Crime and Punishment: Why the Poor Stay Poor in America explores how our laws and culture create a cycle of economic, racial and environmental inequality...and what together, we can do to change it.

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Bread and Roses Strike, 1912 . Photo Credit: New England Historical Society

“A movement to weaken American child labor protections at the state level began in 2022. By June 2023, Arkansas, Iowa, New Jersey and New Hampshire had enacted this kind of legislation, and lawmakers in at least another eight states had introduced similar measures. The laws generally make it easier for kids from 14 to 17 years old to work longer and later – and in occupations that were previously off-limits for minors.” U.S. News & World Report, June 26, 2023

The employer-employee relationship is exploitive to some degree and at any age, but with 14 year old children, perhaps working in industries or assigned job duties that are physically dangerous, it’s practically a given. Exploiting the energy, naiveté and eagerness of kids who can’t legally drive, vote or sign a contract is what recent, state legislation is really about.

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I’d love to hear what you think about the current state of unions and their power to affect change in the United States. Please share your thoughts in the Comment Section below.

If you can afford it and are in the mood, why not…

“Pain is always a form of motivation,” the training manual reads. “Once you find the Seller’s pain, you have a much better chance of buying the house.” ProPublica article, May 11, 2023, documenting its investigation into “We Buy Ugly Houses” and its corporate owner, HomeVesters of America

I’ve written about predatory business practices several times before on Crime and Punishment, but usually focused on the companies that lend money, like Pay Day lenders as one example. Their business model targets the poor who are more likely to be in vulnerable social and financial situations and because of low credit scores and lack of higher paying jobs, cannot borrow from a more closely regulated institution. This population is desperate for cash or credit, lenders know it and prey on them and their communities.

Predatory practices are baked into an unscrupulous company’s culture and literally taught to its employees, and in the case of HomeVesters, the target of the ProPublica article above, its franchisees. Of course, these practices are never discussed or admitted to publicly, because the companies are savvy enough to put a legitimate face on their business operations, and for good reason: these practices, either individually or taken together, can amount to fraud. And thankfully, fraud is still illegal.

Have you had experience similar to mine and/or the schemes uncovered in the ProPublica articles? What should be done to prevent these unethical and potentially illegal business tactics? I’d love to hear your take on this. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the Comment Section below.

If you are not already a subscriber, why not take this opportunity to join our community with a free or paid subscription? A new paid subscription or an upgrade from a free to paid subscription will allow me to expand this newsletter with additional, primary source information, like interviews and public information requests, and expanded podcast offerings to include real, live guests. Although I won’t be going on strike any time soon, the current TV writer’s strike demonstrates that writer’s deserve to be paid, and paid well for their work, just like any other profession. Thank you in advance for your financial support of my writing!

Crime and Punishment: Why the Poor Stay Poor In America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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“Private health insurance companies paid by Medicaid denied millions of requests for care for low-income Americans with little oversight from federal and state authorities, according to a new report by U.S. investigators…” The NewYork Times, July 19, 2023

Generally, I am against what is broadly called “privatization”:

Privatization is the transfer of decision making authority, delivery, or financing from a public to a private entity.21 Such shifts may occur by directly contracting out services to the private sector or may result indirectly from other arrangements, including partnerships with private sector entities and introducing competitive forces into government services.22–24 Regardless of whether the private partner is nonprofit or for-profit, the consistent feature is that control of service delivery may shift to the private sector. The National Library of Medicine

There is an underlying concept that is not born out by evidence produced by economists and other researchers—that the private sector is somehow more efficient, both in “getting the job done” and minimizing the cost of doing so. There are often significant kinks (red tape), in government delivering services to its citizens, but it doesn’t compare to the cost savings measures that private companies will employ to make a larger profit. And this includes denying sometimes medically necessary health care to our most vulnerable citizens—those poor enough to qualify for Medicaid or those old and poor enough to qualify for a combined Medicare/Medicaid plan.

The takeaways from our rush toward privatization are more questions than answers:

— Is privatization in fact more efficient and less costly and does the profit-motive actually hurt the delivery of quality government services to the most people?

— Does privatization of essential government services erode the public trust and the very notion of our government working to serve its citizens and the “common good”?

