Physician David Hilfiker’s StudyHilfiker, David. Poverty in Urban America: It’s Causes and Cures. Potter’s House, 2000. This is now out of print since it has been expanded in a book titled Urban Injustice. This PowerPoint created by Kevin Miller, Huntington University, Ind. I take responsibility for any misrepresentation I may have inadvertently introduced in trying to summarize Hilfiker.

Black Urban PovertyChapter 1: Introduction

Who Is David Hilfiker?

A medical doctor who moved from rural Minnesota to inner-city Washington D.C. to practice medicine

Lived in a medical recovery shelter for homeless men

Began Joseph’s House to help men dying of AIDS

What Hilfiker Realized

That poor people are sometimes irresponsible (like all of us), but that “improving poor” people doesn’t attack the causes of their poverty

“After fifteen years in the inner city, I no longer believe that poverty should be attacked by improving poor people.”

Fixing Poor People

“Improvement” approaches have recently included Providing job training Training young mothers in parenting skills Motivating poor people by placing time

limits on welfare benefits Reducing welfare benefits to discourage

childbearing

Fixing Poor People

Historically these approaches included Conversion to evangelical Christianity Temperance legislation and training Threats of institutionalization Forced breakup of families

Underlying Assumption

That the main reasons poor people are poor are the individual characteristics of the poor themselves:

o Ignoranceo Lack of trainingo Addictiono Laziness

o Poor charactero Sexual promiscuityo Too many children

Hilfiker’s Thesis

The primary causes of poverty lie not so much in individual behavior but in social structures, in forces outside of the individual’s control

This is not to deny that some poor people could use some improving (again, as could most of us!), but it is to suggest that the primary causes of American poverty lie elsewhere

Primary Causes of Poverty

Segregation Lack of jobs on which one might

support a family Inadequate access to affordable health

care Inadequate education Non-existent vocational training, etc.

Two Statistics

Half of African American children in USA live below the federal poverty line ($20,000 annual income for a family of four in 2007; or $10,000 for a single person)

Half of black males 18-30 are in the criminal justice system

What Should We Conclude?

African Americans are genetically predisposed to poverty and crime? (Charles Murray in The Bell Curve argues something close to this), or …

forces surrounding African Americans and other poor people in the USA are pushing them into poverty

But the Personal Weaknesses Are Apparent—Why? Statistics show higher rates of

Single parenthood Substance abuse Poor parenting Criminal acts

Even after 15 years of urban medical practice, Hilfiker didn’t know either, so he decided to find out. “I was often shocked at how little I had known.”

How the Urban “Black Ghetto” Formed

By the 1950s, the black, inner city ghetto was already formed

But different than the same neighborhoods today because of high levels of intact social organization

Churches, volunteer organizations, businesses, and schools brought people together

1950s Ghetto Life

Most people worked 83% were two-parent families Levels of violence were low Education was valued Racially segregated, but “integrated

vertically” (rich, middle-class, and poor all lived in proximity)

An Earlier Integrated Era

Until the late 1800s, urban poor & rich, black & white lived in close proximity

Why? Poor servants lived nearby the rich they

served Primitive modes of transportation

required everyone live near businesses and plants where they worked

The Pull of the Industrial Revolution

In late 1800s, large manufacturing factories sprang up in northern cities

Required large numbers of workers and paid unprecedented wages

European, Asian and many other immigrants flocked to the USA for to fill these job openings

The Transportation Revolution

Cars, buses, trolley transportation also developed at the same time

This had two effects: The affluent avoided this onslaught of

“undesirables” by moving from the central cities to the peripheries, which was the beginning of American suburbanization

The poorer working class stayed class to the factories since they couldn’t afford bus fares much less an automobile

Immigrant Ghettos

The first American ghettos, then, grew out of this social stratification of working class immigrants living close to the factories in the central parts o the cities in the same neighborhoods surrounded by those who shared their culture

Black Transmigration

At the same time as foreign migration fulfilled worker demand at factories, African Americans migrated in vast numbers north

Pulled to North by decent wages But also pushed out of the South by

growing unemployment in south with rise of tractors and other mechanization of agriculture

Black vs. White Ghettos

Blacks also formed culturally distinct neighborhoods, like Asian and European immigrant populations

But as non-black immigrants and their children gained basic wealth, they moved out of their ethnic ghettos

They became dispersed into the general population (we don’t speak of “German ghettos” anymore)

Why Didn’t Blacks Leave Too?

