This is a minor comment on this article, but the Korean language, for the most part, does not use "logograms" like Mandarin. It uses a phonetic alphabet almost exclusively.
We are still the wealthiest country on Earth, and it is very sad to see or read about the living conditions of fellow citizens in one of our great cities.
I agree with many of the comments which speak of getting our priorities straight, as a nation, and California's, as a state.......And I agree with one commenter who wrote that we, all humans, must work to slow population growth. Our planet is very large, yet it is finite. I read yesterday in the NYT that Colorado has been making good progress at reducing unwanted teen pregnancies, so there is some good news.
I agree with many of the comments which speak of getting our priorities straight, as a nation, and California's, as a state.......And I agree with one commenter who wrote that we, all humans, must work to slow population growth. Our planet is very large, yet it is finite. I read yesterday in the NYT that Colorado has been making good progress at reducing unwanted teen pregnancies, so there is some good news.
8
The glamorous Hollywood, entertainment
Industry, highly paid sports personalities - have always been rich and ultra rich. With real estate prices climbing in CA, ordinary and poor folks have found it becoming unaffordable. Maybe folks should consider moving eastward, where diversity is badly needed.
Industry, highly paid sports personalities - have always been rich and ultra rich. With real estate prices climbing in CA, ordinary and poor folks have found it becoming unaffordable. Maybe folks should consider moving eastward, where diversity is badly needed.
5
How can this happen in a Democratic Party controlled, unionized state like California?
Perhaps something is not right in obamaville.
Perhaps something is not right in obamaville.
30
In California, there is a steadfast refusal to admit just how dependent the state is on Federal assistance.
The fortunes of California were built for the most part through Federal programs designed to transform the state into what it is today.........
1. Prior to the US take-over/annexation/purchase/whatever of California in 1849, California was a castoff province of New Spain, recently cast off from Spain to upstart "Mexico" in 1821...and even then the Spanish speaking lords of California were considering breaking free of "Mexico"......California was largely a late developing colonial exercise begun when Spain realized that Russian, English ships were prowling around the area after US independence in 1776!
Well then the US Govt gave the Central Pacific RR free land to develop California, Leland Stanford made an insane fortune off that sweetheart deal and founded Stanford University.
Soon there were Federal $$$ Allocations for Delta Irrigation Projects, the Central Valley Water Districts, Mining claims, Colorado River Water, etc.
By WW2...the Federal Govt was giving special tax treatment and subsidies to Hollywood to crank out patriotic movies(ie propaganda)...this cozy relationship exists to this day.
Also, the other 50% of southern California's economy was once the Defense Industry!!
During Bush, Sr's reign as president.....the Defense Contractor Industry of SoCal was destroyed and all the Federal $$$ was redirected into Silicon Valley............
The fortunes of California were built for the most part through Federal programs designed to transform the state into what it is today.........
1. Prior to the US take-over/annexation/purchase/whatever of California in 1849, California was a castoff province of New Spain, recently cast off from Spain to upstart "Mexico" in 1821...and even then the Spanish speaking lords of California were considering breaking free of "Mexico"......California was largely a late developing colonial exercise begun when Spain realized that Russian, English ships were prowling around the area after US independence in 1776!
Well then the US Govt gave the Central Pacific RR free land to develop California, Leland Stanford made an insane fortune off that sweetheart deal and founded Stanford University.
Soon there were Federal $$$ Allocations for Delta Irrigation Projects, the Central Valley Water Districts, Mining claims, Colorado River Water, etc.
By WW2...the Federal Govt was giving special tax treatment and subsidies to Hollywood to crank out patriotic movies(ie propaganda)...this cozy relationship exists to this day.
Also, the other 50% of southern California's economy was once the Defense Industry!!
During Bush, Sr's reign as president.....the Defense Contractor Industry of SoCal was destroyed and all the Federal $$$ was redirected into Silicon Valley............
8
I'll tell you what the problem of homeless is. It is us, those of us who are willing to stand by and let it happen; those of us who differentiate between the deserving poor and the undeserving poor. While the enormity of the problem of poverty can be paralyzing, it is shameful to let human beings live like stray dogs.
18
You're in Califormia. Keep voting for the redistributionists. Watch your Hooverville's grow.
16
Let's not forget that the increase in homelessness is also related to the deinstitutionalization of people with severe mental illness. It's not just income inequality.
33
This is what our 1% has decided will be our fate: islands of opulence in a sea of poverty. This is exactly what they had in mind when they had their politicians and media start cramming "globalization" down our throats, along with their new strategies for transferring wealth upward, NAFTA, the TPP etc.
33
Are the homeless in Los Angeles people from the city who lost there homes? Or are they mostly people who are already homeless and come to Los Angeles because the weather is nice and warm and they're treated relatively well?
