A Tragedy of Two Cities Times Headlines (Los-Angeles begins to sink)

EDITORIAL ^ | 30/11/2002 | United Way Report

[RICK77]

EDITORIAL A Tragedy of Two Cities Times Headlines

Los Angeles' Toilet-to-Tap Fear Factor

Los Angeles is home to multimillionaire movie execs and billionaire developers. When it comes to the overall value of its goods and services, L.A. County does better than Switzerland, Sweden or Austria. It is also the poverty capital of the nation.

To measure the widening gap between the region's haves and have-nots, the United Way of Greater Los Angeles crunched numbers from dozens of government and private studies. Its recently released report, "A Tale of Two Cities: Promise and Peril in Los Angeles County," found that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

Everyone is familiar with studies showing that wages increase with education and English fluency, but lack of formal learning is not the sole reason for the gap. The United Way study found that wages for those with the lowest level of education are actually declining.

Some industries never recovered from the recession of the early 1990s. Many high-paying aerospace jobs disappeared for good. Seven of the 10 fastest-growing occupations -- retail sales clerk, security guard and cashier among them -- pay less than $25,000 a year.

An estimated 811,000 residents work off the books as day laborers or nannies, earning substandard wages and no benefits. Almost 2 million people -- more than in any other metropolitan area -- eke out an existence on less than $18,100 a year, the federally defined poverty level for a family of four. The majority of these in the greater LA are of Latin American ancestary. The burden is even greater in this area, topped only by New York City and San Francisco in cost of living.

In a time when lack of education increasingly means a life of poverty, over 30% of county residents over 25 have never finished high school. Among the 36% who are foreign-born in L.A. County, many are immigrants from Latin American countries with very low levels of education.

The worst-case scenario is that Los Angeles becomes a city divided between ghettos and gated communities (very likely). But the United Way study also paints a city of promise, where immigrants contribute youth and vitality to the workforce and forge a multiethnic, multilingual version of Los Angeles that has strong links to an ever more global economy. The way to get from peril to promise is for all of Los Angeles to recognize the benefits of narrowing the rift between very rich and very poor, (Very Unlikely).

United Way supports literacy classes, quality child care, affordable housing and other ladders to the middle class. And a strong middle class makes the best bridge between what would otherwise be two cities doomed to isolation and fear of "the other."

[Frohickey]

Los Angeles is home to multimillionaire movie execs and billionaire developers. When it comes to the overall value of its goods and services, L.A. County does better than Switzerland, Sweden or Austria. It is also the poverty capital of the nation.

Thats because Switzerland carefully watches the people who enter its borders, and only residents that have jobs, and are not a burden to the welfare system are allowed in.

[TheOtherOne]

Given that illegal mexican children do not stay in school or graduate even now that they have the opportunity, just how many sales clerks and security guards are needed anyway?

I guess making up the facts to support your conclusion makes arguing easier.

[Morrigan]

I was surprised to see that I am not much above the poverty limit for a family of four. Huh. I didn't know I was that poor, lol.

When my husband and I were both working, his entire check and some of mine went to fund daycare. We were broke and miserable, and dissatisfied with the idea of our young children being raised by someone else. What to do?

We decided on a radical idea: I had more skills and earning potential than he did. We decided he would quit his job and be a stay at home dad.

Our money situation improved! We were saving almost five hundred dollars a month! Our kids were much happier. My husband was happier, because he was no longer frustrated at working for nothing. I was happier because I began to see my family prosper. It worked out well for all of us.

I make about 28 thou a year--ten thou above the poverty level. Yet we buy our own groceries, pay our own rent, and pay our own medical coverage (which is outlandish!) We may not own our own home, but we don't live in a crappy area. We rent in a nice, quiet neighboorhood. My building is surrounded with a lawn and big oak trees.

We are not rich, by any means. I would say we are middle class. We won't be buying a brand new car or boat anytime soon, but so what? We don't need a brand new car or a boat. All we need is a few extra bucks for dinner and a movie, and we have that.

What I don't understand is why so many others that make about the same I do live in such worse conditions than I do. Anyone have any answers?

[Bahbah]

It doesn't matter which end of the boat is leaking. It sinks anyway.

[samtheman]

It doesn't matter which end of the boat is leaking. It sinks anyway.

My original implication.

[madfly]

ping

[samtheman]

SOCIALISM ALWAYS FAILS

A truism that the one-party-state-of-California is going to prove with a massive bankruptcy

The rest of us will probably forced to pay for a bail-out.

[Sloopy]

Sorry, I thought Barbra still had a home in Malibu, and I wasn't sure about the others, they just came to mind because they seem to do the most preaching.

However, none of them seem to mind picking up their paychecks in LA.

[Bahbah]

Yes. I just thought I would add my 2cents to making the point.

[madfly]

ping!

Anyone wanting ON or OFF my border lists, please freepmail me.
thanks

[winodog]

That made me smile. I am happy for you and your family.

[staytrue]

United Way supports literacy classes, quality child care, affordable housing and other ladders to the middle class

Perhaps they should try family values, no teenage pregnancies, making the women demand that men have honor, a stronger work ethic, a stronger educational ethic, believing in investing and not immediate consumption, and understanding delayed gratification and basic economics.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Uncle Hal]

I moved out of LA in 95 to N. Cal. At that time there were parts of LA that were exactly like any city in latin america. LA is already lost. This editorial is a day late and a dollar short. LA is already rich enclaves surrounded by a huge ghetto.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

I hate what has happened to my birthplace. And the birthplace of my father and gran.

My family was there for over 100 years. Now it's home to overflowing welfare Mexicans who refuse to learn English.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

There will be no "endless generations of poverty." They will eventually take what is there.

[DumpsterDiver]

What do you guys think???

I think, and know, how really sick and tired I am of seeing these dang hand-wringing articles. I also thnk I'll go out back and burn a "have-not" in effigy. Living in L.A. is getting on my last raw nerve. PATOOIE!

[MissAmericanPie]

This "fact" is well known, I'm suppose to educate you now? Visit google.com and do your own research.

[FITZ]

Just guessing, but the invaders from the south are industrious

Are you assuming that NONE are living in low-income government housing projects, NONE are using county hospitals and don't plan to pay their medical bills, NONE use food stamps or welfare, WIC, headstart? A few might be industrious but our Socialism is attracting a non-industrious type ---much of the LA poverty is being imported.

[FITZ]

The last census showed alarming rates of school drop out rates ---often middle school drop out rates ---about 40%.