Tough times for Michigan's children

I dare you to read this report and not cry. As you read it, realize that 2009 will likely be worse.

Michigan Kids Count Data Book 2008

From the Executive Summary:
"Poverty afflicts one of every four young children ages
0–4. Minority children have much higher rates—44
percent for African Americans and 29 percent for
Hispanics compared with 15 percent for whites."

Michigan's social safety net still full of holes

Our social safety net is porous. It’s a net after all, not a helmet or steel-toed boots or safety glasses. Nets have holes. Stuff slips through. People slip through. Families. Children.

This week, Michigan legislators increased state cash assistance to poor families via the Family Independence Program by $1 per month per person – a cool $12 per year. According to the Michigan League for Human Services (MLHS) this is the first across the board increase in the monthly grant in 18 years. This increase isn't going to strengthen the safety net.

“We think it’s a positive symbol that needy families receiving cash assistance are finally getting recognized in the budget, but you have to keep it in perspective because the buying power of the grant has eroded steadily over the years,’’ said Sharon Parks, president and CEO of the League, in a press release.

While it may be a positive symbol, the $1 increase is also a shameful embarrassment. Next year, a family of three will receive $36 more per year in their FIP grant. If you’ve gassed your car lately, you know $36 doesn’t buy a tankful. The buying power of the dollar continues to erode. Good thing the Family Independence Program is intended to cover rent. So how much do families that qualify actually receive?

Prior to the $1 increase, a single parent with two children received $489 a month. Unfortunately, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Michigan is $627. To make ends meet recipients can also seek food stamps or federal housing subsidies. Recipients can even work. But if they earn a bit more than $300, they lose their FIP. The rules of the system push them toward independence through the holes in the safety net.

“There are plenty of families for whom this is their main income,” said Judy Putnam, communications coordinator for the MLHS. In the first quarter of 2008, 58 percent of families receiving FIP had no earned income. Children in those families do not benefit from cash income beyond the FIP grant.

The FIP assistance amounts to just 35 percent of the poverty level. In Michigan, the 2007 poverty level for a single parent with two children was $16,705.

In June 75,848 families received cash assistance from the Family Independence Program. This included about 150,000 children. Imagine the combined populations of St. Claire Shores and Farmington Hills as poor hungry children. Anybody got an extra dollar?

Child Poverty Increases in Michigan

The Annie E. Casey Foundation released the 18th Annual Kids Count Data Book earlier this week. Michigan's child poverty rate has increased dramatically. Booth News reported that "Michigan's troubled economy contributed to a 36 percent jump in the number of children living in poverty between 2000 and 2005, as an additional 116,000 children slipped below the poverty line." The national rate of increase for the same period was 12%.

Now 19% of children in Michigan live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level. (The data do not account for "people in military barracks, institutional quarters, or for unrelated individuals under age 18 such as foster children). According to the Kids Count report, 19% is the current national rate.

This is bad news for children and families in Michigan. It's symptomatic of our ongoing economic trauma--unprecedented manufacturing job loss over the last decade.

As bad as things are here, they could be worse. New Hampshire, Nebraska, Maine and Colorado all saw steeper increases in child poverty.

Curiously, the states with the highest child poverty rates are all "red" states that swung for Bush/Cheney in 2004. Here are the top 10: Alabama 25%, Arkansas 25%, Kentucky 22%, Louisiana 28%, Mississippi 31%, New Mexico 26%, Oklahoma 23%, South Carolina 23%, Texas 25%, West Virginia 26%.

Defending the New Gilded Age--The Audacity of Privilege

Cross posted at the Huffington Post

Yesterday, New York Times columnist, David Brooks (A Reality-Based Economy) gave us a peek at the rhetorical and semantic tricks that will be used against Democrats' persuasive populist message. The Dems must be on the right track, because Brooks tries so hard to discredit the message. And what is the message that must be demolished?

Brooks' summary of the supposed deceit:
"C.E.O.’s are seeing their incomes skyrocket while the middle class gets squeezed. The tides of globalization work against average Americans while most of the benefits go to the top 1 percent."

Trick Number One: Lead with a dismissive grabber.

Brooks:
"If you've paid attention to the presidential campaign, you've heard the neopopulist story line."

You thought neoconservatives were full of it selling another oil war with fear and deception? Just wait for the neopopulists. They will sell you a simplistic bill of goods to advance their deceitful ambitions for power. They will seek support from the vast cohort of people not in the top 1% of earners with a "storyline" not "facts." Brooks and other reasonable conservative opinion shapers can be trusted to supply facts.

Trick Number Two: Defend the indefensible and frame it as utterly reasonable. Be sure to use numbers.

Brooks:
"The bigger a company gets, the more a talented C.E.O. can do to increase earnings. Over the past two and a half decades, the value of top U.S. companies has increased 500 percent, according to Xavier Gabaix and Augustin Landier. The compensation for the C.E.O.’s of those companies has also increased 500 percent."

Much can be done to increase earnings and it needn't be legal or ethical, just effective because at the end of the day all that matters are increased earnings. If the earnings increase, well, so should the pay of the silverback at the top. And hey, it's proportional (500% increase in company value, 500% increase in CEO compensation). So simple a child can understand.

