A Rotary Speech

Notes for speech to Dallas Rotary Club

February 3, 2021

 

·      Thank you for having me today.  It’s an honor to be with you! 

·      I’m a former member of this club from back in the mid-90s

·      For over 40 years, I’ve been working on the issues associated with poverty here in Dallas; before that we worked in Shreveport and then, New Orleans.

·      I’ve concluded based on my experience that we won’t defeat poverty by charity alone—it plays its role, but it is not up to the task of systemic impact, nor is it scalable.   

 

The Hard Data/Truth:  We have a major poverty problem in the USA

You likely know the data well enough without my needing to repeat it all.  Everyone has witnessed the growing divide between a shrinking minority at the top and a growing underclass at the bottom.  Even during this pandemic, the rich have grown wealthier at the expense of the poor, who are disproportionately people of color.  

Here’s a sad truth:  your longevity is linked directly to your ZIP Code!  Go on line to find how your zip code area compares to others in Dallas—up to as much as 16 years difference in life expectancy! Economist, Raj Chetty developed the Opportunity Atlas to plot these differences—for example, residents of a Preston Hollow neighborhood can expect to live 15 years longer than a person living in 75215.  

Consider the scale of problem in Dallas and in our area:  In DISD all students receive free and reduced lunches; in Dallas County ISDs it’s between 70-75% qualify to receive these meals.  

During the year, 25-30% of our children experience hunger; thousands are homeless.

As of 2020, black families have a median household income of just over $41,000, whereas white families have a median household income of more than $70,000.  Blacks earn less than whites for same job. 

Racism and implicit bias remain as huge problems.  

So, how do we begin to mount a “Marshall Plan”-type response?

We are the people who rebuilt Europe and Japan after WWII!

We are the people who, via the GI Bill, educated an entire nation!  (though too white)

We are the people who through the FHA created housing stock for an exploding middle class! (again, too white)

We are the people who dealt with a marginal tax rate of 91% the year I was born to invest in a new nation!

 I’ve been thinking about the weapons at our disposal today to engage in the fight against poverty.

What can we do just for starters?

·      Raise the national minimum wage to $17 an hour (need to earn $16.81 an hour to rent a one-bedroom apt in Dallas!)

·      Expand the EITC program and bury in IRS filing process automatically in the tax reporting process by employers where possible

·      Expand WIC, SNAP and the federal child care tax credit—make recertification on line possible and easy

·      Criminal justice reform—get serious

·      Fully fund public education, including early childhood education

·      Support comprehensive immigration reform that is sane and allows hard working people to come out of the shadows and move into citizenship—this used to be a bi-partisan point of agreement!

·      Housing incentives to developers and buyers that reverse consequences of generations of redlining

·      Expand LIHTC tax credit program

·      Reward mixed income housing development and developers

·      Track impact of public investments on private profits to remind ourselves that this partnership will be key to much progress

·      Make public transportation more useful to mobilize the poor in our workforce

·      Mobilize and reorient AmeriCorps to a single- purpose effort:  poverty elimination

·      Expand health care for all, and in Texas, do it in this legislative session

 One last fact:  every one of the public weapons at our disposal benefit our economy directly and immediately.

·       For example, where do SNAP and WIC benefits go?  Right back into the economy through Tom Thumb, Target and Walmart to create jobs and profits! 

·      But Texas does such a poor job of enrolling SNAP recipients—less than ½ eligible and Texas loses $1B a year to the grocery industry as a result.  And, that number has been locked in there for over 20 years!  

TThere is  no doubt we can turn this nation around if we have the will.  We’ve done it before  We can do better and we can do it again. 

 

If you are interested in continuing this conversation, email me at ljames@CitySquare.org.