The Expendable Poor

The middle is declining, and the center cannot hold! (4.00 / 2)

I would like to provide a perspective based both on my years working in politics and my graduate training as a theologian.

First, with my political hat on, here is a finding that absolutely blows that hat away:  According to the AP, "The median - or midpoint - household income was $49,445, down 2.3 percent from 2009."  Now, this is not average income.  Median means that half of the households, which includes all income earners, are above the midpoint and half are below.  The fact that the median is dropping means that, as a whole, we are getting poorer.  Also, keep in mind that, in many areas, median household income was dropping before 2009; therefore, this is a continuation of a trend.  Here in Essex, one of our four census tracts showed an estimated 10% decline in median household income between 2005 and 2009!!!!  

Secondly, wearing my theological hat (heavens: not a mitre), I appreciate and agree with what Chris Hedges has written: Namely, "the traditional beacons of the liberal class - the universities, media, church, labor unions, and arts - have sacrificed themselves completely to the dominance of corporate greed and unbounded capitalism."  Wendell Berry has written: "The organized church makes peace with a destructive economy and divorces itself from economic issues because it is economically compelled to do so."  Eduardo Galeano wrote in the Gospel of Solentiname, regarding priests who supported Somoza and the capitalist oppression in Nicaragua, "They were on the inside, as Tomas says, that is, on the side of power and the status quo. And Christ says woe unto us if we choose to be on the inside."

So, where does this leave me?  Inside or out?  Posting on a blog is a simple, cost-free gesture.  As the statistics Sue references dramatically underscore, it is time for me to decide what tangibly and significantly to do.

(By the way, I did not mind Sue's Credo, non credo; it was analogous to the Hebrew Testament's tradition of lamentation, particularly in the Psalms.  I also, like Sue, do not believe in that God!)

---

by: Bruce Post @ Tue Sep 13, 2011 at 18:44:45 PM UTC

Thank you, Bruce. (4.00 / 1)

I was pretty sure that our regular GMD'rs would understand where I was coming from and not take offense.

---

by: Sue Prent @ Tue Sep 13, 2011 at 18:52:47 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

No accident that churches have moved toward greed and away from compassion (4.00 / 1)

For a thorough exposé of the concerted effort to take-over churches in the US, read Steeplejacking: How the Christian Right is Hijacking Mainstream Religion

---

by: simplify @ Tue Sep 13, 2011 at 20:06:59 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

it's the debt, guys (0.00 / 0)

You can't do much to improve income/poverty numbers at the end point of a debt-based money system, which is where we are.  Everything gets squeezed to make the ever increasing interest payments.  It won't be long before it sucks up what's left of the food stamp program.

Come to the Pavilion Auditorium in Montpelier tomorrow night at 7:30 and hear Joe Bongiovanni explain how the debt-based monetary system is a hidden tax on the people, and how this could be remedied by implementation of Dennis Kucinich's monetary reform bill, HR 6550.

---

by: peteryoung @ Tue Sep 13, 2011 at 23:30:41 PM UTC

When the poor have nothing left... (0.00 / 0)

...the Corporate Reich, The Rich, and the Republicans
will go after those one or two steps up the ladder.  And that will include Tea Party folks.  The more you love the Rich, the more they will take, cause, shit, they know they are so well loved.

Who is going to be our first Trillionaire?  Who needs people when you've got all the money?  Hell, with all the money the Rich can make people.  

---

by: PeteySweety @ Wed Sep 14, 2011 at 17:17:12 PM UTC