Brooks:
"As Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution noted recently in The Washington Post, between 1991 and 2005, 'the bottom fifth increased its earnings by 80 percent, compared with around 50 percent for the highest-income group and around 20 percent for each of the other three groups.'"

80% of $15,000 really doesn't compare to 50% of $150,000. But the point is everyone is seeing an increase, so quit complaining if inequity persists, you whiny neopopulists.

Trick Number Three: Don't forget to blame the victim and shove a wedge between potential allies.

Brooks:
"...inequality is also rising in part because people up the income scale work longer hours. In 1965, less educated Americans and more educated Americans worked the same number of hours a week. But today, many highly educated people work like dogs while those down the income scale have seen their leisure time increase by a phenomenal 14 hours a week."

Those layabout, slothful poor actually have more free time than hard-working, highly educated types busy working their way to the middle. You more educated people know who you are. You are better than the poor. You are different. Remember that as you hear Democrats tell stories about the economy--stories that might motivate you to work for equity during our current gilded age.

The People, Yes

From The People, Yes (1936) of Carl Sandburg

"...The people is Everyman, everybody.
Everybody is you and me and all the others.
What everybody says is what we all say.
And what is it we all say?

Where did we get these languages?
Why is your baby-talk deep in your blood?
What is the cling of the tongue
To what it heard with its mother-milk?

They cross on the ether now.
They travel on high frequencies
Over the border-lines and barriers
Of mountain ranges and oceans.
When shall we all speak the same language?
And do we want to have all the same language?
Are we learning a few great signs and passwords?

Over the ether crash the languages.
And the people listen.
As on the plain of Howdeehow they listen.
They want to hear.

Two countries with two flags
are nevertheless one land, one blood, one people--
can this be so?
And the earth belongs to the family of man?
can this be so?..."

Willow Run: Lessons for Michigan

What factors created Willow Run's persistent social and economic vulnerability?

1. Willow Run's only unifying governing structure is the school district. Being split between Ypsilanti and Superior Townships, the community of Willow Run lacks a unified municipal governing structure through which to shape its future, develop economic diversity or express its unique historic legacy.

2. A large number of wartime workers were recruited from Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. The fact of a north/south cultural divide doomed Willow Run's prospective annexation into the City of Ypsilanti, which would have allowed it to benefit from infrastructure and services of an established municipality.

3. Residents depended on a single industry for employment. The wartime boom at the bomber plant transitioned almost seamlessly into the postwar boom of the auto industry.

4. Even as parents understood education's importance to their children's futures, children could consider the hard labor of factory work, a worthy well-paid pursuit.

5. Willow Run's historic and cultural identity is manufacturing.

Doesn't this resemble Michigan's present predicament?

1. While we have the appearance of a single governing structure, Michigan's legislature suffers a crippling partisan divide. Never mind two townships; we have two Michigans, red and blue. Or maybe it's a pushmi-pullyou in Lansing?

2. Certainly, the urban/rural cultural rift ensnares the state legislature when considering initiatives to help southeast lower Michigan, generally and Detroit in particular.

3. Michigan's historic and cultural identity is the automotive industry. The entire state has benefited from the auto industry. The tourism of "up north" developed from the prosperity of industry in southeast lower Michigan and the broad availability of cars.

4. While we say we value education, our tax policies say otherwise. And while industry was thriving, high school graduation could suffice. But this is no longer true.

5. Even though plenty of other businesses contribute to our economy, our principal economic engine has been auto manufacturing and associated businesses for nearly a hundred years. This primary dependence on one industry has had devastating consequences at the state level with downsizing and outsourcing.

What can we do?

1. Urge legislators to take view beyond the election cycle, detach from partisanship, and look in the same direction--forward.

2. Begin to see Michigan as a whole entity--one Michigan (Our Michigan), rather than a constellation of opposing, adversarial binaries (red/blue, urban/rural, rich/poor, labor/management, white/non-white).

3. Accept our special history and relationship to the automotive industry, but promote diverse economic development. Encourage small business and promote local economies that can sustain communities and cultivate local culture.

4. Educate children to become human beings, engaged citizens, and independent thinkers, not mere "good workers." Help them develop an appreciation and love of their home state, so that they might want to stay here, and improve the place, rather than become migratory workers in search of better opportunity.

5. Embrace Motown at the state level as the cultural gem that it is.

Any other ideas out there?

Looking for a Sign in Willow Run

Granholm Receives National Award for Campaign to End Homelessness in Michigan

While debate rages and sides are chosen over the proposed 2% service tax, Governor Granholm has been recognized for efforts to end homelessness in Michigan. On March 8, United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) recognized Governor Jennifer M. Granholm with the "Every American Deserves A Home" award for her encouragement and leadership for Michigan's statewide Campaign to End Homelessness.

A January 2007 report by the National Alliance to End Homelessness reports that .26% of Michigan's population are homeless. That is 26,124 people.

If you want to get involved to help end homelessness in Michigan, consider connecting with one of these organizations.

Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness
Shelter Association of Washtenaw County
Greater Lansing Homeless Resolution Network
SOS Community Services (Ypsilanti)
The Goodwill Inn (Traverse City)
Detroit Rescue Mission
The SIREN/Eaton Shelter (Charlotte)