Re: More Americans join pool of 'near poor'

On Tue, 09 May 2006 19:28:37 GMT, "Jerry Okamura"
<okamuraj005@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Let us try this one more time. Among the poorest in this country, there is
one significant statistic that tells you why they are poor. That is, 90% of
them have not completed high school. If you do not want to be poor, first
of all, take advantage of the free education that is provided to every
american. Second, if you want to improve your odds a little more, get into
some trade school or college after first getting your high school degree.
Do not abuse drugs or alcohol. When you do get a job, remember that is no
guarantee of success. You have to work at keeping your job. Also, no job
(other than perhaps a government job or a union job, and even those are not
bullet proof) will guarantee that you will keep that job. So, plan for the
possibility that you will not have a job for some period of time. If you
end up out of work, do what is necessary to find another job, as soon as
possible, do what is necessary to find that job..work at it just as hard, if
not harder to find that other job. If you have someone like Laurie Abbot to
be worried about, that means you have to be doubly prepared for the
possibility you may not have a job, so you have to set aside even more money
than the average Joe, in order to weather the storm. Whether you suffer or
do not suffer is all in your hands, and the "choices" you make.....

"Choices"? Does anyone choose not to earn enough to survive? Jerry,
you need change your heart medication, and get a more compasionate
heart.

"Jake" <jcbepstein@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1147161352.188523.8700@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



More Americans join pool of 'near poor'
By Erik Eckholm The New York Times


ANAHEIM, California The Abbotts date their tailspin to a collapse in
demand for the aviation-related electronic parts that Stephen sold in
better times, when he earned about $40,000 a year.

He lost his job in late 2001, unemployment benefits ran out over the
next year and the couple, along with their teenage son, were evicted
from their apartment.

They spent a year in a borrowed motor home in the working-class
interior of Orange County, then eight months in a motel room with a
kitchenette. During that time, Laurie Abbott, a diabetic who is now 51,
lost all her teeth and could not afford to replace them.

"Since I didn't have a smile," she recalled, "I couldn't even work at
a checkout counter."

Americans on the lower rungs of the economic ladder have always been
exposed to sudden ruin. But in recent years, with the soaring costs of
housing and medical care and a decline in low- end wages and benefits,
tens of millions are living on even shakier ground than before,
according to studies of what some scholars call the "near poor."

"There's strong evidence that over the past five years, record numbers
of lower-income Americans find themselves in a more precarious economic
position than at any time in recent memory," said Mark Rank, a
sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and the
author of "One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us
All."

In a rare study of vulnerability to poverty, Rank and his colleagues
found that the risk of a plummet of at least a year below the official
poverty line rose sharply in the 1990s, compared with the two previous
decades. By all signs, he said, such insecurity is worsening.

About 37 million Americans lived below the federal poverty line in
2004, set at $19,157 a year for a family of four. But far more, another
54 million, were in households earning between the poverty line and
double the poverty line.

Those suffering a nose dive say the statistics do not begin to convey
their fears and anguish. Only a year ago, Machele Sauer thought she was
entering the middle class. She and her husband, a licensed electrician,
owned a large mobile home. He was starting his own business and Sauer,
after bearing their fourth child, hoped to stop work as a waitress and
be a stay-at-home mother.

"We were the ideal family, the envy of others," she said recently as
she collected free food and diapers at a small charity in Garden Grove,
Orange County. "And then, boom, everything flipped upside down."

Life fell apart last spring when her husband was arrested for theft,
linked to a recent drug addiction she says she did not know about.
Because of a prior record, he received a long prison sentence.

Now Sauer, 34, draws on the charity for goods and for advice and
emotional support, part of a grueling scramble to provide for her four
daughters, aged 16 months, 8, 9 and 15. At first she went on welfare,
receiving $600 a month along with paid child care and counseling for
herself and the children. As she resumed waitress work, she earned
about $1,300 a month, which caused her welfare payment to be cut to
$300.

She receives $200 worth of food stamps that cover bills for just the
first two weeks of each month, she said.

"With four kids it's really hard to hold a full-time job, and I need
to make sure they do well in school." Her goal is to find a way to
prepare for nursing school.


.

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