At Least the War on the Poor is Going Well
For anyone who follows economic trends, or politics, or pays attention to anything, or has a brain, or can see, or isn’t a moron, the findings of the recent Brookings Institution report will not be terribly surprising. From the Christian Science Monitor:
One less visible aspect of the economic boom of the 1990s was a decline in the number of low-income working people who lived in very poor neighborhoods.
But that trend has reversed during the first five years of this decade, according to a new analysis by the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington. It found that the number of poor people who live in areas of concentrated poverty increased by 41 percent since 1999.
“Many of these neighborhoods that made these great gains in the 1990s – with the downturn in the beginning of this decade and the weak recovery – have been hit hard by this economic change,” says Elizabeth Kneebone, lead author of the report and a senior research analyst at Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program. “We’ve lost a lot of ground and see poverty again increasing in these neighborhoods.”
Such increases in concentrations of poor people in specific neighborhoods create a kind of self-perpetuating economic segregation, says Ms. Kneebone. That’s because low-income neighborhoods generally have lower-performing schools, less access to good jobs, poorer health outcomes, higher crime rates, and less economic investment.
“As people try to work their way out of poverty, they don’t find as many of the opportunities they need in very low- income neighborhoods,” she says. “All of this creates the cycle that perpetuates poverty.”
Not surprising. Incredibly sad, but not surprising.
In a recent interview from the Olympics with Bob Costas, George W. Bush said “I don’t see America having problems.” Sure, he wasn’t referring to class issues as such, but to America’s position in the world. (Which still makes that statement totally nuts). But it is a perfect summary of the Bush Administration’s attitudes, isn’t it? Bush doesn’t see the problems. America is fine. Iraq is doing great. Freedom is on the march. Mission accomplished. I can’t think of any mistakes I’ve made.
He is President Pangloss.
Contrast Bush’s comments - indeed his entire conduct during his presidency - with Lyndon Johnson’s comments during his 1964 State of the Union Address:
This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America. I urge this Congress and all Americans to join with me in that effort.
It will not be a short or easy struggle, no single weapon or strategy will suffice, but we shall not rest until that war is won. The richest Nation on earth can afford to win it.
LBJ was no saint, to be sure, for many reasons. But it would be nice for this country if our President, like Johnson did in ‘64, had some sense of the gravity of poverty, and the terrible sin of radical inequality.
It would be nice, wouldn’t it?
