Facing eviction from her Tennessee apartment after several months of unpaid rent, Alexandra Jarrin packed up whatever she could fit into her two-door coupe recently and drove out of town.
Ms. Jarrin, 49, wound up at a motel here, putting down $260 she had managed to scrape together from friends and from selling her living room set, enough for a weeklong stay. It was essentially all the money she had left after her unemployment benefits expired in March. Now she is facing a previously unimaginable situation for a woman who, not that long ago, had a corporate job near New York City and was enrolled in a graduate business school, whose sticker is still emblazoned on her back windshield.
“Barring a miracle, I’m going to be in my car,” she said.
This is just one component of how we as Christians love our neighbor in our voting habits. When we give in to vacuous arguments (like “hope” and “change”) we subject our neighbors to all sorts of dangers.
I have taken a tenuous step in employing a new sub-contractor. This is also how we love our neighbors. The problem is, that based on our current economy and government, my action might not be good for me and my family nor that of the new contractor.
Don
In the meantime, our local parish newpaper has had an ad for over one year offering free room and board to any christian who can be recommended by his priest, who is willing to stay in the lakeside home of an elderly man (not demented, not wheelchair bound) to assist with cooking, cleaning etc.
A friend (who has renal failure on dialysis) has major trouble finding in home caretaker to live with him, prepare meals and drive him to and from doctors appoinments despite paying 9 dollars/hour plus room and board.
There are a lot of elderly people who would be glad to have a 50 year old man or woman live with them as their caregiver. In fact, I know several people who are on disability or unemployment and who work part time as caregivers under the table, but turn down permanent work because they (after all do have an additional source of income) and would (very naturally) prefer to be independant and live in their own homes.
It seems to me, that instead of giving these folks unemployment benefits for 99 months, the US government should simply obtain a list of “subsistance” type jobs like the above that will keep folks fed and housed, and should also forgive all debt (including student loan debt) after a period of 1-10 years. If there are no subsistance style jobs, folks who are qualified should be attached to the military, attached to schools as tutors, or to hospitals as orderlies. (Doctors in debt (and there are now some who are unemployed and unable to pay their 300,000 school fees) should be employed as physicians/physician assistants in a similar subsistance fashion, with loan forgiveness after 10 years). Those who are not qualified (by virtue of drugs, rap sheets etc) can be attached to work parties cleaning up the inner city. All folks should receive food, housing and 2 days off a week to rest and to interview for better jobs. Again (depending on the debt load) they should have all debts forgiven after 10 years. That allows folks to start their new career with no debt, a work ethic and recommendations.
This would be like the Great depression programs. The “housing” would be similar to the Work programs of that era, mostly tent or camp style.
Don,
This article has nothing to do with Obama. This story is about us. These structural economic issues go to the heart of the type of society “we” have created and tolerate. It is so frustrating to see and hear christians reducing our contribution to these very challenging issues to popular partiasn criticism of the President. I use to respond the same way to those 2 years ago who believed every problem leading to the downfall of America and the End of Days originated with President Bush. Christians must reject these inadequate paritsan explanations for our economic woes and the human predicament. In 476 AD, in his work the City of God, St Augustine attempted to calm the political and economic hysteria in the wake of the Fall of Rome by reminding Christians that these are ways of the City of Man. Augustine was not being cynical, but was being a critical realist. He was taking seriously Jesus’ words about the staus of the redeemed, “We are in the world, not of it.”
Part of the problem is indeed the society we have created. It is illegal for an elderly man to hire a caregiver for board and lodging but less than minimum wage, even if that caregiver would prefer such a job to living in her car. The senior in question must either pay nothing with the idea that this is a “room mate” or must pay minimum wage, file taxes, pay for liability etc.. This becomes unaffordable even for middle class people.
There are jobs available. I know a number of illegal immigrants who room together and get such jobs (usually for less than 10 dollars/hour) and live reasonably well. However legal americans are not eligible for such jobs because they possess a social security number and therefore must pay taxes, must have liability protections and must have at least minimum wage in addition. If they work under the table for less, then the employer is concerned that they will “squeal” so illegals (who for obvious reasons will not turn their employer in for “tax fraud”) are preferable hires than folks like the lady in question.
We need to abolish taxes and greatly decrease regulation and liability for folks who hire folks at minimum wage, and there needs to be the option of abolishing minimum wage. Let people decide what they are willing to work for. I think this lady would prefer to be employed in a home at 40 dollars a week spending allowance plus food, gas and lodging ran to be unemployed and homeless at minimum wage.
There should be a minimum income, a general transfer of wealth that allows people to avoid the unintended effects of poverty. There are $13 million unemployed people and about 3 million jobs.
The public has every right to insist that citizens, who benefit from a social contract, do what it takes to minimize the ways some (not all) of the powerful can exploit the powerless. The idea that people can “decide” what they are willing to work for is a fairly utopian idea. Usually people are told what they’re worth by others, and when there are more unemployed people, workers drive each other’s wages down to a point of wage slavery.
Those were not good days.
Our society has changed in part because over the last 30 years, a number of powerful people have decided that there is no such thing as a social contract. The elites have generally decided that they are a class apart, and owe little to the USA.
“There are $13 million unemployed people and about 3 million jobs.”
That is because of the regulations. The illegals have no trouble finding jobs. They pay well enough to put food on the table, pay for a car, and an apartment. They do not pay well enough to also pay taxes, liabilty etc.
This lady who has been not working for 99 months and now anticipates being homeless with >90k debt would be glad to have the benefits of being illegal in america.
And both the bank that is going to be stiffed of her loans and the government who has been paying for 99 months of idleness would make money by letting her do this.
