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There's big money in poverty
by JS Magruder, Unknown News
whynotresist.blogsome.com
January 14, 2008
Everything's an industry. From prisons to mercenaries to the local food pantry -- each has
an agenda focused to keeping their organization/institution functioning. Privatizing these
institutions only takes them farther away from the actual people impacted by them. The
impact of privatizing prisons and armies are pretty well understood (if denied) but the
industry providing services to "the poor" is a little less looked at, unfortunately.
Organizations that deal with issues related to poverty like to blather on at length
about the difficulties associated with the "War on Poverty". The United States could
easily end domestic poverty tomorrow, but we'd have to begin by sacking all the people who
work in the poverty industry.
It sounds great to have Public/Private Partnerships, but it
assumes that both institutions have the same goals. Perhaps they do share one goal -- keeping the
poor, poor. These programs are not about eradicating poverty -- they promote it, because it
is profitable.
A few pieces of fruit sent home in a child's rucksack each Friday isn't going to ensure
proper nutrition. It does however provide a lesson in humiliation and one's place in the
class system. It requires an organization to put the program together, to distribute the
rations, to do the paperwork establishing eligibility. The counselors, the job trainers,
the parenting coaches --
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We seem to be (as a nation) suffering a collective case of misplaced hostility.
It isn't
the poor taking your money.
It isn't the immigrant family down the street taking your job.
Your jobs were sent abroad by the people representing you in Washington.
Your taxes are
torturing and killing people the world over.
Your hard-earned money is funding the
building of more prisons to house petty criminals, and for the police helicopter looking
for God only knows what.
The people who are making you work longer hours for less pay
aren't the poor asking for change on a street corner.
The poor didn't jack up your credit
card rates to what any other country in the world would consider usury.
The guy sitting on
the park bench with everything he owns in the world stuffed into a paper bag, with
maggot-infested unhealed flesh wounds -- that guy didn't sell you the interest-only mortgage.
Go ahead, pat yourself on the back for walking past him as though he didn't exist and make you feel better by mumbling about "services being available."
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everyone gets a piece of the action that assumes the poor created
their circumstances and can be brought-up if only they will follow the steps laid out for
them by the teams of poverty eradicating professionals.
You can read about the latest
exercise in my part of the country, here. They plan to have a lot of meetings and knock on many doors. In the meantime, they'll hand
out fruit and send people from one place to another seeking whatever small pittance they
are able to get for leaping through the
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them.
Blessed are
the poor, my ass. "Rooting Out Poverty?" Do they use specially trained dogs and pigs like
the ones that hunt truffles? The whole "rooting out" image works to further dehumanize
people living in poverty -- like animals in burrows that need to be rooted out into the
daylight. I keep envisioning a living game of Whack-a-Mole with the mallet being the
service agencies.
Of course there are people who qualify for assistance but don't
apply -- who would want to go through the condescending routine of applying? It's not
surprising that people prefer going hungry to having their lives intruded upon by teams of
"professionals." I wonder, how much does
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the "Director of Grants" in the article make a
year?
Bah.
Hand out the money to those who need it. Provide the healthcare. Provide the housing. We
could do it right now, but the population has been trained to believe that public
assistance is somehow striking it rich and that no-one would ever work again if it were
available. In just under thirty years, we've managed to convince people that drawing the
dole is not only enough to survive on (it isn't) but that it's the good life. Thanks,
Reagan. It was bad enough when the well to do held these views, but when the poor started
attacking the poorer I knew we were screwed.
There was a time when it would have been
considered impolite to suggest that the less fortunate were unworthy of help. Today it's a
badge of honor to walk past someone begging alms. People brag about denying people a few
pennies.
We seem to be (as a nation) suffering a collective case of misplaced hostility. It isn't
the poor taking your money. It isn't the immigrant family down the street taking your job.
Your jobs were sent abroad by the people representing you in Washington. Your taxes are
torturing and killing
people the world over. Your hard-earned money is funding the
building of more prisons to house petty criminals, and for the police helicopter looking
for God only knows what. The people who are making you work longer hours for less pay
aren't the poor asking for change on a street corner. The poor didn't jack up your credit
card rates to what any other country in the world would consider usury. The guy sitting on
the park bench with everything he owns in the world stuffed into a paper bag, with
maggot-
infested unhealed flesh wounds -- that guy didn't sell you the interest-only mortgage.
Go ahead, pat yourself on the back for walking
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past him as though he didn't exist and make
you feel
better by mumbling about "services being available."
Maybe someone will "Root him out" and give him a piece of fruit and a lecture about
getting his GED.
© by the author.
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