Poverty and Wealth are Relative Terms

Poverty and wealth are relative terms. I am talking about material poverty and wealth. All I know is the chasm is getting wider and deeper. The haves have more than ever and are less likely than ever to reach across the great divide to build a bridge.

In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan’s economics program began to drastically rollback social programs established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. In 2013, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI.org) reported that the average CEO made 295 times the salary of the average worker, although its unlikely that the CEOs did 295 times the work. In 1978, the average CEO made just 29.9 times the salary of the average worker.

No one chooses poverty. But, as it always has been in America, the biggest crime of all is to be poor. And we blame the poor for being poor; blithely forgetting that we don't know their story. Illness, bad luck, divorce, lack of opportunity, lack of education, and, yes, even poor choices. But, it is counter productive for all of us to continually blame the poor for being poor; and have the poor as society's collective scapegoat.

Although America may still be sometimes called the "Land of Opportunity" the harsh reality is that just 4 % of those raised on the bottom rung of the ladder ever climb to the top. New York Times.

Missouri is currently trying to pass a bill that if passed would prohibit food stamp recipients from being able to use those funds to buy “cookies, chips, energy drinks, soft drinks, seafood, or steak". The proposed ban of seafood is inexplicable from a nutrition standpoint, so it can only mean that the haves don't want to let the poor eat fish - or shrimp - or crab - or apparently even canned tuna. Also the prohibition of steak is nonsensical both from a nutrition and practical standpoint. Someone could buy ground sirloin, but not a steak? Could they ask the butcher to cut a steak up into stew meat and thereby make it acceptable for purchase?

Missouri's bill is unlikely to pass; or if passed to remain in place very long. The food stamp program, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - SNAP for short - is federal. Individual states are allowed to implement pilot programs, but they are not allowed to change the rules. And according to the federal government:

• Soft drinks, candy, cookies, snack crackers, and ice cream are food items and are therefore eligible items; and
• Seafood, steak, and bakery cakes are also food items and are therefore eligible items

Florida Governor Rick Scott took a similar battle to the federal appellate court when Scott was called out and sued by the ACLU for passing a law requiring recipients of Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF) to be drug tested when they applied for services. In his detailed ruling, denying Scott's appeal, Judge Stanley Marcus of the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals concluded that “citizens do not abandon all hope of privacy by applying for government assistance.” He said that “the collection and testing of urine intrudes upon expectations of privacy that society has long recognized as reasonable” and that “by virtue of poverty, TANF applicants are not stripped of their legitimate expectations of privacy.”

Low income citizens face daily challenges in addition to such primary needs as food and shelter. The word "indigent" appears in some form in the top twenty search strings used to arrive at www.faldp.org - the site for theFlorida Association of Legal Document Preparers. Many low income Floridians are turned away from their local Legal Aid Society even though they are income qualified. Reasons to be turned away include: their local legal aid lacks the resources to assist them; and that the specific legal problem is not the type of issue that legal aid is equipped to deal with. Many other citizens do not income qualify for any legal aid, but they also cannot afford a private attorney.

In the immortal words of Janis Joplin

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.

Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,

So Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a color TV?

Dialing For Dollars is trying to find me.

I wait for delivery each day until three,

So oh Lord, won't you buy me a color TV?

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a night on the town?

I'm counting on you, Lord, please don't let me down.

Prove that you love me and buy the next round,

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a night on the town?

Everybody!

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends,

Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,

So oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?