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What to do about the highest poverty rate in 50 years
Let me begin with a lengthy quote from an article on last week’s report by the U.S. Census Bureau that poverty is at its highest rate in half a century. The facts are alarming and tragic.
“The U.S. Bureau of the Census released its annual measurement of poverty in America on Thursday and the statistics show one in seven Americans is living in poverty. This is highest number in the half-century that the government has kept such statistics.
This is the third consecutive year that poverty has risen in America, partly because of the Great Recession. Over 14.3% of Americans are living at or below the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), which works out to 43.6 million of our fellow Americans. This dramatic increase in poverty affected all demographic and ethnic groups except for Asian Americans, whose poverty rate did not change significantly in the past three years, the Census Bureau reported on Thursday.
In the years before the Great Recession, there was a decline in the poverty rate, which lead to a decrease in such services as homelessness prevention, food assistance, and other poverty reduction programs. Since as much as 75% of the poverty fighting programs in the U.S. are non-governmental and rely on contributions, they have had to ramp up to meet a skyrocketing demand at the same time that donations are also down. Many think that this problem will only grow worse.
The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP)—which is the new name for the program which used to be known as “food stamps—has seen a 19.8% increase in participants, a record since the shelters are seeing more and more families apply for assistance, a marked reversal of previous trends.”
How to respond
What is the answer?
Leadership!
It is not enough for policymakers to create more programs to fight poverty. These types of programs can succeed only when there is a real economic foundation for good and sustainable jobs, with decent wages, benefits and job security.
The US has no economic foundation like this anymore!
It is time for leadership to emerge. Great leadership should come from a movement that demands fundamental improvement in the standard of living for people in this country. That standard of living can only improve if there is a definitive plan to use the vast resources in this country with a different set of priorities. And there is no magic bullet that will simply “redistribute wealth more equitably.”
A model for change
Our movement in the Union Coalition and Kaiser Permanente to improve health care can serve as a model for change. We are focused on systemic change, not quick fixes. We intend to keep Kaiser Permanente affordable and of the highest quality. We are doing this!
We in our unions and in Kaiser Permanente are taking action to create improvement. This action creates positive tension which forces people to constantly think about what needs to change and why.
Without the leadership of our movement, I am convinced that Kaiser Permanente would not be committed to all the hard change needed to become the best.
Our nation is definitely not doing this. The increased poverty rate is but one of many examples of how our country is failing its people.
A call to action
Let our model of change serve as a call to action. Let’s demand an economy that rebuilds our social and physical infrastructure. This means demanding:
- high-quality health care for all
- high-quality education for all
- high-quality housing for all
- high-quality jobs for all
- high-quality leisure and retirement opportunity for all.
The “free market” has never gotten us there. We need a social dialogue that brings labor, business and government to one table to set priorities and get real outcomes, not just rhetorical promises that serve the few who already have too much.
Let the whole country see not just that our model of health care is great—let the nation understand that our model has great leadership throughout the organization, at the board level, at the union level, and at the front line where the work gets done.
It’s called real democracy.
The full Census Department report is available online. You can also read their press release for a summary.
Comments
JOHN AUGUST
Executive director, Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions
Bio
To say that John is passionate about social justice is an understatement.
READ MORE »
Executive director, Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions
Bio
To say that John is passionate about social justice is an understatement.
READ MORE »
- © 2012 Labor Management Partnership |
- Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions + Kaiser Permanente
Poverty
Kaiser and the Coalition of unions also offer a perspective and model that is looking at the problem of poverty and its impact on health holistically. It is from a community perspective and inclusive of community leadership, members, NGO, government, private and public partnerships, religious entities and anyone else who wants to participate. the conversation is open and starting point and different venues.
One thing which could make it better is to involve frontline workers in the discussion in their communities, at their job sites and in the company. We know it is going on at high levels but there is no feedback loop within Kaiser or within the unions to give input.
Frontline staff are an incredible resources for information and ideas. They are leaders within their communities and also bring a wealth of information across the broad spectrum of diversity. We don't have established feedback loops from national to regional to local. We are compartmentalized to local and sometimes departmental.
We have the model for communication and sharing knowledge in front of us. We need to remove challenges created by the up down and hierarchial organizational model which we rely on to run Kaiser. It is up to use to change and to make innovation and openness as well as questioning internal action the norm.
Kaiser has internal resource of diverse employee base which it does not access to lead in resolving poverty. We know what works in our communities and within the health care system. We listen to each other and share. We need to listen to all of us and give us the venue to participate.
We need to encourage employees to speak up to think and act outside the box and reward non-conformity. We focus on innovation given to us and not adapted. We are told how to be. We are given solutions and than asked for feedback. Why not start with problems or identified issues and ask for ideas and feedback. We need to involve labor at the table from day one at all levels of the corporation when we begin to identify a problem not somewhere along the path when we are told how to act to improve care.
How much further ahead would we be in leading the discussion, asking the right questions and sharing our knowledge if we included front line in our own company? Kaiser leadership is advising over policy and other issues which directly impact our communities, our families and our future and yet we do not have venue to add information and knowledge from front line.
When will we open feedback loops?
Thanks for your comments!
Alexandra,
I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts on employee inclusion and involvement in working in the communities to promote change for so many who are struggling.
Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit provides direct assistance to an extraordinarily wide array of community support systems designed to promote health in our communities. I am very happy to work with you and your co-workers to come up with concepts and suggestions to make to the vast resources of KP Community Benefit and to partner with Community Benefit.
Look forward to hearing from you.