Poor Among Plenty
February 6th, 2007Via: MSNBC:
Once prized as a leafy haven from the social ills of urban life, the suburbs are now grappling with a new outbreak of an old problem: poverty. Currently, 38 million Americans live below the poverty line, which the federal government defines as an annual income of $20,000 or less for a family of four. But for the first time in history, more of America’s poor are living in the suburbs than the cities—1.2 million more, according to a 2005 survey.
Related: The Radical Christian Right Is Built on Suburban Despair:
During the past two years of work on the book American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, I kept encountering this deadly despair. Driving down a highway lined with gas stations, fast food restaurants and dollar stores I often got vertigo, forgetting for a moment if I was in Detroit or Kansas City or Cleveland. There are parts of the United States, including whole sections of former manufacturing centers such as Ohio, that resemble the developing world, with boarded up storefronts, dilapidated houses, pot-hole streets and crumbling schools. The end of the world is no longer an abstraction to many Americans.
I can offer a front row view on the effects of poverty from where I’m sitting (Mississippi – I consider that front row for the US unless Alabama wants to claim it).
We got a ‘break’ from Katrina here.
The flood in New Orleans was a mixed blessing in some ways for this neighborhood. Many of the empty houses for rent/sale were filled with evacuees.
I am in complete agreement that the situation could go critical at any point, but one thing about being in the bottom tier is that you’re a little more experienced in dealing with marginal conditions and your expectations are already lowered.
Part of the secret of my ‘success’ is that instead of following the ‘white flight’ and cashing out/up of this neighborhood for an insane mortgage I’m hundering down in the ‘hood.
Enjoy.