Our policies regarding poverty

“The American economy runs on poverty, or at least the constant threat of it. Americans like their goods cheap and their services plentiful and the two of them, together, require a sprawling labor force willing to work tough jobs at crummy wages. On the right, the barest glimmer of worker power is treated as a policy emergency, and the whip of poverty, not the lure of higher wages, is the appropriate response.”

“What the Rich Don’t Want to Admit About the Poor”,New York Times, Ezra Klein, June, 13, 2021.

And so, Ezra Klein broaches a topic that is probably heretical in the kind of capitalism we have today. Paul Krugman also references to the idea that poverty is the outcome of the policies we have today – it is a choice our politicians make. Ezra takes the theory or idea out of the policy arena into the every choices we – everyday Americans – make.

The dirty secret is: we want things cheap but in order to have cheap or affordable goods, somebody has to provide the goods or services at grinding poverty.

The full title of Ezra’s opinion piece is indicative of the conundrum we face: “What the Rich Don’t Want to Admit About the Poor”. This article is probably behind a paywall, but if you subscribe to the NYT, the opinion is well worth the read to start your thinking about what we are choosing. And our policy choices driving poverty is not an issue of just the right; both the right and left avoid facing the heart of what we are choosing in our policies.

I remember in the ’80s reading articles about Walmart decimating small town shops, as the big box come in and offer cheap goods from overseas – mostly from China. Small towns rallied to keep out Walmart, but the problem was, the shoppers kept going to the Walmart rather than going to the small shops. The shoppers made their choices and decided on the big boxes, thus, driving the death of small towns. Today, small towns feel abandoned and there is a polarizing divide.

Today, I think Amazon may be the new Walmart: we choose Amazon for their 2 day delivery which actually could be dangerous for the delivery drivers. We don’t think about the impact on the drivers in our desire for quick service, but the drivers are putting themselves in danger while trying to beat the clock to get the goods to us.

Amazon also supposedly kept some of their workers working in unprotected situations during the pandemic in an effort to keep the delivery juggernaut going.

We are becoming addicted to faster and faster delivery of our desires.

But those choices have consequences. And one day, those consequences may visit you.

“For the most part, America finds the money to pay for the things it values. In recent decades, and despite deep gridlock in Washington, we have spent trillions of dollars on wars in the Middle East and tax cuts for the wealthy. We have also spent trillions of dollars on health insurance subsidies and coronavirus relief. It is in our power to wipe out poverty. It simply isn’t among our priorities.”

“What the Rich Don’t Want to Admit About the Poor”,New York Times, Ezra Klein, June, 13, 2021.