Back to the future? Ed Weick >"The United States is the richest country on the planet yet is has the >greatest income disparity . . . . Sixty percent of all U.S. jobs created >since 1979 pay less than $7,000 a year." > --Fian Fact Sheet, "Welfare by Corporations is Corporate Welfare" > >I cannot absolutely vouch for these figures. They were passed on to me by >Hank Roth on his PNEWS list and I don't know anything about the source. > >However, many of my students are working at low income jobs while they work >their way gradually through college -- generally now obliged to study >part-time by our escalating CUNY tuition costs -- either during any given >semester or on a semester on, semester off pattern -- or both. > >Actually my students are not at the bottom rank They are likely to be >earning in the $20 - 30,000 range. But life is not easy there with >dependents to support and basic benefits missing or reduced. One of my >students with a child reported one week that while she was contributing in >part for her medical insurance, it did not cover well child care which >figured out to about $6,000 a year. The next week she reported that she had >been notified that her child would no be any longer covered at all! Our >CUNY adjuncts must pay upwards to an additional $300.00 per month for family >coverage. > >All too typically my students earning in this bracket have NO benefits -- >either medical or pension -- and yet they are earning too much to qualify for >Medicaid. There is a new program for covering children and based on >income spread around in various guises in the states, but when I happened >upon it is was still a deep dark secret. > >Typical job situations: two students in one class were managers of their >local MacDonald's -- managers are apparently paid from $20,000 to $30,000+ -- >but no benefits, medical or retirement. Manifestly our fast food workers >need to be unionized. They are NOT, contrary to the reports of those who >would have them subject to wages even below the minimum, all high school >students earning extra bucks for designer jeans. They are increasingly >people who are being dumped from welfare, are desperate to keep whatever >homes for themselves and children (2/3 of those on welfare are children and >many of these supported by single parents) they can and finding it now even >more difficult to feed their kids as the soup kitchens are increasingly >running short of supplies (See "As Need for Food Grows, Donations Steadily >Drop," NY Times, 2/27/99). > >Michael Harrington turned around American patterns of malnutrition and >starvation in the 1960s with his little book, The Other America, which >alerted us to the terrible facts of hunger in the midst of American affluence. > >It looks as though we may be racing back to those bad old days again. > >Ed Kent [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >
