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This is a very interesting article by John Clegg. It is from the radical perspectives website. It is a case report on homelessness in Sacramento. It seems like homelessness has become normalized in the U.S.

The demographics for the U.S. showed that there are 6,600 new evictions every day; one occurs every 13 seconds.[4] At the end of 2008, over 19,000,000 housing units stood vacant [5] with the numbers still climbing. In  2007 it was estimated that in the course of a year over 3,500,000 people are homeless, 1,350,000 of them being children,[6] which is obviously much greater today. So it becomes clear that there are easily more than five empty homes for every homeless individual or family.

We are currently facing a severe financial crisis and homelessness is just a pay check away. Today homelessness is not only limited to people who have serious additions with drugs, alcohol or gambling. Or to people with mental illness. We are all prone to becoming homeless.

Sacramento area ……unemployment rate was 10.4%.[1] In 2007 and 2008 there had been 33,500 foreclosures in the eight-county Sacramento metropolitan area.[2] In a report in October, 2008 Sacramento was #10 in the U.S. for the number of foreclosures.

These statistics are alarming and it indicates that Sacramento is experiencing severe economic turmoil. The living conditions of people who were recently paying their mortgages and once considered “middle class” or “working class” Americans is horrible. Their lives have been transformed. They are living in squalid conditions in cramps. It is like these people are refugees of their homeland. Many of these people were leading normal lives before their misfortunes. Cleggs describes a resident below

He was articulate and said until the crisis he was working in construction and going to college. And he repeatedly made it clear that he wanted to stop living there and get back in housing as soon as possible.

This is clearly someone who had some sense of direction in life like many others who live in the camp. These people were once employed, responsible citizens who were living the American dream. Most of them worked in the once booming construction industry and since the bubble burst they are out of a job. Therefore they were unable to pay their mortgage or rent.

A surprising thing in the article is the way in which these people are being treated by their local government. The Mayor suggested that a better alternative for the cramps would be to put the people in an Arena. This is so familiar it just reminds me of the aftermath of Katrina and how people got locked in the Superdome in New Orleans which the author mentions of course. It is like these people are an eye sore to society and it is better to lock them away.

It is just sad to see that people are being punished for their misfortunes and living in squalor because they were not able to pay their mortgages. Since they are unemployed because the bubble burst in the industry that they worked in. While the CEO’S of companies are receiving bailouts. People may argue that the modification of mortgage plan that Obama has passed is helping homeowners. I totally agree but it is only helping a limited few. It is helping those who still have their houses and also their jobs. It is not helping the unemployed who are close to being homeless or those who are already homeless.

It is clear that America is currently experiencing a depression it is just that the main stream media is not reporting it.

 http://sites.google.com/site/radicalperspectivesonthecrisis/news/thenewjoadstryingtosurviveinthespectacle-commoditysociety

I read the radical perspectives article called ” When a Job Dissapears, so does the Health care”. It gave an overview of the unfortunate unemployment situation in the U.S and the jobless numbers ever increasing.  The main point of the article was that not only are people losing jobs but they’re losing their health benefits as well. I find this very disheartening and scary as well because I am under my moms health insurance but when I am no longer a student I won’t be. So if I don’t have a job i’ll have no health benefits. People are really going to desperate measures to get the care that should be a right to every citizen.  One example in the article was a woman who induced her labor because she needed her medical coverage to cover the delivery.

“The crisis is on display here. Starla D. Darling, 27, was pregnant when she learned that her insurance coverage was about to end. She rushed to the hospital, took a medication to induce labor and then had an emergency Caesarean section, in the hope that her Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan would pay for the delivery.”

To me that is a shame. It is a human right to be able to have your baby delivered in a safe and healthy environment.  Also the article talked about other people working at a cookie factory that abruptly lost their jobs and coverage with only three days notice. People were not even able to take the medications they needed anymore. They also had to put off medical procedures. 

The amount of people that are jobless have reached record highs. According to the article:

“About 10.3 million Americans were unemployed in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of unemployed has increased by 2.8 million, or 36 percent, since January of this year, and by 4.3 million, or 71 percent, since January 2001.”

This is a very alarming statistic and people are suffering with illnesses.  I think that there are more problems that can arise if something isn’t done and the government doesn’t start paying for peoples healthcare.  Epidemics can start and people might start spreading diseases without any medicine or treatments. I thought that America was a place that could afford to give the citizens what they need but apparently the government is failing at that task.

The article also mentions what President Obama had plans to do about this.  When the article was written he was the president elect.  It says:

“Expanding access to health insurance, with federal subsidies, was a priority for President-elect Barack Obama and the new Democratic Congress. The increase in the ranks of the uninsured, including middle-class families with strong ties to the work force, adds urgency to their efforts.”

I haven’t seen any major improvements on health care since Obama has been in office but I think this has to be put at the top of his list of things to do. Or else it could have great consequences on the U.S as a whole.

Here is a link to Obama-Bidens plan for health care if anyone was interested. I wonder how much better the plan will make things for the average family. http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/

I was looking at some blogs today on the internet and came across a website called AssociatedContent. Like many other blogs, viewers rate the postings of amateur and professional authors according to what there thesis, what they actually say, and how they back it up. On the topic of welfare, a user named “Kyle” posted something I found very interesting. i found myself agreeing with him most of the time, but for some reason, a lot of people gave this guy a 2 out of 5 stars rating. I was wondering why this might be the case. Anyway, credit to Kyle, here’s what he says:

The welfare system in the United States was designed to help poorer people to afford the cost of living. However, the current system provides an incentive for people not to work and is a waste of taxpayers’ money.

“Welfare is supposed to be temporary, only for a short time to help people during a tough time. The system is taken advantage of too often and many people don’t look for work and just depend on their checks to support them. This is not fair to people who are working and have to pay the money that helps these people who aren’t doing anything to help themselves. It is very difficult to fix the system though because there are also a lot of people who are trying to find work and just can’t and it wouldn’t be fair to take away their benefits because of the people who abused the system. Some changes must be made to keep this system helping those who actually need it and keep people from just relying on others to support them.

There should be penalties for people who aren’t looking for work or improving their skills. Education should be encouraged to help people on welfare be able to take control of their lives and not have to use welfare any longer. There also should be better incentives to work, not losing all benefits at a certain point. As people earn more money their welfare should decrease, but the total money they receive should increase to provide a reason for them to work more. There should also be more checks to make sure welfare recipients are looking for work or improving their education and if they aren’t they should stop receiving benefits. Welfare needs to be thought of as a short term help not a long term solution for unemployed people.”

Do you think that this pretty much sums up what we’ve been discussing in the class? Why or why not? What is this guy missing? I wish he would have discussed the stigmas that are very much attatched to his topic of choice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/nyregion/26fraud.html?scp=6&sq=welfare&st=cse

I read this article and I found it to be interesting.  What interests me the most is how people could get away with this for such a long time.  I mean how can they be making so much money and when they applied for welfare and food stapms the authority didn’t even check that they were not eligible.  This just clearly shows that the authorities do not monitor well enough the people they give benefits to.