America’s Hidden Poverty May 8, 2006
When we were young, we were taught to help the poor, since we were American and privileged to be part of this great nation. We raised money, food and clothing to send through the Red Cross to countries such as India, Bangladesh, China, South America, and Mexico. Somewhere along the way, our nation neglected the poor among the Americans. An article in today’s NY Times about America’s Near Poor shows the vulnerability of middle and lower class Americans. Climbing poverty rates and rising level of debt suggests a deepening insecurity. More people work in jobs without health care or insurance. Because many of us, myself included, come from privileged backgrounds, we don’t notice the millions of Americans living in poverty. The article states:
About 37 million Americans lived below the poverty line in 2004, set at $19,157 a year for a family of four. But far more people, another 54 million, were in households earning between the poverty line and double the poverty line.
That’s a total of 91 million Americans earning $38,314 (double the poverty line) or lower. Our previous discussion of economic classes highlighted the growing gap between upper class and lower class. It’s sad to hear that approximately 1 out of 4 families earn less than $40,000. Americans are at a period of growth, but at the expense of the lower class. We still have the thought of kids with distended stomachs in India as the picture of poverty. But the tables have turned and it’s countries like China and India who are supporting Americans with our debt addiction. We can’t ignore/hide these problems in our own backyard.
Source:
America’s ‘Near Poor’ Are Increasingly at Economic Risk, Experts Say
By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: May 8, 2006
More Airfare Saving Tools May 4, 2006
People who love to travel, like myself, like to look out for travel bargains. I like to keep an eye out for last minute bargains, but I don’t have time to search on travel sites everyday to see how prices move. I just discovered tripstalker.com. Tripstalker.com constantly scours for inexpensive trips and alerting you by email or text message once a flight, hotel, or rental car matching your search criteria shows up. I hope I can find a good bargain to Europe or Asia.
You can also check out my favorite travel site, Kayak.com, which I previously wrote about. The site searches almost all airlines and you can adjust you searches with without having to reload the page. I’ve found great round trip deals from NYC to LA for $250 (normally over $350), and NYC to Chicago for $130 (normally over $250).
US Addictions: Gasoline and Spending May 2, 2006
The USA is addicted. Addicted to gas and addicted to spending (i.e. not saving), and we are not making any sacrifices to fix these addictions. Last week’s story from the NY times on gas prices going up raised an eyebrow for me for one reason. So far, the $3 per gallon price has not persuaded many commuters to change their behavior. According to the article, there has been no increase in registration for a program that arranges carpools and vanpools for the county that includes Seattle and Bellevue. What are people are waiting for? At what price does gas have to be in order for people to start changing their habits? For all the anger and talk about “rediculous” gas prices and the fall of consumer oriented businesses, Americans aren’t sacrificing their bad habits.
This reminds me of Americans not sacrificing to save money for emergency funds thinking that there are other ways to get money, either by taking out more loans or tapping home equity to pay for emergencies. There’s no need to wait for hybrid cars to be more mainstream, for fuel cells or a new government fuel economy mandate when we can drive less, trade down to a more fuel efficient car, or carpool. We have the means to reduce our gasoline consumption NOW without expensive technology. We also have the means to adjust our standard of living without much sacrifice. When we realize that the World’s oil is tapped or our home equity is tapped, we won’t have the luxury of making more. Can we kick our bad habits??
Source:
As Gas Prices Go Up, Impact Trickles Down
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: April 30, 2006