America's Torrent of Need
WASHINGTON — The view from the White House, not to mention much of Capitol Hill, is idyllic. True, there are a few blotches on the landscape--a queasy stock market and what conservatives see as a long-running deterioration of America's core moral values. But other than that, what's to complain? Americans are gratefully cashing in their tax rebates to redo the kitchen counters or pay off some credit card bills. Welfare reform has been declared a universal success, with over 60% of former recipients making their own way in the job market. Unemployment is yesterday's problem, and the official poverty rate has reached a comfortingly low 12%.
But look more closely and the scenery appears a whole lot less pleasant. On July 24, the Washington D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute (EPI) released a report showing that 29% of American families with young children--precisely the sort of families that policymakers say they are most concerned about--do not earn enough to live at any acceptable level of comfort and security. The EPI researchers got to this appallingly high number by calculating the basic--make that very basic--budget a family needs to live on. They figured in essentials like housing, food, clothing, health insurance, transportation, childcare and utilities, but no meals out, vacations, movies, cigarettes, beer or other routine middle-class indulgences. And even then, they found that nearly a third of American families can't make ends meet. Things the more affluent take for granted--like Internet access, video rentals and saving for retirement--are almost impossible luxuries.
But they get by, don't they? Not exactly. EPI researchers looked carefully at data on families who earn less than the "basic" budget, which amounts to $33,511 for a family of four. More than 70% of these families worry about food, sometimes miss rent payments or have to rely on an emergency room for their medical care. Nearly 30% report facing far more dire hardships: having to miss meals, foregoing needed medical care, being evicted from their housing.
In a purely selfish way, I'm relieved by all this statistical bad news: At least it wasn't just me. While researching my recent book, "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America," I spent a total of three months, in three different cities, attempting to support myself on the wages I could earn as an entry-level worker--as a waitress, a hotel housekeeper, a maid with a housecleaning service, a nursing home aide and a Wal-Mart floor clerk. I found that I could not make ends meet, not with one job anyway. I averaged $7 an hour, an amount which fell tragically short of my bare-bone expenses--gas, food and, above all, rent.
