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The Poverty Epidemic

4/11/2015

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(Originally published at http://communitysoul.net/2015/04/the-poverty-epidemic/)

Recently, a YouTube group has released a couple videos in an effort to grow poverty awareness. The most recent shows a child who looks around 12 years old, who pretends to be homeless, sitting on the sidewalk of a busy street asking for help as he freezes in the cold. Several minutes pass showing people walk by the kid and take notice of him, but not stop to help him. Towards the end, a homeless man goes over to console the kid. Although these videos may jolt some into action and make us become more aware of a person who might be in need, they also touch on the deeper issue of our growing discontent of seeing and living with the homeless.

Many assume that living on the streets is an outcome earned by those individuals themselves. The homeless man or woman made a wrong choice and maybe we think they don’t deserve to live on the streets, but we’re not going to help them either. It further distracts the public from the growing inequality that continues even as we move away from the recession into a “recovery.” The truth is, 44% of the homeless population do have jobs.

The real issue is the way we perceive the homeless in economic and social terms. We can see it with the cutting of social programs and housing developments by our politicians and ruling economists. We can see it with cities like San Francisco as they try to literally wash away their problem, and with Florida arresting people who want to feed the homeless, and with stores installing spikes to stop homeless from sleeping in public areas. To fully acknowledge the issue of people being homeless and its continued growth, we need to alter the way we see these individuals.

Around 20-25% of homeless adults suffer from a mental illness. This highlights two important aspects of homelessness’ history. Since the 1980’s, we began to cut the budget to mental hospitals and its underfunding has continued to this day. This didn’t leave any options for people suffering with mental illnesses to go.

At the same time there are almost 50,000 veterans (many who suffer from PTSD) who find themselves living on the street any given night. This is particularly significant in comparison to our bloated military budget that’s handed off to military contracts and continues the expansion of 900 bases across the world. This signifies that there is money available to fix the problem, but the unwillingness to grant this money to those returning home from war is a continuation of our economic and political ruling ideology.

A recent video surfaced showing a former veteran harassing a homeless person because he found out the homeless man was wearing military jacket even though he had never served in any army. Aside from taking part in the persecution of the homeless, the former veteran does little to examine the man’s background. He doesn’t know the man, yet he feels that wearing clothing from the military is an insult that has to be pointed out and stopped. The issues of poverty or the fact that this man is literally living in the streets never enter into the veteran’s mind — instead  he focuses on the superficial image of “patriotism.”  Is it patriotic to disregard the poorer sections of your community? For many returning veterans, the irony of the situation is not missed, as most can relate to the homeless man’s predicament of being misunderstood, persecuted.

But how can we begin to acknowledge the issue of poverty in this country without acknowledging the economic model we all live under? Our economists may  have different points of view, but they all come from a similar background of how to present economics. Whether neoclassical, Keynesian, or neoliberal, these groups help in promoting the segregation of the classes and the growth of inequality. They do this simply by not acknowledging it or framing it in a different manner where people blame each other and become distracted from the real issue. It’s impossible to have an actual debate on poverty and classes without being seen as the perpetrator of class warfare.

And those who would point to growing movements like the $15-an-hour wage protests, or companies like Wal-Mart and McDonald’s raising wages to $10 an hour (in the case of McDonald’s, only a small portion of their staff would receive the wage increase), entirely miss the point. While the $15-an-hour wage increase is important, it doesn’t address the roots of the problem that make up and run our economy: the big banks, the lack of regulation of financial trading, the sub-prime car loans, stagnating wages, lack of investment in infrastructure, the housing bubble, pay-day loans, charter schools using public land while cutting the budgets of public schools. The list goes on.

As the Federal Reserve continues to extend its low interest rates for lending to big businesses and the banks, these groups are still slow on extending that money to the public. We’re also not seeing an increase in well-paying jobs with security as the economy grows. We’re not seeing investment into local communities that could helping deteriorating cities like Detroit, Baltimore (which is becoming the new Detroit), and many other cities.

The politicians fall in line – if they’re not already in the pockets – of pay-day loans and the growth of debtor prisons (which were ruled illegal since 1833). Jon Oliver has done a fantastic job on illustrating these troubling issues that affect the middle and lower class on his show Last Week Tonight. These issues are of course products of creating poverty and homelessness, and without change it will only get worse.

To highlight our disconnect of poverty even further, look to liberal bastion cities like New York and San Francisco (San Francisco being the most expensive place to live in the US) to  see how much rent has skyrocketed  in these cities in the last decade. The dramatic increase in rent has gentrified neighborhoods and created the most segregated schools in the US. These are cities that are supposed to extend help  to the community, but both cities are continuing to see an increased income divide and a loss of culture as their economy gets “better.”

Even in my own city of Corvallis with the opening of a wet homeless shelter, debate continuesas people already are getting anxious  about the growing presence of homeless living in our parks, and of finding needles in a park across the street from a school. People who might like to do more for the panhandler looking up at them as they enter the grocery store have their own busy lives to live.

Yet, when I look around my own town, I see the people, young and old, in the streets. I learn that many of the people here are veterans, have lost their jobs, come from troubled and abusive homes. Some struggle with heroin and meth addiction, but that only highlights another symptom of poverty. Without hope, what is there to hold on to?