39
It's interesting to me that as Los Angeles, in particular, and California, in general, sees its 3rd World residents gain more and more political/economic clout.....the city and the state morph more and more into a 3rd world environment of Rich vs Poor, PoliceState, garbage laden streets and poor environmental quality.
Somehow, the undertone of the commentary always manages to place the blame for this situation at the feet of the white residents that are now abandonning the area..........
Never do we consider that we failled to indoctrinate the flood of "3rd world" people into America.....these "immigrants" steadfastly cling to old folkways which are largely responsible for making their old homelands the h#ll-holes they supposedly sought to escape.
Somehow, the undertone of the commentary always manages to place the blame for this situation at the feet of the white residents that are now abandonning the area..........
Never do we consider that we failled to indoctrinate the flood of "3rd world" people into America.....these "immigrants" steadfastly cling to old folkways which are largely responsible for making their old homelands the h#ll-holes they supposedly sought to escape.
35
Hector Tobar spends a journalistic lifetime defending the mass immigration to the United States of low-skilled, semi-literate people and is now shocked that California resembles a third world country. To top it all off, he has the chutzpah to blame Howard Jarvis for this result, not himself and his liberal fellow-travelers who have dominated California politically for decades.
40
Sorry, but a major driver for CA problems is unchecked illegal immigration. And I'm not racist in saying that, I'm being a realist and looking at the facts.
Another major driver is the fact that those how have lived in their homes don't get assessed for it's value - tax freeze voted in by the 'people' years ago. That means that you aren't paying on a million dollars in value for the 2 bedroom home cited in this article - you're paying on the value when you bought it. NO WHERE in the country has this absurd law been enacted.
Lastly, it is not 'just those making $30 million' or the 'ultra rich' that are doing well in CA. Many made fortunes flipping homes in the late 90s and early 2000s. FORTUNES made by middle class flippers.
California owns it's problems, all of them from the lack of taxes on home values, the high VAT and fees levied driving those in the middle and upper middle out of the state (and into other states to start demanding the same liberal policies that left CA in the dirt), the ridiculous reluctance to restrict water use until dust is blowing down the street, etc. In other words, CA is run like Detroit. Liberal policies with ever expanding government employees promised huge pensions and no one to pay the monies to fund the programs passed by majority with their hands out.
Another major driver is the fact that those how have lived in their homes don't get assessed for it's value - tax freeze voted in by the 'people' years ago. That means that you aren't paying on a million dollars in value for the 2 bedroom home cited in this article - you're paying on the value when you bought it. NO WHERE in the country has this absurd law been enacted.
Lastly, it is not 'just those making $30 million' or the 'ultra rich' that are doing well in CA. Many made fortunes flipping homes in the late 90s and early 2000s. FORTUNES made by middle class flippers.
California owns it's problems, all of them from the lack of taxes on home values, the high VAT and fees levied driving those in the middle and upper middle out of the state (and into other states to start demanding the same liberal policies that left CA in the dirt), the ridiculous reluctance to restrict water use until dust is blowing down the street, etc. In other words, CA is run like Detroit. Liberal policies with ever expanding government employees promised huge pensions and no one to pay the monies to fund the programs passed by majority with their hands out.
33
Salt Lake City, Utah actually HELPED its homeless population. The Church of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons) has incredible business acumen. Salt Lake is a wonderfully modern city with light rail, clean buses, and is technologically advanced.
They didn’t base their decisions on morality--as if anyone DESERVED to be homeless. They looked at homelessness with a financial solution. They realized that our homeless brethren needed housing. (Full disclosure..I am an agnostic and a lapsed Catholic.) Most homeless shelters demand that a person be drug-free using neither alcohol or other drugs. These people can come into a shelter at 8 pm, then are kicked out at 0630 to wander the streets with everything they own in a shopping cart or backpack.
The leaders of the city figured out that it cost anywhere from $20,000 a year to one million dollars--in one very sad case-to help the homeless...ER visits, long hospitalizations, in and out of the justice system, expecting police to solve a social problem.
They then figured out that it would cost the city $8,000 a year to actually provide good housing for each homeless person and this included the social workers who were hired to assist these unfortunate people.
So they built housing, gave each person a key to their own space. Only THEN were they able to work with drug and alcohol, and psychiatric problems. City of one million people that now has no homeless people.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/22/home-free
They didn’t base their decisions on morality--as if anyone DESERVED to be homeless. They looked at homelessness with a financial solution. They realized that our homeless brethren needed housing. (Full disclosure..I am an agnostic and a lapsed Catholic.) Most homeless shelters demand that a person be drug-free using neither alcohol or other drugs. These people can come into a shelter at 8 pm, then are kicked out at 0630 to wander the streets with everything they own in a shopping cart or backpack.
