Posted on 05/23/2003 7:13:20 AM PDT by CMClay
More aid requests from once affluent seen
ALLEN – Mary Ann Knight thought she had seen and heard it all in the eight years she has worked at Allen Community Outreach, helping people make ends meet.
That is, until former upper-middle-class residents, hit hard by corporate layoffs that have rocked North Texas the last three years, began walking through the agency's doors, seeking help paying bills.
Mixed in their stacks of monthly bills that cover life's necessities are those that also cover lives the clients don't want to leave behind: $800 car payments, private school tuition that ranges from $1,200 to $2,000, mortgage statements up to $4,000, cable TV bills in the hundreds of dollars and country club dues, to list a few.
"I didn't think I could be shocked any more," said Ms. Knight. "When we tell people, 'We can't help pay those kind of bills. ... We're here to help with the basics,' they get upset with us. They'll say, 'We've always given to charity.'
"It's not like we don't want to help. But it's just that there are no funds for folks like that. They're just living way above the level in which we can help them."
Facing the prospect of losing their way of life, an increasing number of the unemployed are turning to social-service agencies for assistance for the first time. Allen Community Outreach has seen its number of clients increase by nearly 37 percent in its last calendar year, said executive director Glenda May.
Since January, the Assistance Center of Collin County in Plano has helped 2,292 residents by paying for prescriptions, utilities, mortgages and rent. About one-quarter of such charitable agencies' clients are previously unserved middle-class residents who request assistance of $4,000 to $8,000 a month, agency officials say.
Agency directors call folks new to being needy "the situational poor." They've depleted their savings and retirement accounts and struggle to cling to a lifestyle they no longer can afford.
"Our clientele has changed so much," said Kimberly Girard, program coordinator at Frisco Family Services. "We used to serve the working poor. Now it's the CEOs and former executives of companies. They've tapped out their bank accounts and borrowed from family members." Traditionally, charitable agencies have served the "generational poor" – a single mother of two who grows up poor and earns less than $15,000 annually, for example.
But the lagging economy has hit Collin County, the state's wealthiest county, particularly hard. Home to many of the telecommunications industry's top companies, the county boomed in the 1990s as newcomers flocked to fill high-paying positions.
In the last two years, though, the county's jobless rate has more than tripled, from 2 percent to 6.5 percent in March. The county has witnessed a 103 percent jump in the number of homes facing foreclosure.
Randi Lucero, 55, of Frisco is one of thousands who fell victim to the economic downturn. The marketing assistant was laid off from an electronics company after 22 years. Her unemployment benefits ended last week.
"My lifestyle is going to change drastically," Ms. Lucero said at a recent employment workshop. "I'm in an awkward situation because I support a lot of people. I also help provide for my daughter and grandchildren. There's a lot that we do, so I've got to figure a way to come up with some money."
At the Assistance Center of Collin County in Plano, Jackie Hall said cash-strapped homeowners today seek twice to three times as much in mortgage assistance than they did two years ago. Some are seeking as much as $4,000 in mortgage help a month, far exceeding most agencies' emergency assistance budgets for all their clients that range from $3,000 to $5,000 per month.
"Our funds are definitely stretched these days," said Ms. Hall, executive director.
Area social-service agencies are funded in part by the Collin County United Way, state and federal grants, and donations raised through annual fund-raisers. Said Ms. Girard of Frisco Family Services: "Just since the first of the year, we've seen an increase. Put it this way: In January, we had 15 new clients. In April, 58 new people walked through the door.
"I've had people who paid rent that was almost $1,200. I had a gentleman that wanted us to help pay $4,000 in bills. Our measly $300 assistance wouldn't get him anywhere."
Of the two groups the agencies primarily serve, many job counselors and case workers say that the 30-something and 40-something former professionals have the toughest time adjusting to sudden changes. "The people we call the situational poor are so beyond the level of what we can help with," said Ms. May. "It's like they're in denial. Some have even said, 'I want my United Way donation back.' In many ways, they're actually worse off than the single mother we normally help because they've never had to deal with adversity."
Tim Brown of Frisco, who was laid off by a small software development company 14 months ago, did everything society deems necessary to be successful: he earned a college degree, is highly skilled and eventually earned a six-figure salary.
"I still carry a lot of anger around with me," said Mr. Brown, who has since returned to graduate school for a master's degree and has tapped into his savings and retirement funds to support his wife and three children. He recently sought job-counseling assistance at Frisco Family Services.
"I don't know what the situation is going to bring me in the next six months. I was talking to someone who said, 'You're lucky you're getting your master's degree this summer,' but I don't know how lucky I am. The times changed so quickly, and it didn't allow a lot of planning to come along with that."
Wendy Darling, a career development coach for Frisco Family Services, said highly educated out-of-work professionals tend to identify with their professions and lifestyles more than the working poor.
"We identify so much with our jobs," she said. "For a lot of people, that's who they are. A lot of them are still attached to their salaries and the work they did. We all like our comfort zones. It's hard for them to adjust and accept their current circumstances before it's too late."