Utah has been one of the first states to implement a simple solution that is the best one so far:  they created housing for the homeless. After doing the math and seeing that it cost more to have people living on the streets with medical bills, they built housing. In most cases, it’s allowed people who lived on the streets without employment to actually be hired and hold onto  jobs.More cities are coming together to build tiny home communities for their homeless. And while these solutions may not alter the presence of poverty right away, they are creating a communal spirit that is challenging the current economic model and beginning the transition to something better for everyone.
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The Fall of Oil Price and the Possibility for Change

3/14/2015

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(Originally published at http://communitysoul.net/2015/03/the-fall-of-oil-price-and-the-possibility-for-change/)

As we continue to see the price of oil hover around$40 and $50 per barrel for the last couple months, many people are wondering when the next shift is going to happen. Some have gone as far as to claim the winners and losers. Do we need confirmation to know that Big Oil always wins in the end? That might not be the case this time and we might be given an opportunity to change the way we approach the next step for our economy, environment, and our democracy.

Oil is not going away. In fact, by most counts, it’s cutting its production and development, ripping up contracts, and laying off workers in order to keep a profit with the sudden drop in price in the last months of 2014 and its continued low price into 2015.  As we continue to witness depressed prices and an overabundant supply of oil, what can we do to alter our direction and dependence away from oil and onto processes that will benefit not only the environment, but allow us to maintain a  working and  more equal economy?

Well, for starters, to properly judge the situation, it’s good to acknowledge the fact that oil production and consumption has increased over the last few decades. China being at the forefront with an increase in consumption of 7 million barrels a day in 2005 to 11 million barrels in 2014 and countries like India, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia following suit.

So where did the sudden drop in prices occur? With the continued effects being felt from the economic recession, Europe, Japan, and China have been seeing sluggish economic growth. The demand for oil slowed down a bit as production continued.

The US and Canada, with their booming investments into Bakken crude, shale, and tar sands production throughout the last couple years, saw  a dramatic increase in oil and gas available for the public to consume. Under most circumstances, OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and Saudi Arabia, the largest player in OPEC, would cut their production and wait for prices to increase before they started production again, that way they wouldn’t lose profit. This time, Saudi Arabia, going against most members in OPEC, is deciding to wait it out and continuing production regardless of the drop in prices. Their goal being to retrieve a majority control of the oil market again. Even if they do lose some profit, they can hold out longer than US oil producers, who have a more expensive process of retrieving oil.

It seems that Saudi Arabia may be able to attain its goal. Although most oil producers need $70-$90 per barrel to break even or pull in some sort of profit, the $40-$50 is hurting US oil producers in the same manner it’s hurting other OPEC countries like Venezuela, or even Russia. The two biggest producers in the US, Texas and North Dakota, who saw a dramatic boom just months earlier, are cutting production back. In what many predicted to be a year of growing production of shale, we’re already seeing a cut of its production by 30%.

The irony being that as we see oil companies lose money and lay off workers, the US consumer is actually seeing a break. The consumer is able to save $750 annually, money that would otherwise be spent at the pump. By being able to save money, consumers are able to  use it for other commodities, which can help the economy grow. Corporations and other businesses are also seeing an increase in savings as they spend less on gas to transport their products around the country and world.

The lower cost at the pump is beneficial to the consumer and businesses, but it’s also making us continue to rely on oil and its production. In some cases, people are resorting back to purchasing gas guzzling cars again, since their prices have dropped due to the lack of demand over the years.

And if we continue the process of hydraulic fracturing shale and tar sands oil, we’ll continue to see the destruction of towns, water supply, and people’s health. By mid-February, we saw four train derailments, These trains were transporting the heavily combustible Bakken crude. At this rate, it seems it’s only a matter of time until we witness another La Magnatec incident, which ended with over 40 people dead and the destruction of several city blocks and businesses.

Where does this put us? How do we move from oil consumption to something better? Is it possible? Well, moving to renewable energies and moving away from our dependence on oil and gas is possible.  In fact, many companies and countries are starting to make the dramatic move. Even countries like China, who is always condemned for their horrid pollution. We tend to ignore the fact that 48% of their pollution is created because of our consumption.

Solar and wind energy are becoming cheaper and booming. The price of solar has dropped by47%  since 2011, as the US has provided more subsidies. If we could force our government to take the subsidies that we give oil, gas, and coal and instead provide it to clean energy the prices could be even lower and provide an easier opportunity to transition to clean energy.

If we want to further decrease the price of clean energy productions, we could force the government to use more of it. As Christian Parenti suggests in his book Tropics of Chaos, the government is the number one consumer of energy (oil), whether that be with government cars, buildings, and military. So, if they switch those cars over to electric or even hybrids, we would see a dramatic decrease in their prices, which would make it more affordable for average consumers to purchase.

Another option is to democratize municipalities by making municipalities public operated and work for the people. By bringing energy grids or electric and power companies back into public hands, we will see tax revenue go back to the public and could use that money to invest into clean energy and further push for the development of wind and solar.

The last and most basic thing anyone can do, is support the political movements speaking on all these fronts. By supporting, sharing, and spreading the world about events like the XL pipeline protests, the Climate March, or even standing with workers who are protesting being laid off at the oil plants, we’re supporting the public. By standing with the people on the front lines, through social media, we’re hopefully making others take a second look at movement without enough public attention. And by aligning climate activists with workers in the oil industry, we’re setting up the continuation of a democratic movement when we do make the transition into clean energy away from the oil industry.

It’s what we do next that will be remembered by future generations. The future of our world is relying on whether we can alter our path, otherwise there will be little left of to call home with our continued degradation of ripping up the world in hopes of maintaining our addiction to oil.
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