Some African Americans also began to become affluent

Laws during this era of legal segregation (Jim Crow, or apartheid) confined even affluent African Americans from moving to the developing suburbs

Thus, richer and poorer blacks lived together in urban centers

Wave Two of Southern Black Transmigration North

In 1940s and 50s, further advances in technology (especially the cotton picker) reduced the need for agricultural workers in the South

But legal “redlining” of neighborhoods meant blacks could only settle in existing black neighborhoods, increasing population density dramatically

The Geography of Racism

Even in the least segregated cities, black people were more segregated geographically than any other ethnic or racial group had ever been in any city in the USA

All “non-blacks” had the possibility of assimilating into mainstream (i.e., “white”) society and leaving ghettos

African Americans didn’t

Legal Discrimination

Up until the Civil Rights Act of 1965, discrimination was legal in education, employment, and housing

The disadvantages from these alone were enough to keep the vast majority of African Americans poor and from “upward mobility,” no matter that they worked longer hours and in harder jobs than most other Americans

Federal Debt Relief Programs—For Some Only

Two important social insurance programs created in the Great Depression of the 1930s: Social Security and unemployment insurance

But these new federal programs were designed to NOT cover domestic and agricultural workers

Two-thirds of black workers were thus excluded from these benefits

Housing Discrimination

The FHA (Federal Housing Administration) also developed to help Americans rise up out of poverty during the Great Depression

Guaranteed mortgages to buy a home But FHA said that the poor black

neighborhoods were too high risk and so “redlined them out of the program

Private Mortgages

Private mortgage lenders (such as banks) followed the FHA redlining model and well into the 1960s held official policies against lending in black communities

The practice continues unofficially today

City Zoning Laws

City zoning requirements, first instituted in the early 1900s, now used to zone poor neighborhoods as “industrial”

This prohibited new residential construction and even the improvement of existing residential buildings

Result: Downward spiral of home values in urban black communities

The Result

Other poor families left the urban decay, but legal and social segregation and real estate practices confined blacks to those rotten neighborhoods

Despite segregation, crowding, and poverty, however, the black ghettos of the early 1950s were viable neighborhoods, because of intact social organization

The Second Shockwave to Sweep Over Inner-City Ghettos

First came the “Federal Urban Renewal” program

Goal: improve decaying city centers Lacking access to political power,

African Americans were ignored when they objected

Large inner-city black ghettos were literally razed to make room for new buildings

Urban Renewals Affect on Blacks

Blacks found themselves corralled into two places: The remaining black ghettos in the area Into public housing, which were usually

large apartment buildings or high rises build to house the poor

Federal Housing in Chicago

The Robert Taylor Homes, built 1962 to hold 11,000 residents but peaked at 27,000 Sept. 2005 photo; months later

it was destroyed

Interstate Highway Program

Highways through Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, and virtually every major city routed through poor (black) neighborhoods

Entire neighborhoods were razed, or the highway was purposefully placed to “wall off” ghettos from rest of city

Blacks were thus moved to public housing or isolated geographically

Economic Changes

By 1950, city centers were centers for the USA’s leading role in manufacturing

Unionization was leading to better wages and working conditions

Blue collar jobs were a way out of poverty for many poor, though less so for darker skinned peoples who faced legal and social barriers to upward mobility

Outsourcing and Foreign Competition

Post WWII Europe and Japan rebuilt and competed with USA for manufacturing, followed by Korea and Taiwan

Economic globalization in the 1980s and 1990s and today, with its multinational companies, reduced manufacturing in USA

Watching Jobs Slip Away

Outsourcing continued to Third World countries where wages are lower, environmental regulations are few, and expensive regulations for worker protection almost non-existent.

Computerization and mechanization of manufacturing worldwide further reduced manufacturing jobs

Winners/Losers

Jobs remained for “symbol manipulators” (professionals with advanced degrees and managers, administrators, programmers, etc.)

Factory workers were pushed into the service industry (domestics, janitors, clerks, nursing aids, etc.) where wages have historically been low and benefits often nonexistent

Where That Has Left Poor African Americans

As the service industry found an influx of workers, wages were depressed

Full-time service workers found it difficult to make a living or support a family on the services wages (though they could when making factory wages and benefits)

And well-paying jobs in black areas were and are hard to find

Free at Last—If You Can Afford Freedom

The integration that at last became legal with the 1965 Civil Rights act allowed the minority of African Americans in the middle- and upper-income brackets to leave the ghettos

But that left a concentration of poor people in the ghettos, in overcrowded housing

The Worst Problem

The vertical integration of socioeconomic classes in the old ghettos now broke down

Social networks broke down with the departure of local jobs and institutions and leaders

Unemployment and underemployment (working at less than a living wage) rose sharply

Getting Noticed For Once

The result: get ahead on one problem and three more pop up, leading to despair, inertia, and increased anti-social behavior [see Gang Myths]

The wider society finally took notice Conservatives blamed blacks for being

lazy and immoral; liberals ignored it so as not to criticize poor people

War on Poverty

President Johnson’s War on Poverty has since been much maligned

But it succeeded in many ways: Head Start, food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, higher social security benefits and disability benefits, Legal Aid, the Job Corps

Winning the War?

