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A Tragedy of Two Cities Times Headlines (Los-Angeles begins to sink)
EDITORIAL ^ | 30/11/2002 | United Way Report

Posted on 12/01/2002 8:51:10 AM PST by 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."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: povertyinsocal
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To: Enterprise
"If they will endure generations of poverty in Mexico and Latin America, they will endure generations of poverty in the United States."

True, but in the United States they will live in a more wealthy poverty.

I think you meant to say, "True, because in the United States they will live in a more wealthy poverty."

61 posted on 12/01/2002 2:30:21 PM PST by KayEyeDoubleDee
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To: MissAmericanPie
Professor Hugh Mehan argues that many Hispanic students drop out because they realize that, no matter how hard they work, they will still be relegated to low-paying jobs or, worse, no jobs at all.

ie, the Hispanics communities have been convinced that the racist patriarchy is holding them down, too.

62 posted on 12/01/2002 2:33:57 PM PST by KayEyeDoubleDee
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To: TheSpottedOwl
"...change the law granting automatic citizenship to anyone born in this country."

There is no such law. Our problem stems from an extremely liberal interpretation of the 14th Amendment that needs to be challenged before the Supreme Court.

Amendment XIV:

1868

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.

DOES NOT MEAN, NOR WAS IT EVER INTENDED TO MEAN THIS:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States.

You can't just ignore 46.43% of the words in a clause of an Amendment to the United States Constitution!

We've been hoodwinked by the liberals long enough.

This is on its way to the Supreme Court in what will be a landmark decision.

Group Files Motion in U.S.-Born Taliban's Case

"Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement filed a lawsuit against Yaser Esam Hamdi - a U.S.-born Saudi National to Saudis here on work visas."

The Supreme Court has no choice, but to overturn this Taliban's citizenship. His parents don't meet the requirements of the 14th Amendment.

Some Mexican woman that runs across the border and right into a U.S. hospital emergency room to have her baby doesn't either.

63 posted on 12/01/2002 2:54:25 PM PST by 4Freedom
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To: RICK77
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.

Whistling past the cemetery.

64 posted on 12/01/2002 3:04:55 PM PST by Old Professer
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To: 2sheep
"It used to be illegal to hire illegal immigrants in some states. If a farmer didn't have a social security number for each worker, he could get in trouble with the law. How and when did that change?"

In Minnesota, at least, it is easy to purchase phoney I.D. All you need is SSN and a driver's license. Employers are hesitant to check further, even though they should --afraid of being "prejudiced" and not indulging their greed.

65 posted on 12/01/2002 3:19:08 PM PST by shrinkermd
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To: TheOtherOne
http://www.informedcalifornia.org/education_02.shtml

"For U.S. born Latinos, the graduation rate is 81%, but for foreign-born Latinos, it is only 41%"
66 posted on 12/01/2002 3:32:51 PM PST by lonewacko_dot_com
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To: shrinkermd
A few years ago a berry grower in Oregon was fined over $100,000 by the government
for employing a person with fake ID. The globalist government lies and makes the
grower the enemy while the enemy is really the government that allows illegal
immigration. It does so to break down national sovereignty and is intent on stealing land
and assets.
67 posted on 12/01/2002 3:45:32 PM PST by 2sheep
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To: Sam Cree
I think the above is what happens when government begins taking a hand in regulating too much of everyone's lives...like NAFTA and MFN for China?
68 posted on 12/01/2002 3:46:21 PM PST by RWG
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To: Bernard Marx
Thanks for the information, I though it was the State Supreme Court. Not leaving alot of options for legitimate citizens are they.
69 posted on 12/01/2002 3:55:23 PM PST by MissAmericanPie
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To: KayEyeDoubleDee
Is that right? Boo hoo, I rather suspect it is the other way around.
70 posted on 12/01/2002 4:05:05 PM PST by MissAmericanPie
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To: winodog
Thanks:)
71 posted on 12/01/2002 4:08:50 PM PST by Morrigan
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To: RICK77
What do you guys think ???

I left LA in '93 as soon as my degree was done. Never looked back.

It sucks.

72 posted on 12/01/2002 4:20:49 PM PST by DoctorMichael
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To: RICK77
EL LAY is unrecognizable anymore, and it's spreading to the surrounding communities, even once-conservative Orange County. Americans have to be very careful to stay out of many parts of L.A. Parts of it are about as safe as the border slum of Tijuana Mexico (not safe at all).
73 posted on 12/01/2002 4:23:16 PM PST by janetgreen
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To: RICK77
I have read lots of posts on this thread saying that the Mexicans and other Latinos invading LA and Southern California are living in poverty. Is it really poverty when the husband works in a restaurant kitchen, the wife is a maid, the brother is a gardener, the sister is a waitress, the cousin is a pool cleaner, the other cousin works in a warehouse, etc., etc? And they all live together and pool their wages?
They would not be streaming north in such numbers if it was poverty that they faced.
I'm not going to spout some liberal froth about how wonderful it is. For us "anglos" it stinks.
But for them it's a big step up.
And since "We the People" don't have the will to stop it....well, you know the rest.
74 posted on 12/01/2002 4:46:06 PM PST by ricpic
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To: DoctorMichael
I left in '72 and from reading this thread, I don't think I could take it if I went back. I lived in Santa Monica and West LA. I'll just keep my memories. I pray for the kids.
75 posted on 12/01/2002 5:50:20 PM PST by madfly
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To: MissAmericanPie
What are you crazy? Manufacturing cause pollution! It is better to be a rich leftist with hordes of cheep gardners, household help and clean air for nude sunbathing, then to have legions of small manufactures. Jeesh, what do you want to do, return to the '50's LA?

< sarcasm not very/ off >
76 posted on 12/01/2002 8:16:14 PM PST by Leisler
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To: Sam Cree
Could be a result of the increasing leftism of "Kalifornia," especially combined with the thousands of illegal immigrants who are brought in to increase the rolls of Democratic voters.

One word. Yup.

Ever since the steady growth of overwelming liberalism/socialism beginning in the mid to late 70's, Kalifornia sadly has been headed down the proverbial tank.

77 posted on 12/01/2002 10:18:39 PM PST by kstewskis
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To: RICK77
Jeez - aren't the movieland folks sharing their wealth with their impoverished neighbors? They sure as heck want the rest of us to give up our time and money for the cause.
78 posted on 12/02/2002 12:44:40 AM PST by 3catsanadog
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To: Ajnin
If they will endure generations of poverty in Mexico and Latin America, they will endure generations of poverty in the United States.

It wasnt as easy to rob their more successful neighbors just by casting a vote in Latin America either. Thanks Democrats.

79 posted on 12/02/2002 12:52:49 AM PST by Godel
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To: Enterprise
True, but in the United States they will live in a more wealthy poverty.

Illegal immigrants have started to realize that LA is becoming the sh*thole they left in Mexico. Illegal immigrants in LA are being treated no different than they were in Mexico. This is why they are moving further north. Many communities like LA proper, Anehiem, Santa Ana, Calexico, El Paso, San Ysidro and Escondido are mirror images of Mexican bastions of crime and corruption. Eventually, illegal immigrants will reap the same poverty they had in Mexico. That is, unless they move to another state.

80 posted on 12/02/2002 2:32:37 AM PST by Ajnin
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