Several human service agencies have shifted their focus by providing job-coaching workshops and counselors to help the struggling cope and consider new careers.
"We're trying to get people to think out of the box and accept they may not make six figures any more – but is that so bad?" said Ms. Darling. "I think the positive lesson that could come out of this is that we as a community need to reach out to help our neighbors and get back to the basics in life.
"It's OK to have a nice home and nice things, but when they're gone, that doesn't mean you lose your soul."
I think you have it backwards.
The state sponsors universities so it will have a populace with the right skills for the economic situation within the state. You can see this clearly in Alaska where there is no industry. There is business, but industry has yet to show up in North Wonderland. Business leaders say, okay, fund universities; votors say, okay, fund universities; even green lichen, fish, and vole rescuers say, okay, fund universities. Universities were never intended to provide factory fodder. Put this nut on this bolt and after 40 years you can drop what remains of your carcass on your front porch swing. Alaska has long been the most educated state per capita, and no industry. Maybe there is a connection, but not that.
When the next election rolls around, President Bush will have had four years to straighten out what Clinton left him and what he caused himself. If his economic plan can't get it done, the country needs a change, hopefully a GOP replacement but the wheel has turned and it will be time for Bush to go.
But they didn't exist on a large scale. What are the useful university degrees? Accounting, financial management, MBA, engineering. All those are for industry. I'm not sure how many university majors there were before we became industrialized ---there were probably history and English majors.
Ahh. But here's the rub. If there weren't an economic incentive to aquire a higher education there would be no great motivation for masses of people to do so. Note, I said the reverse isn't necessarily true. I might allow that a university system is necessary before an industrial age can be kickstarted, but afterwards, it is the needs of industry that create demand on education.
We might quibble about universities existing before there was an economic need for them. I don't personally agree with that assertion but it is irrelevent. A long time ago, attending a university education was something only the elite in society could afford. A wealthy man might afford his offspring a classical education simply so they could make intelligent discussion in the parlour with guests.
Today this is not the case. We live in an advanced industrial age. We have transcended that old age of class distinctions being the major incentive for a higher education (if it ever existed). In today's world people aquire a higher education in order to survive in the free market.
There is an ever increasing expectation of what skills a person should have when they enter the work force. That demand or expectation of skill is determined by industry. As the feedback loop (scientific frontier to main stream consumption of a new concept) gets ever shorter, a rigid, highly regimented and politically influenced higher education system will become an unbearable burden for industry (if we are to continue progressing). There was a time when much scientific progress was made in the university. Today, industry is at the forefront of science. The universities no longer have a monopoly on this. If you want to be on the cutting edge of new science, the place to be is in a corporation research department- not a university laboratory.
Your suggestion that corporations take over higher education would be completely disastrous.
Could you explain why? It would seem to me that government control of education is disastrous but this is only an observation.
This statement alone says it all. I earn what most people would consider an "upper middle-class" income, and even with no family to support I wouldn't even dream of buying half this crap.
Hmmm. But in fact some of this is directly due to kids, which in your case is not applicable (private school tuition and the expensive mortgage) whereas some of it is just stupid (cable TV bills and country club dues.) Single people are often simply unaware of the overhead expense of raising kids. You have to:
(1) Move to a "nice" area so that your kids are not victimized by gang bangers or street wierdos.
(2) Get a house - at least 3 bedrooms instead of living in an apartment. Kids need a back yard, to be able to ride their bikes on the sidewalk, etc.
(3) If you homeschool (which many, many people on this forum support) that means you are on 1 income. If you put the kids in private school, that means mo' money.
(4) Extra medical expenses. Extra dental expenses. Extra clothes, books, etc.
Bottom line -- we have to produce kids who will carry on, and ideally provide a positive environment. But that all costs money. So a lot of these "middle class" people that get hammered are not spendthrifts -- they simply have expenses that never married, single people haven't even considered.
I have a hard time believing that someone carrying that kind of mortgage in Texas is living anything close to even an "upper middle class" lifestyle. Hell, even here in an overpriced market like suburban New Jersey that kind of mortgage will put you in the top 5% of the most expensive homes.
Not exactly. Most of original universities were created by the Church and talented poor people were welcome there. Wealthy aristocrats had private teachers at their courts.
Everybody thinks they're immune until they lose their jobs and try to meet their salary expectations. It wouldn't be fun, because they're not gonna' feel it until there's complete economic turmoil. (Heck, the criminal class among them still aren't in jail or haven't given the billions back).
See that (from How was the throng of medieval scholars maintained? ):
"[...]The bulk of the students who thronged the streets of the medieval university were, undoubtedly, poor. Many were reduced to strange shifts for daily bread. The bursar’s accounts of Peterhouse in the early fifteenth century show poor scholars engaged in digging the foundations of buildings, in carrying earth and bricks and in other unskilled labour. The sizars of the following and many succeeding centuries were regularly employed in menial tasks. Favourite medieval stories introduce us to poor students begging on the highways or singing from door to door. The relief of such was always ranked as a peculiarly meritorious field for medieval philanthropy. Noble personages and prelates supported poor scholars in the universities.[...]"
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