Result: From 1959 to 1979, the poverty rate among fully employed blacks went from 43% to 16%

Poverty rate among all elderly was reduced by 66%

But funding for the Vietnam War cut the program short as it lost funding and poverty increased again

Back in the Ghetto

Forces in the disintegrated ghettos matured into full force

With no jobs, the illicit drug industry found fertile fields for new employees

Violence accompanied the rise of drugs, especially with the rise of gun sales in the 1980s

Liberal/Conservative Voices

Liberals were in denial, for fear of criticizing African Americans

Middle Americans did notice, however, and reacted against liberal denial of the problem

Conservative voices putting the blame on individualistic characteristics as causes of poverty gained a hearing

A New Argument

Conservatives added the argument that liberal welfare policies of the War on Poverty actually worsened poverty instead of helping alleviate it

Government programs for the poor were drastically curtailed (Welfare reform”)

Society moved toward controlling the ghetto instead of helping it

David Hilfiker’s Conclusion

These social, economic, and legal forces have led to the black inner-city ghetto as we know it today

Thus, even past discrimination, because it is structural in nature, remains a potent cause of contemporary inner-city poverty

[End of Chapter 1]

Physician David Hilfiker’s StudyHilfiker, David. Poverty in Urban America: It’s Causes and Cures. Potter’s House, 2000. This is now out of print since it has been expanded in a book titled Urban Injustice.

Black Urban PovertyChapter 2: Specific Causes

1. Racial Discrimination

Study after study finds that when paired couples--similar to one another in every respect except color--are sent out to purchase homes or rent housing, White couples will be shown housing that

black couples are told is unavailable Black couples will be steered to black

neighborhoods

Racial Discrimination

It is still more difficult for African Americans—especially those living in the city—to obtain mortgage loans

William Julius Wilson’s study finds that employers are reluctant to hire young black men for the inner city: Seen as: Uneducated, unstable, uncooperative, and

dishonest

How Employers Screen Out Inner-City Applicants

Not placing employment ads in city-wide newspapers (using neighborhood or ethnic or suburban newspapers instead)

Rejecting applicants from urban public schools

Avoiding state employment referrals Relying on informal networks

Wilson Quote

Inner-city black job seekers with limited work experience and little familiarity with the middle-class world are also likely to have difficulty in the typical job interview. A spotty work record will have to be justified; misunderstanding and suspicion may undermine rapport and hamper communication. However qualified they are for the job, inner-city black applicants are more likely to fail subjective ‘tests’ of productivity during the interview.”

Black English Vernacular

Even blue-collar jobs make use of language as a screening device

Prospective employees may fail the “telephone test” because they do not speak standard English, never making it to the interview.

From a Personal Point of View

It may be easy to sympathize with the employers in this process, but for the individual young, inner-city black man trying to do the right thing, the screening out is as real in its effects as virulent prejudice would be

2. Segregation

Residential segregation was legal and structural and its imprint remains

As such, it was beyond the ability of any individual to change

Violence in defense of the color line of segregation peaked in the 1920s, but only gradually has declined

But surveys show blacks today still fear the threat of violence and stay put

“Neighborhood Improvement Associations”

Enacted zoning to close hotels and rooming houses used by blacks

Paid blacks to leave the area Boycotted real estate agent who sold

to blacks Created public investments to keep

property values high, out of reach Created funds to buy vacant houses

Restrictive Covenant

A legal agreement forbidding signers to sell their property to African Americans

Supreme Court declared these unconstitutional in 1948

But RC’s used in practice until the 1980s when Federal government finally began enforcing the law

Ruining the Neighborhood?

When blacks moved into a neighborhood, property values fell and poverty rose

Why? White flight at even rumor of middle-class blacks moving into area

And “developers” would “bust” a neighborhood through rumors, buy the homes, then rent them at high prices to blacks

Politics of Segregation by Area

Other immigrant communities eventually created coalitions across race and ethnic lines with whites

Not blacks The only way blacks could gain

political power was by bloc voting based on black segregated area

Breeds distrust rather than cooperation, even today

Suburbanization

Federal government subsidized roads for commuting to urban jobs FHA guaranteed suburban mortgages but

discouraged inner-city homes until 1968 Instituted property tax breaks for home

owners (blacks rent disproportionally) This geographic racism is thus

institutionalized in practices today; some improvement since 1990s

Who Wants Integration Today?

