the bookie's wife who wears the fur coat."

And it really doesn't matter how you sugar coat or gussy it up, most financial "victims", are first and foremost victims of their own greed. For how many years now, have current affairs programs exposed certain highly recognisable classes of con artists - Nigerian oil, (surprise) lottery, roof restoration, tail end of a truckload of asphalt going cheap, etc, etc. Always a victim can be found. Bigger, longer lasting, in just seven days I can make you a man. Yup, please take my $39.95.

The real money is not in betting that you are smarter, but in letting others bet that THEY ARE.

[Davis_X_Machina]

2. We don't do economics in this country..

...at least not without turning it into a branch of moral theology.

Any discussion of the poor immediately becomes a discussion about the best way to distinguish the deserving poor from the undeserving poor, and doing nothing, or punishing, those found undeserving.

The major cause of poverty in America, or any other country, is not having enough money. Making sure that somebody has enough money, from wages, or social provision, is how you fight poverty.

Anybody floating a different cause for poverty, or suggesting measures to address it beyond adequate wages, or an adequate social provision, actually wants to have a debate about something else -- and in this country anyways, the argument is going straight to race, or religion.

[jwirr]

7. I was in a unique position. Because of my taking care of my disabled

daughter people would actually listen to me about what it was like to be poor. I always felt like hypocrit because I was really no different than any other poor person.

You are very correct. Even today.

[DeSwiss]

3. K&R

Rising Above Politics

No matter what liberals may think, it’s no crime to be dumb and unaware in this world. Otherwise most of this country would be in prison. So when I saw Big Larry mowing his lawn yesterday, probably for the last time, I just waved and pretended that everything was hunky dory. Both of us knew everybody in town saw that foreclosure block ad on the back of the paper. We have come to watch for them of late, like the obits, to see if anyone we know has been axed by fate. But sometimes you show a working man respect by giving the A-OK sign -- a sign that, bad as it may be now my brother, you’ll be back to fight again for the feudalistic delusions and promises America has ever offered to working class suckers like us, because there has never been any other choice. There have just been the good times and the bad times allowed us, according to the American financial syndicate’s needs at the time.

Sure, they may kick a lot of Republicans asses out of office next election. Big friggin deal! For my people, the same feudalist deal is on the table as ever: work hard, kill when you are told to, trust your betters, and everything will be all right. Plenty of highly politicized leftists and their meeker kin, the last hopeful Democrats, came up as hard as anyone I’ve described here. The Democratic Party definitely doesn’t want them showing up like bikers at a cocktail party and talking real populism. Because there ain’t no big money campaign contributions behind populism.

Look at it this way: Black America suffered lynchings, police dogs and fire bombings just to shit on the same toilet seats as white Americans like you and me, and ultimately waste their lives in front of computer monitors next to us on the same electronic plantation of the gulag global economy swallowing America and the rest of the world.

And so, still I ask (and who am I to ask anything?): Are there any progressives or leftists willing to come out here into the hinterlands and offer the first step. True populist hope? Spell it out in “see-spot-run” language? Talk about our bad teeth and why our elderly parents are rotting in pisshole nursing homes owned by ex-car dealers and attended by imported Asian physicians who barely speak English? Or the dynamics of hopelessness that drive the meth epidemic out here?

It will take an entire lifetime of commitment amid a crumbling world. And it will continue to crumble around us even as we work. There will be not one ounce of glory or acknowledgment or public reward. But it lies there before us, the first fearful and questioning stone on the pathway to the liberation of mankind.

True populist politics could give us a quarter turn in the right direction. Genuine socialism could put us on the approximate path to justice. Eco-politics cannot save us from the inevitable, but at least it can teach us to deal with our limitations as a species upon this earth. But one begins the journey at the start of the path, not the promised land at its end.

Can we quit talking and start walking now?

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2007/05/rising_above_po.html">~Joe Bageant, May 2007

RIP - Joe Bageant 1946-2011

[patrice]

4. What calls itself "Christianity" is a failure, because it is a business selling mutual mental

masturbation, a social environment, and financial networking.

[bluestateguy]

5. The barb at Kos seems over the top

Kos has acknowledged quite openly that he is an ex-Republican and has done much to build the Left Blogosphere.

[Hydra]

6. It's true

The obsession with talking about the non-existant middle class as if every worker belonged to it is a definite symptom.

I'll say it though- I live paycheck to paycheck, taking care of a disabled relative, and I pray every day that something wont happen to disrupt that meager flow of money.

I'm poor, and I'm not ashamed of it. When there are people taking home billions of dollars a year to destroy people's lives, I can't help but think that somewhere, things went backwards.

[bluestateguy]

8. It works the other way too

There are people who make 500-700 thousand a year who call themselves "middle class". Somebody needs to have a gentle conversation with these people and tell them that they are now probationary members of the elite.

[cutlassmama]

9. NIMBY is at it's peak