Blog #2- Amber Webb

            Abramsky discusses the way we tackle poverty in this country as “fingers in the dike” (2013, p. 99).  She is referring to the welfare systems neglecting to make an actual impact on poverty despite Johnson’s War on Poverty. She backs up this idea with a lot of insight by people who are advocates for the homeless and people in poverty.  Organizations have not only had to deal with cuts in funding, but places such as food pantries are seeing less donations too.  A director of an organization that helps homeless in Chicago said he had to fight a funding cut of 52 percent to the state of IL’s emergency shelters.  Homelessness is not a condition is going away. “Ninety-two thousand Chicagoans could expect to be homeless during the course of a year, and on any given night, fully 21,000 would be sleeping in impoverished accommodations” (Abramksy, 2013, p. 101).  A number that personally shocked me was the number of school-aged kids that are homeless.  Chicago authorities estimated that number to be 16,000 in 2011, with 3,000 of those children not even living with an adult. Sadly, it seems that some people in charge of legislation do not have helping the impoverish a priority.  Maine’s governor, Paul LePage, had an agenda that would take down the state’s anti-poverty infrastructure.  His agenda would affect the health care and medical coverage for the poor.  Abramsky also points out that the government’s finances have worsened in recent years.  Because of this, it is harder to to access benefits, such as TANF.  “…in Arkansas despite unemployment increasing from 68,700 in December 2007 to 107,200 three years later, the number on TANF dropped by 100 families” (Abramsky, 2013, p. 105).  She also gave examples of the same thing for Missouri and Florida.  Why would unemployment go up while TANF enrollments go down?  How many families were falling through the cracks and going without basic necessities due to government finances?  How many children were affected by this?  Sadly, children are affected in these situations and some people in the position to help do not have a caring attitude.  Rush Limbaugh called children that received free food wanton little waifs and serfs dependent on the state.  He also disagreed with the free lunch programs.  I cannot help but wonder if he would have the same views if he had been a child or had a child that had to go hungry.

            Another point Abramsky makes is in chapter six.  She compares subprime mortgages to natural disasters.  Jacob Hacker is quoted saying, “Economic risk is a lot like a hurricane…Hurricanes strike powerfully and suddenly. They rip apart what they touch: property, landscape, and lives.  They are common enough to affect many, yet rare enough to still shock” (Abramsky, 2013, p. 164).  The housing collapse, like an earthquake or tornado, adversely affected entire communities, not just individuals.  The housing burst affected African Americans and Hispanics especially hard.  Abramsky gave several examples of people having variable rate mortgages that ran into trouble when their housing values plummeted.   I do find it refreshing to know that people are doing what they can to help others out, such as Gail Sacco.  She says she purchased a second home with the intention of putting troubled homeless people in. However, the housing burst had affected them too. The house they use to help others was worth less than half of the purchase price.  Hacker also talks about lack of financial security and bankruptcy.  The United States went from a few hundred thousand people filing for bankruptcy in the early 1980s to around 2 million in the mid 2000s (Abramsky, 2013, p. 175). Predatory lending with subprime mortgages have affected financial security and devastated many, not just a select few individuals.  What could have been differently to prevent this type of thing from happening to families?  Maybe the government should have had stricter policies in place to hold lenders more accountable. 

            In part two of the book, Abramsky would like to present a road map to for a new war on poverty.  She discusses a project called Half in Ten.  According to Jim Wallis, President Obama said he would commit to cutting poverty in half in ten years. However, with the economic trouble, the nation spent more time on damage control than prevention.  Poverty has almost fallen out of the spotlight altogether.  In mid 2012, only one firm described itself as exclusively working for low-income Americans.  Programs that help those in need are being cut.  What can be done to help fill in the gaps for the programs being cut?  What can be done to help starving families and children when even the food pantries are struggling to stay open?  As described in the first part of the book, oftentimes food stamps only give enough to cover a few weeks of food instead of the entire month.  A local program in Effingham and other communities called Blessings in a Backpack are doing the best they can to fill in these gaps, but they cannot do it alone.  As a country, I feel those that are capable of helping should.  Even if you can only afford to give one can of fruits and vegetables to a local food pantry or food drive, it can help.