Polls of blacks show they see a 50-50 mix as desirable in neighborhoods

But most whites will not move into a black neighborhood

And statistics show that whites leave their own neighborhoods when blacks comprise 10% of the neighborhood

So once integration begins to make blacks feel comfortable, whites leave

Segregation’s Vicious Cycle

History shows why African Americans were poorer even long after slavery

Segregation of poor blacks into neighborhoods with high poverty

Thus, segregation concentrates poverty, intensifying its force and the attending problems of crime, disease, apathy, generational poverty, etc.

3. Education

Taxes are local--leaving poor areas with poor schools and rich areas with rich school districts

Ghetto schools were further marginalized even within a city

Markedly inferior levels of instructions, facilities, programs, etc.

Additional Burdens for Schools

Poor schools must drain already tight resources to address hunger, violence, lack of guidance to students whose parents are absent working extra jobs, etc.

Are Magnet Schools the Answer?

They draw students from many schools and are better funded and staffed

Unintended consequence: Leaves in ghetto schools the less motivated and less qualified students, and robs ghetto school budgets to fund magnets

Voucher programs: same effect

History of Education Rulings

1886 Plessy vs. Ferguson: “separate but equal” allowed for race segregation

The equal part never happened 1954 Brown vs. Board: Supreme Court

demanded integration of schools Some integration, but never achieved

on a large scale Today both rulings remain largely nil

A side story (not in Hilfiker)

Reverend James Seawood remembers how African-American families were forced out of Sheridan, Arkansas, when the schools attempted to integrate in mid 1950s.

Recorded in Staten Island, NY, in partnership with the Sandy Ground Historical Society.

http://storycorps.org/listen/reverend-james-seawood/

4. Health Care

Poor get government health coverage, right? Fact: Less than 1/3 poor are even eligible for Medicaid.

Most low-paying jobs don’t provide health insurance

And if they do, the cost for a family plan is > 50% of total family income

Those on Medicaid…

Find fewer and fewer doctors/hospitals accept Medicaid

Use emergency rooms or public clinics instead, but these only address emergencies, not ongoing or specialist care

Patients still billed for services

Poverty begets sickness begets sickness begets begets…

Example: Poor prenatal care and malnutrition lead to learning disabilities in child, which leads to low educational achievement, which leads to poor pay

To save money, the poor often live in unhealthy conditions. “A friend of mine cannot afford to move out of her damp basement apartment although the mold spores severely aggravate her daughter’s asthma” (p. 23).

5. Criminal Justice System

Blacks are 12% of USA population but 45% of prison population

40% of death row inmates are black Half of D.C. black males 18-33 are in

the criminal justice system (from prison to parole)

My note (but Hilfiker would appreciate it)

Why are nearly 70 percent of convictions for illegal drug usage blacks when they consume 12% of illegal drugs? Cornell West Race Matters 2001 Preface.

How does this fact relate to Isaiah 61: 1-4: 1The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

Who will go and continue Jesus’ mission to the blacks in prison who are there in unjust numbers? Ahh, forget about it: go into corporate law instead of becoming a public defender. Get rich! Will you be the rich young ruler? Or do you hear the cry of Jesus: I was in prison and you visited me!

Prison records and jobs

“Getting criminals off the street” makes sense but also removes tens of thousands of breadwinners

And ex-cons are shunned by employers, leading to more poverty

The “unemployment rate” does not include prisoners

Whose fault?

Proportionately higher percentages of poor black people commit the crimes we jail people for, especially drug offenses, murder, and robbery.

But also true: we prosecute blacks more readily than whites, especially through plea bargains

Public defenders have far fewer resources than private attorneys

What about white-collar crime?

“We tend to punish more severely those kinds of crimes committed by the poor than those committed by affluent people. Why is it, for instance, that we prosecute shoplifters so much more aggressively than people who “fudge” their expense accounts? Both are crimes against business that can cost a significant amount; both are Federal crimes since neither source or income is usually reported to the IRS” (p. 25).

The notorious example of the differential punishment for possession of crack versus power cocaine is another example. The amounts of cocaine one can possess without risk of significant jail time are one hundred times smaller for crack (used by poor people) than for powder (used by affluent people), despite the fact that the powder can be easily transformed into equipotent doses of crack” (p. 25).

Physician David Hilfiker’s StudyHilfiker, David. Poverty in Urban America: It’s Causes and Cures. Potter’s House, 2000. This is now out of print since it has been expanded in a book titled Urban Injustice.