The biggest problem is the debt and the taxes. The money that that lady wasted on her education (never mind the 99k that she borrowed which taxpayers will pay for) could have been better spend buying a trailer and 5 acres of pasture in a cheap state. She could raise enough on one acre to feed herself, and would be healthier doing so. The problem is that government would levy taxes on her modest property, and would forbid her from spreading chicken manure on her back yard, and would find all sorts of other taxes to gouge from her. But she would be happier, would weigh less and be healthier.
Instead the government/liberal educational complex has forced this lady into debt servitude while pretending to “generously’ pay her for more than 5 years of idleness with her “99 month unemployment”. Any job she has now would have wages garnished to pay for her student debts.
In addition, there is no reason why her education needed to cost 99k. The ONLY reason is that government has set regulations for having a university. In India 5 professors can get together, rent lodgings and call themselves a university, and prepare students for professional examinaitions. If you pass your exams you are in. If that happened here instead of having post docs paid 20k with no prospects for the future to keep unionized university folks in luxury, while students graduate with 90k to live in their cars you would have the following:
5 phDs pay themselves 100k for total expense 250,000. Each phD teaches 5 classes of 20 people each 2x/semester
Each student pays 250 per class, which gives them a total bill of 2,500/year (which is doable) and which gives them one on one tutoring with real professors who have time to sit there and red pencil their essays.
It is true that the “reason our society has changed is because over the past 30 years a number of powerful people have decided that there is no such thing as a social contract. The elites have generally decided that they are a class apart, and owe little to the USA. ”
However the elites work in government and in the Universities.
My best friend began as an illegal 17 year old mexican immigrant. He camped out, washed dishes for food at a restaurant, and learned how to fix cars in exchange for a place to stay. He now owns his own auto repair shop, not to mention 2 rental properties and his own home. If he had been legal but equally motivated and hard working, he could not have done what he did. The elites would have told him that he could not work for food, or work in exchange for his education. He would have been forced to enter debt servitude, and then beg for “mercy” from a “benevolent” government.
Clueless, please stop. Your first two posts were entirely without merit. I didn’t read the third.
“Clueless, please stop. Your first two posts were entirely without merit. I didn’t read the third. ”
Oh Gosh. What awesome logic and powers of persuation. You must have gone 90k into debt in order to be educated at one of our fine American Universities. Certainly no educated person in China or India educated at the low cost schools (including low cost medical schools) that are beating our socks off, would have dreamed of coming up with so brilliant an argument as yours.
Think of all the unemployed and despairing homeless (such as this women). Now think of all the elderly folks breaking their hearts in nursing homes, and their hips at home. Why can’t the two be put together?
The reason is because the federal government has passed laws insisting that home caregivers must not only be provided room and board, but must be paid at least minimum wage with time and one half for overtime. This involves a minimum of 150 dollars a day in addition to room and board, and usually involves having two people work so as to avoid paying overtime. The caregiver cannot be expected to perform “inappropriate tasks” such as hooking up a peritoneal dialysis machine (which is actually pretty easy) or bandaging wounds, or changing foleys. These must be done by a CNA. They cannot be expected to mow the lawn or do other odd jobs, they are not housekeepers (that is extra).
This is why seniors who could afford to live in their homes with a live in companion/housekeeper end up in nursing homes after having paid down their assets and sold their home. They are required to bancrupt themselves before living in a nursing home where they will be lonely and miserable.
And this lady is living in a car where she is lonely and miserable. I’m sure she would love to live in a home and not worry about where her next meal was coming from, even if she was paid a lot less than 150 dollars/day.
It is the government and their regulations who is keeping this lady homeless and jobless, and who is bancrupting the senior and driving him destitute into a nursing home.
http://prairielaw.com/forums/t/92370.aspx
So again, this would be a situation where an illegal immigrant would have an advantage, as he/she would likely settle for a lot less than 4500/month plus room and board, and would not be reneging later on and threatening to “expose” the senior to the IRS. So it is easy for the illegal worker to get a job, and impossible for the lady in the article to get a job.
Nobody is better off unemployed at minimum wage. The laws and regulations are set up to protect those who already have their job, not those who need one.
4. Boniface:
I gave the example of my own self not able to adequately assure myself of a successful venture with a new contractor precisely because of actions taken by the Federal government the last 2 years.
Your argument only works if I think it is just as well that my neighbor is unemployed as employed. I would like to see my neighbor and the lady in the article employed – a godly desire.
Don
#7 Clearly you work for a bank. 😉
Clueless rightly points out that some regulation is inhibits some personal entrepreneurship. He seems a bit idealistic when it comes to the reality that people exploit others, take advantage of them, and force them into situations where they are essentially wage slaves. I think it’s a bit utopian to think that employers will always want to offer a fair wage. Often poor people remain poor because they think they deserve their lot, and take what ever the master will give them.
But we’re seeing individuals have to compete in the global economy – I can easily go to India for major surgery for 1/5th the price; businesses can conduct due diligence with Indian lawyers for trivial amounts. Perhaps we should be thankful for that. Granted, why should American doctors or lawyers drive fancy cars or live in nice houses?
Clueless also seems to shrug at the everyday cruelty in the world, supposing that there is nothing we can do about it except bow to the demands of the wealthy and take whatever scraps they offer us.
RE: “Clueless also seems to shrug at the everyday cruelty in the world, supposing that there is nothing we can do about it except bow to the demands of the wealthy and take whatever scraps they offer us.”
No, Clueless deals with the everyday cruelty of the State where many believe that there is nothing we can do about it except bow to the demands of the powerful and be content with whatever scraps they offer us. Others, of course, revel in the everyday cruelty of the State because they are tyrannical power-hungry jealous people themselves.
Right on, Clueless — great comments. Looking forward to November! ; > )