Poverty and our kids

A significant block of an entire generation of children is growing up in poverty.  As a matter of fact, almost 1 in 4 American children lives in poverty today in the United States.  The long term implications of this horrible reality staggers the mind.  Our children and grandchildren will face enormous social/community challenges as these children move into adulthood.  The impact on our economy alone promises to be devastating.  

Consider the facts:

16 million kids live in poverty--lined up hand-in-hand they could stretch across the nation 5 times!

Children of color are over twice as likely to live in poverty as are their white counterparts.

14% of our children reside in overcrowded housing.

Poor children are twice as likely to live in unsafe homes.

6% of these children live in neighborhoods without parks, recreation centers, sidewalks or libraries.

11% of poor children line in areas of concentrated poverty.

Poor children are 6 times more likely to live in unsafe neighborhoods and in neighborhoods with graffiti, dilapidated housing and litter.

Children in poverty are 5 times more likely to repeat one or more grades in school.

82% of 4th graders from low-income families are below proficient reading level.

77% of 4th graders from low-income schools are below proficient reading level.

Children in poverty are 6 times more likely to live in unsafe neighborhoods.

20% of children in poverty NEVER participate in any physical activity.

Children in poverty are twice as likely to miss 11 or more days of school annually.

These children are 13 times more likely to never feel safe in school.

They are twice as likely to be unengaged in school.

They are 7 times more likely to bully other children.

Children in poverty are 3 times more likely to have NO health insurance.

They are more likely to have unmet needs in medical care by 2 times; in mental health care by 3 times; in dental care by 4 times; twice as likely to have chronic health conditions; 5 times more likely for those conditions to be moderately or severely debilitating. 

These children are twice as likely to be overweight or obese.

"The bottom line:  Disparities for children in poverty are numerous and wide-spread.  The ill effects will reach far into the future and across generations.  It is a multifaceted issue that needs multifaceted interventions.  It is the issue of our time!"  Richard NW LeDonne

[This material "lifted" from the work of Richard NW LeDonne.]

Poverty costs

A number of readers who respond to my posts here sound as if they really understand poverty and the people who endure it.  A list of the more common phrases offered up here by these "experts" include "personal responsibility," "hard work," "hand outs," etc., etc., etc. What so many of these friends don't comprehend is the emotional, spiritual, psychological aspects of living in poverty, particularly over an extended period of time.  Easy solutions focused on behavioral modification of various sorts remain inadequate.  Real solutions will involve a comprehensive approach to attacking the root causes of poverty and its accompanying malaise. 

With this in mind, consider the challenging words of  Charles Blow: 

Them That’s Not Shall Lose
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: June 24, 2011
The New York Times

“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”

James Baldwin penned that line more than 50 years ago, but it seems particularly prescient today, if in a different manner than its original intent.

Baldwin was referring to the poor being consistently overcharged for inferior goods. But I’ve always considered that sentence in the context of the extreme psychological toll of poverty, for it is in that way that I, too, know well how expensive it is to be poor.

I know the feel of thick calluses on the bottom of shoeless feet. I know the bite of the cold breeze that slithers through a drafty house. I know the weight of constant worry over not having enough to fill a belly or fight an illness.

It is in that context that I am forced to assume that if Washington politicians ever knew the sting of poverty then they have long since vanquished the memory. How else to qualify their positions? In fact, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, nearly half of all members of Congress are millionaires, and between 2008 and 2009, when most Americans were feeling the brunt of the recession, the personal wealth of members of Congress collectively increased by more than 16 percent. Must be nice.

Poverty is brutal, consuming and unforgiving. It strikes at the soul.

You defend yourself with hope, hard work and, for some, a helping hand. But these weapons grow dull in an economy on the verge of atrophy, in a job market tilting ever more toward the top and in a political environment that would sacrifice the weak to the wealthy.

On Thursday, the Pew Research Center released a poll that showed how disillusioned low-income people have become. Those making less than $30,000 were the most likely to expect to be laid off or be asked to take a pay cut. Furthermore, they were the most likely to say that they had trouble getting or paying for medical care and paying the rent or mortgage.

But at least those numbers include people with incomes. A vast subset is chronically unemployed and desperately searching for work. According to the Consumer Reports Employment Index, “In 23 of the past 24 months, lower-income Americans have lost more jobs than they have gained.” It continues, “Meanwhile, more affluent Americans seem to be gaining more jobs than they are losing.”

And the current election-cycle obsession to balance the books with a pound of flesh, which is being pushed by pitiless Republicans and accommodated by pitiful Democrats, will only multiply the pain.

Until more politicians understand — or remember — what it means to be poor in this country, we are destined to fail the least among us, and all of us will pay a heavy price for that failure.

Poverty and Stress

Years ago, an old woman who had lived for many years in a very depressed and neglected neighborhood shared something profound. Something I'll likely never forget.

As we discussed her life and the day-to-day stress of living in poverty, she said, "Larry, we carry our grief in buckets here. Everyone has lost something precious."

The stress of a life caught up in poverty, and all that goes along with that state of living, is something most of us cannot possibly understand.

An essay in The Economist ("I am just a poor boy though my story's seldom told," April 4, 2009) gets at the connection between stress and not just poverty, but the role of stress in the transference of poverty from generation to generation.

Here's how the important report begins:

How poverty passes from generation to generation is now becoming clearer. The answer lies in the effect of stress on two particular parts of the brain.

THAT the children of the poor underachieve in later life, and thus remain poor themselves, is one of the enduring problems of society. Sociologists have studied and described it. Socialists have tried to abolish it by dictatorship and central planning. Liberals have preferred democracy and opportunity. But nobody has truly understood what causes it. Until, perhaps, now.

Read more here.

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