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I’ll let you answer these questions and any others you feel like discussing. Have any of you on Medicaid, Medicare or private insurance had to fight with your insurance company over costs or coverage? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the Comment Section below:

If you are not already a subscriber, why not take this opportunity to join our community with a free or paid subscription? A new paid subscription or an upgrade from a free to paid subscription will allow me to expand this newsletter with additional, primary source information, like interviews and public information requests, and expanded podcast offerings to include real, live guests. Although I won’t be going on strike any time soon, the current TV writer’s strike demonstrates that writer’s deserve to be paid, and paid well for their work, just like any other profession. Thank you in advance for your financial support of my writing!

Crime and Punishment: Why the Poor Stay Poor In America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Although this post goes out to both free and paid subscribers, if you are not already a paid subscriber, take the opportunity to upgrade to paid, right now.

“City planners must recognize that we all should be able to walk or ride a bicycle through our own neighborhood without fearing for our life.” The New York Times, April 26, 2023.

In the last few months, every news outlet has been writing about the alarming rise in pedestrian deaths—it almost has become a “thing”. But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) chart, above, shows that pedestrian fatalities have been trending upward for over a decade.

Let me know how you feel about these issues and anything else you feel like talking about in the Comment Section below.

If you are not already a subscriber, why not take this opportunity to join our community with a free or paid subscription? A new paid subscription or an upgrade from a free to paid subscription will allow me to expand this newsletter with additional, primary source information, like interviews and public information requests, and expanded podcast offerings to include real, live guests. Although I won’t be going on strike any time soon, the current TV writer’s strike demonstrates that writer’s deserve to be paid, and paid well for their work, just like any other profession. Thank you in advance for your financial support of my writing!

Crime and Punishment: Why the Poor Stay Poor In America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

President Reagan touted Florence Owens Thompson, the migrant mother in the photo, when she died in 1983:

“Mrs. Thompson's passing represents the loss of an American who symbolizes strength and determination in the midst of the Great Depression.”

In fact, Florence Owens Thompson’s heritage was Native American (Cherokee), and by written accounts, she lived in abject poverty at least for most of her life—at her death, money was donated by “well-wishers” for her medical bills and funeral expenses. President Reagan’s statement is a myth that still persists today — we continue to project an image of “strength and determination” onto those who manage to stay alive, while poor. The millions of Americans living in poverty in this country are not what we project onto them. They are simply people who cannot support themselves and need help, and we need to increase the amount of help and make it much easier to access.

The truth is that almost all of us have received some type of financial help in our lives, whether it’s gifts or loans from parents, other family or friends, or the government. But for those who don’t have family or friends to lean on during hard times, or aren’t lucky enough to hit the lottery or receive a surprise inheritance, the government is our safety net.

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Let me know your thoughts on this post and some of the others I’ve linked to. You can comment right here.

If you are not already a subscriber, why not take this opportunity to join our community with a free or paid subscription? A new paid subscription or an upgrade from a free to paid subscription will allow me to expand this newsletter with additional, primary source information, like interviews and public information requests, and expanded podcast offerings to include real, live guests. Although I won’t be going on strike any time soon, the current TV writer’s strike demonstrates that writer’s deserve to be paid, and paid well for their work, just like any other profession. Thank you in advance for your financial support of my writing!

Crime and Punishment: Why the Poor Stay Poor In America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

“In a Clean Air Act overview report published by the EPA, the fact that we can't “see, taste or smell” sounds may explain why it has not received as much attention as other types of pollution, like air pollution. We are constantly surrounded by noise, yet many of us are unaware of the danger environmental noise poses to our health.”  Environmental Health Sciences Center at UC Davis, March 3, 2023

Those of us who have lived in urban areas most of our adult lives have learned to accept the human-made noise that envelops us. While our brains seem to filter it down to a low roar, our bodies tell us something different: Chronic noise, whether intermittent intrusions like several daily flights over your neighborhood, or the constant sound of road traffic and construction, “ …is a largely unrecognized health threat that is increasing the risk of hypertension, stroke and heart attacks worldwide, including for more than 100 million Americans.”, according to a recent New York Times article. And those maladies are in addition to hearing loss, increased stress and anxiety, and sleep disturbance as a direct result of exposure to excessive, unnatural noise in our environment.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on your own communities and the level of noise pollution you live with. Anyone, like me, suffer from hearing loss that is at least partially attributable to high decibel sounds where you live or work? Please take a moment and share your thoughts in the Comment Section below:

