How Expensive It Is to Be Poor
JAN. 18, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/opinion/charles-blow-how-expensive-it-is-to-be-poor.html?comments#permid=13873490
Having lived and worked many years in Europe (mostly Germany - back in the 80's, with high unemployment, when it was not doing as well as it is today), I always marveled upon returning to the US how much better off the "average person" seemed to be in Germany.
Even in Seattle today, which is a relatively well-off area, with Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks and others providing for relatively high employment, it seems in many respects like a third-world city, compared to, for example, Munich. Living in downtown Seattle, I see many, many homeless sleeping in doorways on my morning walk, and there are little tent encampments for homeless all over the city.
The "rugged individualism" so prized by most Americans may have been effective in the 19th Century, but starting with the Industrial Revolution, and especially now with the hyper-interdependent economy under "Globalization", most people are NOT masters of their own destiny, they are small players in a complex structure which no one really understands fully - even academic economists, who claim to "know how the economy works" - and which is controlled by a tiny minority of the population ( the infamous 0.1%).
We are de-facto back in a feudal age, where the "ruling aristocracy" of old has been replaced by the super-rich, and thus super-powerful 0.1%.
Europe has dealt much better with this phenomenon - notwithstanding the phony measure of GDP - by rejecting laissez-fair market economy in favor of "social market economy".
Even in Seattle today, which is a relatively well-off area, with Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks and others providing for relatively high employment, it seems in many respects like a third-world city, compared to, for example, Munich. Living in downtown Seattle, I see many, many homeless sleeping in doorways on my morning walk, and there are little tent encampments for homeless all over the city.
The "rugged individualism" so prized by most Americans may have been effective in the 19th Century, but starting with the Industrial Revolution, and especially now with the hyper-interdependent economy under "Globalization", most people are NOT masters of their own destiny, they are small players in a complex structure which no one really understands fully - even academic economists, who claim to "know how the economy works" - and which is controlled by a tiny minority of the population ( the infamous 0.1%).
We are de-facto back in a feudal age, where the "ruling aristocracy" of old has been replaced by the super-rich, and thus super-powerful 0.1%.
Europe has dealt much better with this phenomenon - notwithstanding the phony measure of GDP - by rejecting laissez-fair market economy in favor of "social market economy".
Some specific examples of social market policies which tend to reduce the abject poverty so common in the US:
- Universal Health Care: only a tiny minority of Germans are not covered by universal health care. This takes a huge burden off the poor.
- Free university education: admission is highly competitive, but those who do not find a slot in a German university often go to another European country. The result is that today Europe has much greater "upward mobility" than the US
- Better, more differentiated public education: American public education, with the "equality" ideal that everyone should finish high school, with the result that a high school diploma is virtually useless today. The European public education systems are more differentiated, acknowledging different talents and differing academic aptitudes. "Trade schools" in Germany, combined with state-supported apprenticeships, lead to highly lucrative and successful careers. The US tends to put all its bets on the college/university degree, with lots of college graduate flipping burgers.
- Social Services which acknowledge the obligation of society ("the Government") to ensure a minimum existence level income.
- Relatively strong labor unions, with the acknowledgement that employees should have a say in how corporations are run, i.e. employers have an "obligation" not just to their shareholders/owners, but also to their employees.
The pat answer in the US is that "we cannot afford" such programs. Germany chooses to.
- Universal Health Care: only a tiny minority of Germans are not covered by universal health care. This takes a huge burden off the poor.
- Free university education: admission is highly competitive, but those who do not find a slot in a German university often go to another European country. The result is that today Europe has much greater "upward mobility" than the US
- Better, more differentiated public education: American public education, with the "equality" ideal that everyone should finish high school, with the result that a high school diploma is virtually useless today. The European public education systems are more differentiated, acknowledging different talents and differing academic aptitudes. "Trade schools" in Germany, combined with state-supported apprenticeships, lead to highly lucrative and successful careers. The US tends to put all its bets on the college/university degree, with lots of college graduate flipping burgers.
- Social Services which acknowledge the obligation of society ("the Government") to ensure a minimum existence level income.
- Relatively strong labor unions, with the acknowledgement that employees should have a say in how corporations are run, i.e. employers have an "obligation" not just to their shareholders/owners, but also to their employees.
The pat answer in the US is that "we cannot afford" such programs. Germany chooses to.
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