Black Urban PovertyChapter 3: Ghetto-Related Behavior

Blind to Structures

American individualism leads us to blame poverty on individual choices.

Proof? Poor person A comes from the same neighborhood as person B who rose out of poverty, so individual choices must be important!

But often missed: the relationship between structural and individual causes

Also overlooked

Most residents of ghetto neighborhoods keep working steadily even at unappealing, low-paying jobs

Most are not addicted to alcohol or drugs, aren’t criminals, aren’t on welfare.

Most value self-reliance, sacrifice, hard-work, respect for others—but are still poor.

But ghetto-related behavior does exist, why?

Single-parenthood, crime & violence, drug and alcohol addiction, lack of motivation

William Julius Wilson notes that “ghetto-related behaviors” were not part of black ghetto life through first 100 years after Emancipation (1860s)

Even single parenting was only 17% higher among blacks even in 1950s, which is less than among whites today

Context

Outside forces lead to joblessness, crowed proximity, inferior education, poor health, and discrimination

“In this context, ghetto-related behaviors can be seen as understandable behavioral responses to environmental conditions, some of which evolve into cultural patterns” (p. 27)

William Julius Williams quote:

“This is not to argue that individuals and groups lack the freedom to make their own choices, engage in certain conduct, and develop certain styles and orientations, but it is to say that these decisions and actions occur within a context of constraints and opportunities that are drastically different from those present in middle-class society” (p. 27)

1. Single-Parenthood

90% of married-couple families live above poverty line, but 66% of families with never-married women (of any race) live below the poverty line

66% of African American babies nationally are born to single mothers

50% of all black families headed by single women (and half of those have never married)

Cause AND Effect Relationship: Single-parenthood means …

Only one breadwinner in family Women’s wages are less than men’s,

even for same work Less educated black single women

means lower paying job options Childcare becomes overwhelming

issue—takes up to $1 of every $3 earned

Why so many single black mothers?

Perspective: 1980-1992 out-of-wedlock births (oowb) grew 94% among whites, but only 9% for blacks

Shift in social mores: okay to get divorced, or for single women to have sex

Men feel freer to leave families (and most don’t pay child support required)

90% of single pregnant women don’t abort

Affects in the Ghetto?

Higher stress in ghetto leads to higher divorce rate

Joblessness leaves ghetto men unable to properly support a family economically

Makes men less desirable marriage partners

Men feel defeated not being good “breadwinner” and flee marriage

Studies show: single working man more likely to marry child’s mother than jobless man

Incarcerated black men decreases chance of marriage

Chronic poverty leads to economic despair, but to proving manhood through fathering a child

For both men and women in ghetto, “sex among teenagers is more about personal affirmation than about status or ticket to better life (married or not, job prospects are nil) [see Life w/o fathers” study summary]

Desperation: What’s to lose? Girl in ghetto gives up few real options

to have a baby

Amplifying society-wide trend, stigma to oowb (out of wedlock births) much weaker today

Many young ghetto women now see a man in the house as a liability

A high oowb correlated with oppression. Blacks, Puerto Ricans, Native Americans, Hawaiians (all indigenous in a sense) were cosigned to positions of dependency by colonizers and racially identifiable

high oowb rates correlated with historic race-color oppression & hierarchy

Blacks at 66% oowb, then Puerto Ricans and Native Americans, to 46% for Hawaiians were cosigned to positions of dependency by colonizers and easily racially identifiable

Whites oowb rate: 18.5%

Some Myths:

Scientific evidence does not support myth that welfare promotes oowbirths

But welfare stipulations do cause some intact couples to stay out of formal marriage.

Research shows generosity of welfare benefits does not lead to more oowb for blacks (but it does for whites)

Rate of oowb has almost doubled since 1975 despite the fact that the real dollar values of welfare, food stamps, and Medicaid has fallen

Contrary to popular beliefs, mothers on welfare have on average slightly fewer children than other mothers

Note: rate of single-parenthood has increased dramatically, but rate of births to unmarried black woman aged 15-24 has remained constant.

This means that the problem is not that single parents are having “more” children but that so few women marry

The cycle:

Single mother exerts less control over teen children, so peer values about sex, pregnancy, and marriage become the norm

It is only a short step to a “culture of poverty” in which single-parenthood is the socially accepted norm.

2. Crime and Violence

No job, no college degree, living apart from the rest of society lead to hopelessness and alienation from white-middleclass norms.

Enter drugs to fill the void Possible to earn more in hours (once

you have others sell for you) than peers working in low-paying jobs earn in weeks.

