Can you define a "living wage?"
Or, how about an "American working family?" These terms are pandering policy pablum. It's like trying to figure out the word, "uninsured." It's nailing Jello to the wall.
Let's begin with two classic cases--both single moms with 2 children. Melanie had a significant other she met in college, but they never married, and he's wandered off the reservation looking for more significance. Her first pregnancy stopped her education, and besides, she liked staying home with cute babies. She doesn't know where the SO is, so there's no child support. She's working at Wendy's for $7.00 an hour--$14,800/year. She's not unhappy; she likes the work--has flexible hours, regular customers she knows by face and order, and can walk to work, although she has a "beater" car. She's a whiz at e-Bay and picks up a little cash by hitting the garage sales on her day off. She's worked at a dry-cleaners but the fumes bothered her, and at Tim Horton's, but the scheduling didn't suit, and has waitressed at family restaurants like Applebee's and Bag of Nails earning more, but she likes the management here. She occasionally dates the men she meets on the other side of the counter.
Then there's Tanika. She's divorced and her husband has decided to find himself in the entertainment world, but borrows more money than he sends. He drinks or smokes what is left after he's paid under the table at various clubs when his group performs. Each time she talks to him, he's just about to land the big break. Tanika's no dummy. She's always been told that education is the key to a better life. With help from her parents and various scholarships, and some state aid, she has finally completed the Kent State program in Library Science. Although she's relieved to have landed a job in the public library of a nice suburb of Columbus for $16.40 an hour in a tight job market, she does have to work some evenings and occasional week-ends, and has no flexibility to trade hours. Also, she's got some whopping school debts to repay, and she's maxed out several credit cards. Her dad keeps her car repaired and running. Her mom invites her and the kids over for dinner often, and babysits when Tanika works evenings and week-ends. The library is so busy, she knows none of the people who pass through. Social life is zilch, nada, nyet and she's too pooped to even take the kids to the pool. Her day off is a school day, so she volunteers at the Lutheran Food Pantry.
As you might have surmised, Melanie is better off than Tanika, plus she could have the satisfaction of knowing she is keeping a small army of government workers busy!
She is eligible for a piece of the Earned Income Tax Credit ($40+ billion), which is a cash supplement to wages of the "working poor," and at her income that's an additional $4,536 a year.
At various times she has received help from Temporary Assistance to Needy Families because of the dead-beat dad thing until her eligibility ran out. Between jobs, she stayed on unemployment benefits as long as she could--one time almost 3 years. Although she much prefers working, she never felt a sitter did as good a job with the kids as she could do herself.
She receives a housing voucher ($16 billion), which is much more pleasant than having to live in "the projects," and although there are others in her complex--actually many--no one seems to notice. In fact, she and Tanika's family don't live far from each other and the kids play together at the pool.
In addition to food stamps, which add about $100 a week to her grocery budget* ($35 billion through USDA), her children are eligible for the National Student Lunch Program, the Breakfast Program, the after school snack program, and the summer lunch program--plus she gets her own meals at Wendy's. In fact, they're all packing on a few extra pounds--no one is going hungry, that's for sure. The NSL and SBP (from the Ohio Department of Education via the USDA) also provide these services to runaways, homeless and migrant children, but Melanie is a pretty stable gal with good values, she's "always paid her own way," so there's not much danger of that. If she runs out towards the end of the month because the cable bill was due, she can get 3 days of food at the Lutheran Food Pantry.
Melanie would have to pay a pretty high co-pay for company health benefits, so she keeps passing on that during sign up periods, but she's eligible for SCHIP (as is Tanika who is making under $40,000 but has never applied**), and it provides some coverage like dental, prescription and special lab work she couldn't get through an employers' health program.
A few months ago Melanie's boyfriend got religion and called her, wanting to do right by her and the children and make it all legal--white dress, church, flowers, etc. But she turned him down. Even if he got a job at another Wendy's their combined income would throw off her eligibility, and financially, her kids would much much worse off. She's happy where she is--who needs to marry?
Melanie and Tanika are fictitious; the programs are not.
*In Ohio a family of three would be eligible for about $100 a week in food stamps, the gross eligibility being $21,600 of family income.
**An October 2007 study found that 68.7 percent of newly uninsured children were in families whose incomes were 200 percent of the federal poverty level or higher.
Last night I hosted a dinner for three friends and I just finished the wonderful Godiva chocolates one brought as a hostess gift. Yum! I served broccoli soup, a boneless pork roast with a BBQ sauce, potato salad, baked butternut squash, fresh fruit bowl (blue berries, cantaloupe, grapes, pineapple and strawberries), wheat rolls, and peanut butter chocolate pie. To go with my color theme I made a drink of 1/3 pineapple juice mixed with red raspberry sugar-free soda. This was my first time to use the bowls I bought in July to go with my good china. My china is Syracuse, Countess pattern, purchased in the 1960s and now discontinued, with bowls going for about $50-60 on e-bay. I found an almost-match at the Discovery Shop of King's Court, Wedding Band pattern, for $4 each. At night, under the dining room light, I couldn't see any difference, but in the daylight, you can see a very slight color difference. Anyway, I was very pleased with my find, and finally being able to serve a soup with dinner!
"Studies Illuminate HIV’s Inequalities," Rebecca Voelker, JAMA. 2008;299(3):269-275. 
I'm a California ex-pat, according to the Bear Flag League bloggers (see my links). Sometimes they invite me for blogging lunch, but I have to say no, living in central Ohio. My dad was stationed in California during WWII before being shipped out. He was a Marine. Mom and my aunt Muriel packed us all into the car and away we went, driving from northern Illinois to Alameda, California in 1944. Things didn't look good for the war effort towards the end. The war easily could have gone the other way; our losses were huge. We probably lost more men in training accidents than we've lost since 2003 in Iraq. But Baby boomlets don't read history--probably isn't required in public schools of California. Now the city of Berkeley wants to chase out the Marines. A librarian (surprise!) has called it a knee jerk reaction. No, lady, it isn't. Your state is huge and your economy larger than that of many countries. Your entertainment industry has virtually ruined our culture, and now you want to sabotage more of it. We are the UNITED STATES, and you're undercutting our government and military. Shame, shame, shame. How did California accumulate so many kooks? We've got a lot of family living in Southern Cal, and not a one of them or their friends are weird. But then, none lived or went to school in Berkeley. I've written to the mayor, mayor@ci.berkeley.ca.us. They need some guidance and help out there.
Posts