If you are not already a subscriber, why not take this opportunity to join our community with a free or paid subscription? A new paid subscription or an upgrade from a free to paid subscription will allow me to expand this newsletter with additional, primary source information, like interviews and public information requests, and expanded podcast offerings to include real, live guests. Although I won’t be going on strike any time soon, the current TV writer’s strike demonstrates that writer’s deserve to be paid, and paid well for their work, just like any other profession. Thank you in advance for your financial support of my writing!

“C.E.O.s may rant about lazy or (per Musk) “immoral” workers who don’t want to go back into their cubicles, but the purpose of an economy is not to make bosses happy.”

Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning economist and NY Times opinion columnist. NY Times May 22, 2023

I read Krugman’s Times op-ed a few days ago and have been thinking about it ever since. He discusses a few ways remote work impacts our economy, focusing primarily on the reduction in commuting time, and how that impacts both the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and perhaps more importantly, our personal lives:

But it’s not hard to make the case that the overall benefits from not commuting every day are equivalent to a gain in national income of at least one and maybe several percentage points. That’s a lot: There are very few policy proposals likely to produce gains on that scale.

For the last few years, I’ve been thinking about the additional benefits of remote work—not only the literal commuting time (and if you drive, the fuel, car wear and tear and stress of daily traffic), but the less talked-about and less quantifiable pluses of working from home.

If you are not already a subscriber, why not take this opportunity to join our community with a free or paid subscription? A new paid subscription or an upgrade from a free to paid subscription will allow me to expand this newsletter with additional, primary source information, like interviews and public information requests, and expanded podcast offerings to include real, live guests. Although I won’t be going on strike any time soon, the current TV writer’s strike demonstrates that writer’s deserve to be paid, and paid well for their work, just like any other profession. Thank you in advance for your financial support of my writing!

Photo: Library of Congress. Some of the first recipients wait to receive [unemployment] benefits at the State Employment Service in San Francisco, California, 1938. Marketplace, 2020

Last week, I wrote a post critical of how the unemployment compensation system is being administered, particularly the expansive leeway given to states, and the disparity in the amount and distribution of benefits that result. Today, I’d like to share my recent experience with the unemployment system in Ohio to better illustrate the frustration and specific roadblocks anyone can face when they attempt to access government help.

Check out my Notes for a bit of additional information on unemployment benefit work requirements…

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What have your experiences been with unemployment benefits? Have you applied and been successful or were you denied benefits? Please share your thoughts in the Comment Section below.

If you are not already a subscriber, why not take this opportunity to join our community with a free or paid subscription? A new paid subscription or an upgrade from a free to paid subscription will allow me to expand this newsletter with additional, primary source information, like interviews and public information requests, and expanded podcast offerings to include real, live guests. Although I won’t be going on strike any time soon, the current TV writer’s strike demonstrates that writer’s deserve to be paid, and paid well for their work, just like any other profession. Thank you in advance for your financial support of my writing!

The federal law establishing unemployment compensation was part of the 1935 bill signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt which created the Social Security system. It was designed not just to pull our economy out of the Great Depression, but to provide a safety net going forward for average working Americans, specifically when things got economically tough through no fault of their own. Unemployment Compensation helps those of working age who are temporarily out of a job, and Social Security provides a cushion for those over 65, who are no longer employed.

And if you are not already a subscriber, why not take this opportunity to join our community with a free or paid subscription? A new paid subscription or an upgrade from a free to paid subscription will allow me to expand this newsletter with additional, primary source information, like interviews and public information requests, and expanded podcast offerings to include real, live guests. Although I won’t be going on strike any time soon, the current TV writer’s strike demonstrates that writer’s deserve to be paid, and paid well for their work, just like any other profession. Thank you in advance for your financial support of my writing!

Crime and Punishment: Why the Poor Stay Poor In America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.