Children recruited as runners (less likely to be sent to jail)

Mothers with no good source of income look the other way when sons return with gifts of money, food, clothing.

But drug trade + handguns = violence

Availability of high-powered weapons sent murder rate skyrocketing in inner cities in 1980 and 1990s

Physical strength in fights long was used in ghettos to settle disputes (law enforcement is often absent) and establish rank, but with weapons it became deadly

Assault weapons remove the element of courage and strength or skill

Violence is now a terrifying, destabilizing force

Statistically, it is more dangerous to be young black man in inner-city than in Vietnam War during height of fighting

3. Addictions

Drugs everywhere and inexpensive, especially crack, which is highly addictive

Lack/absence of parents and social order let teens succumb to peer pressure and rebelliousness against society norms

Joblessness means free time, no structure to their day

Middle-class white kids who try drugs “recreationally” are restrained from heavier use by school and work and parents

(Footnote: “It is more than coincidental that our language usage as middle-class kids ‘experimenting’ with drugs and using them ‘recreationally’; there is no such mitigating language when black ghetto kids use drugs.”

Affluent people who do become addicted have better de-tox resources

Intoxication an easy escape from despair

Addicted often role models for children

4. “Unmotivated”

Hilfiker writes: “I put this last factor in quotes because it is not at all my experience that poor people are poorly motivated. Some of the hardest-working people I know are poor, scratching out a living for themselves and their family on several part- and full-time jobs at minimal wages.”

“What is surprising is that they are not less motivated than they, in fact, seem to be. Given the average educational level, the few decent-paying jobs available, and al the other strikes against poor people, any realistic look at their future is pretty grim. High aspirations are usually punished by the reality of poor vocational options”

Like most other people in our individualistic culture, poor people ultimately blame themselves for their lack of success and can easily lose self-confidence. The little public assistance that is available is administered in ways that make it difficult to transition back into the world of self-sufficiency” (p. 32).

White middle-class ideology:

Belief that anybody can make it in America if they try

Thus, something is wrong with anyone who doesn’t make it

But as even their dialect indicates, blacks in ghetto don’t have equal footing in society to compete (segregation)

Ghetto youth haven’t seen role models getting up and going to work consistently, punctuality, deference toward superiors, or even learned to deliver excuses in a sincere and believable manner

so inevitably they are misunderstood in misinterpreted

Most of middle class have .. .

Learned to dress up for a job interview, even if the position we are applying to won’t require us to dress up

Be absolutely on time at work each and very day during the first weeks (we know we are on “probation”)

Take few breaks appear eager to work Otherwise: read as lazy and disrespectful

Oppositional Value System

Hilfiker writes: “Until recently, ghetto residents continued to hold the values of the wider culture even as they unable to fulfill them. Getting an education was crucial, having a job was considered important, marriage was a goal, respect for the law was widespread, and so forth.”

“As the ability to fulfill these values was deteriorated, however, it has become harder and harder to maintain them as values. Gradually a parallel status system has developed in opposition to wider cultural norms.”

“To do well in school is considered ‘acting white.’ Flouting the system by using drugs or selling them is cool. Carrying a weapon and using it becomes an acceptable way to establish privilege.”

“Working hard at a low-paying job is a sign of self-disrespect. Learning Standard English becomes a deliberate snub of one’s own culture.” (pp. 33-34)

Physician David Hilfiker’s StudyHilfiker, David. Poverty in Urban America: It’s Causes and Cures. Potter’s House, 2000. This is now out of print since it has been expanded in a book titled Urban Injustice.

Black Urban PovertyChapter 4: Welfare

Myth

Myth: Care for poor in early American history was private (charities, churches, and individuals)

Welfare in America has always been a combination of public and private assistance

Modern Welfare

First emerged about 500 years ago From the beginning debate about who

“deserves” public assistance Welfare policies quickly enshrined the

binary distinction between “deserving poor” and “undeserving poor”

Three problems with binary

1. Impossible in practice to accurately distinguish “deserving” from “undeserving”

Government policies that try this quickly run aground questions of causes of poverty (complex) and difficult-to-determine psychological states

For example, a person who looks lazy on paper may, on closer examination, prove to be metally incapable

So make the distinction at the local level through one-on-one determination? Local prejudices weigh too heavily for the process to be considered just.

Problems with the deserving/undeserving binary

2. Debate ignores the structural causes of poverty (which all of these slides have been examining since slide one)

3. all regulations/policies designed to weed out the “undeserving” makes life miserable for those “deserving” assistance

Example: benefits are kept low so that they are not too “attractive” to undeserving, but then deserving can’t survive on them (average Aid to Families of Dependent Children—AFDC, what we call welfare--were $300 a month)

The New Deal

Roosevelt’s New Deal in mid 1930s during Great Depression implemented when millions of middle-class lost jobs and the poor became “us.”

Programs included: unemployment insurance, Social Security (but excluded domestic and agricultural workers, thus 66% of working blacks

Is Social Security Welfare?

Course not! We pay into it, right? Yes, but most beneficiaries received

about twice what they pay into it (even with allowance for investment growth)

That extra amount is welfare that your grandparents receive

A success

But it was successful welfare: poverty rate in 1997 for elderly was about 10%, half the poverty rate of our children

Estimate: if no SS, elderly poverty rate would be 50%

Cost? Social welfare costs in 1900: 1% but after New Deal 27% of government spending

An Old Distinction Reborn

“Social insurance”: SS, Medicare (for elderly), disability pensions, disaster relief

“Public assistance”: payments to families with young, food stamps, Medicaid, etc.

Social insurance (deserving) Public assistance (undeserving)

Reality check

Both social insurance and public assistance are forms of wealth transfer from the working to those not working

1996, SS had $567 billion in trust fund, but payments (liabilities) of $8 trillion, or $8,000 billion.

SS has always been a transfer of income from the working to nonworking. Insurance doesn’t work that way.

Historian Michael Katz: “Social insurance is acceptable because, so it is believed, it is earned. With their own wages, workers contribute to funds—supplemented by their employers—that will support them in periods of unwemployment or in old age. Even though they may take out far more than they contribute. They can argue that they have paid their way” (p. 39)

Result of “deserving” label?

Social insurance programs federally administered with uniform standards, benefits pegged to inflation.

Public assistance programs state and locally administered by cost-of-living benefits up to will of local legislatures, not inflation indexed

Result: Social insurance programs far bettered funded with better benefits

General assistance from state/local governments for poor were originally determined by income

Changed to only “unemployables” (childless, able-bodied adults no longer eligible)

Think of effect on adults in innercity with extremely high unemployment rates—no jobs, but now also no assistance

Reagan Administration

Tried to cut both public assistance and social insurance programs

Outcry for social insurance programs, so saved

But was able to cut public assistance Eligibility tightened: Excluded those

poor from drug addiction, many chronically ill children

1996 Welfare Reform

Entitlement (you qualify, you get the benefits to welfare; established in 1930s) rescinded

Now federal “block grants” to states capped total $ available, even if additional need

Contrast: Social Security is entitlement

Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC; remember that $300 a month?) abolished and replaced with

TANF: Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, in form of block grants to states to administer

Now 51 separate TANF programs, not single national AFDC; hard to evaluate effectiveness now

To get aid now, recipients must go to work within two months or lose aid

Five years total lifetime assistance allowed, then not eligible

Many families leaving welfare rolls takes jobs with incomes that leave family below poverty line, so return to welfare a months later

Single mothers often can’t afford childcare

Some Numbers

$47 billion: 1992 total for foodstamps and AFDC

$238 billion: same year for just Social Security

$96 billion: cost of Medicaid (for poor) $120 billion: cost of Medicare (for

elderly)

A Little-Discussed Program

Earned Income Tax Credit: offered tax break to working people (was around up to $3700 for a year)

For very low income families, the credit rises as income rises, creates incentive

Studies show it very effective in lifting families from poverty

European Models

Little “public assistance,” since part of social insurance

No Medicaid since everyone has access to tax-supported health care

In many nations every family with children received various allowances, so special program for poor not needed

“Those programs that are specific to the poor are still seen as ‘insurance,’ insurance for everyone against the possibility of becoming poor oneself” ( p. 51)

The Finnish System

Universal health care coverage Doctors work 37 hours for the state in

public clinics and private practices, and can choose to also have a private practice

Finns can use public clinics/hospitals for dollars a day, or private, paying 1/3 the charges

Family support: all families of all income brackets receive allowances (money) for children to 17, with a single mother receiving more.

$100 per month per child Parent(s) can also chose to stay home

to provide child care and receive a base pay of $400 a month; more for poor families

If parent of newborn or young child returns to work after paid maternity leave, the state provides childcare for $200 a month

Unemployment insurance similar to U.S. (about ½ the previous salary)

But for 2 years, not six months as in USA

Education allowances for vocational and university training: free tuition and living support of $300 a month and 2/3 of rent costs up to $170 a month

Retirement benefits similar to USA with employer-funded and public social security benefits

Also additional assistance to the poor, such as rent assistance up to 80% of rental costs, but not in public housing—any location okay (avoids ghettoization as we have in USA)

Are you thinking …

With benefits like that, who would want to go to work? How many are playing the system?

Hilfiker interviewed Finnish social worker who thought the question odd but said in her city of 60,000 perhaps 100 people “should have been working.”

But, she added, they had just completed an in-depth study of those 100 and through extensive medical and psychological testing determined that half of them had sublte disabilities that really did prevent them from working

.08% (less than 1/10 of 1%) were abusing the system

Racial and economic segregation are not an issue—all live int eh same neighborhoods and send children to the same schools

Finland has little poverty: even the “poor” are not poor by USA standards

What about the Cost?

In USA federal and state tax (without SS) is about 21%

In Europe and Canada, it ranges between 40% and 50%

Take-home lessons:

1. Poverty is not an inescapable fact of human nature or capitalist economies as Finnish social insurance shows

2. Such a system is expensive (at least at the front end of taxes)

3. Such insurance does not of itself lead to laziness or free-loading (any more than Social Security does in USA)

What can the USA do?

First we need both racial and economic desegregation

As long as there are segregated ghettos, there will be ghetto desperation

Ghettos concentrate the poor together, removes jobs, decimates the social organization, lead to generational poverty

The rich need to move into poorer neighborhoods and allow the poor in richer neighborhoods

Affluent see this as a threat: they will bring the problems with them!

But Gautreaux Project in Chicago disseminated 5,000 from projects into middle-class neighborhoods

5000 assigned randomly to two groups Both groups offered Section 8 housing

vouchers (to pay rent), One group (the inner-city group)

offered housing in another part of the city

Second group (suburban group) could chose to move to middle- and affluent suburbs

Neither group was given special help Both groups were then followed in a

federal-grant statistical study for 20 years

Result? The mothers of the families from the suburban group had results similar to mothers in innercity group

Employed as much, earned same amount of money, had to go back on welfare about as much

Poor black mothers in white suburbs felt no more isolated than counterparts in city

Both did feel isolated, but for city mothers out of protecting family from dangers of ghetto

But differences between the groups show up in the children

Suburb children struggled first several years after move; catching up for being behind by years of poor education

But by year four those making A’s in the innercity now made A’s in suburbs, same with B’s, C’s. They had adapted up to suburban education standards

Suburban vs. city kids in study: way more graduated from high school, 10 x’s as many attended college, far fewer dropped out, etc.

Trend is continuing now with employment and earning capacity

Cycle of generational poverty was broken for suburban group

Notable points:

Only one or two families moved to any particular suburban neighborhood

This kept teens from clustering and develop a subculture in school or neighborhood—kept old cultural habits from being transplanted

2. Neighbors did not know the history of the new black neighbors unless the family chose to tell them—allowed their own judgments, not weighted by inner-city prejudices

3. Despite reservations, the black families integrated into white neighborhoods

Statistics show the average African American would prefer to live in a 50-50 neighborhood mix, and become uncomfortable if number of blacks drops below 10%

But usually they don’t have a real choice to integrate residentially

Lessons

It is wrong to blame primarily the individual or family for failure in the inner city

Take the family out of the ghetto, and the children will do well

The Gautreaux Project is now being replicated in other cities

But a problem: affluent neighborhoods are fighting them

Social Insurance Ideas

Universal health care: fewer employers are offering family coverage, and middle-class is starting to be un- or under-insured

Government can be efficient: SS is run with overhead of less than 3 compared to 15-20% in private insurance companies

Administrative savings would be enormous to both doctors and hospitals since fewer insurers to satisfy (exclusions, levels of coverage)

Congressional Budget Office shows those savings would be enough to insure all the uninsured

Earned Income Tax Credit could be expanded so no person working morte than 30 hours a week would earn less than the poverty level

Millions of working poor work full time but still below poverty line

Expand unemployment insurance Supplemental Security Insurance

program for benefits for permanently disabled expanded to everyone who really cannot get work

Costs? Not prohibitive. Increase in taxes is off-set by not paying insurance premiums paid by employers and individuals for health coverage

The other three programs above would require less than 1% increase in Federal expenditures

1991 Census Bureau estimated $37 billion more needed for covering all poor families, compared to $500 billion yearly then for SS

The homeowner’s tax deduction (really an income transfer “welfare” program to middle class) cost the US $49 billion by comparison

All the programs above made entitlements would be financed at less than 1% increase in taxes!

But are we ready politically for that?

Last slide

Where is justice? The current answer for inner-city neighborhoods seems to be to add police (good) and increase prison sentences (bad), then throw up our hands and say there is nothing more we can do. But if there is, if we have the collective will.