The leaders of the city figured out that it cost anywhere from $20,000 a year to one million dollars--in one very sad case-to help the homeless...ER visits, long hospitalizations, in and out of the justice system, expecting police to solve a social problem.
They then figured out that it would cost the city $8,000 a year to actually provide good housing for each homeless person and this included the social workers who were hired to assist these unfortunate people.
So they built housing, gave each person a key to their own space. Only THEN were they able to work with drug and alcohol, and psychiatric problems. City of one million people that now has no homeless people.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/22/home-free
39
Since the '70s, and especially NAFTA, both parties have been kneeling at the feet of their Corporate sponsors. Passing these one-sided Trade Deals, not enforcing our immigration laws and importing thousands of H1Bs have all contributed to the elimination of the Middle Class.
And thanks to the Democrats and their divide and conquer strategy, with the exception of areas where the wealthy reside, most cities are now just holding pens for the various polarized victim groups.
Oh by the way, after eight years under the current regime, which only aggravated the Bush's mishandling, the title should be "Welcome to obamaville, California".
And thanks to the Democrats and their divide and conquer strategy, with the exception of areas where the wealthy reside, most cities are now just holding pens for the various polarized victim groups.
Oh by the way, after eight years under the current regime, which only aggravated the Bush's mishandling, the title should be "Welcome to obamaville, California".
19
The chasm between the haves and the have nots has existed in America from its earliest days. What causes the greatest concern in income inequality today is that America is a place where upward mobility has slowed to a crawl. The pathways to a better life such as starting your own business, high school vocational training or on the job apprenticeships have been replaced by Big Education. A BS degree can set a young adult back 150-200k in debt before they even have a chance to earn a paycheck. Then once they do enter the job market they are competing with Master Degreed professionals for jobs that pay what a vocationally trained high school grad. would have qualified for 35 years ago. Universities and Student Loan institutions have rigged the system and hold a monopoly on the upward mobility toll road at 7% interest.
38
Walk around San Francisco to find the exported losers from other States begging on street corners.... so called homelessness is a national problem. I dare say the obesity epidemic in rural Appalachia and the South, the alcoholism and meth use in suburban mid America are other examples of social dysfunction that have little to do with red state blue state nonsense and really have their basis in socio economic factors that most of the commentators seem unable to grasp.
43
The hypocrisy of America's elite can be summarized in one singular Hooverville. The tent city of World War One Veterans in Washington DC which was razed by that great American hero General Douglas MacArthur. I can think of nothing that explains post Ronald Reagan America and the shredding of the social contract than the plight of the Bonus Army. When General MacArthur rode his horse through the camp destroying everything in his path his disdain of the Bonus Army and their families he explained fully the regard the elite had for those who willingly sacrificed their all to maintain the privilege of our God chosen leaders. What a wonderful social contract the conservatives wish to re-establish.
13
At a visit last week to the DMV I saw first hand the effects of trying to run a first class Nation on the cheap. What I saw would have been familiar to someone living in the Soviet Union 35 years ago.
We have a choice now, we can insist that the 1% pay their fair share in taxes or we see this great Country destroyed.
Billionaires are not conducive to democracy.
We have a choice now, we can insist that the 1% pay their fair share in taxes or we see this great Country destroyed.
Billionaires are not conducive to democracy.
26
If America revived the New Deal, this guy could be building South Pasadena bridges instead of sleeping under one. Who else but men like him built these Depression-era bridges in the first place?
16
Income inequality is the inevitable result of a shortage of good paying jobs.
The solution is more good paying jobs.
Anyone who tells you that the problem is "corporations" or "the tax code" is blowing smoke, and has no solution.
The solution is more good paying jobs.
Anyone who tells you that the problem is "corporations" or "the tax code" is blowing smoke, and has no solution.
9
"At the same time, the tax revolt led by the businessman and politician Howard Jarvis cut funding for public education." And then they legalized the California Lottery or as I like to call it; "THE POOR MAN'S 401K". The monies from this lottery were suppose to go into schooling, but as soon as that funding hit, the state, in all its' wisdom, pulled back their allotted financial support and, once again, the education of California's youth suffered. This problem of homelessness and poverty will never cease if we do not start to educate our youth out of this dilemma.
9
It's not happening just in Los Angeles. It is happening nationwide from sea to shining sea and it's a good thing the seas are still shining because this nation is not.
While the "Third World" is rapidly moving up (whatever that means), Europe, Australia, Canada and other "traditional" established "First World" countries are remaining First World in terms of the condition of most of their people.
I have family in Zambia and family in Australia. I travel through Europe and occasionally Canada.
Zambia has markedly improved over the last decade. It shows in both the big city of Lusaka and out in the rural areas. It is still clearly third world but moving up fast.
Australia is doing well and holding its own. More importantly there are few people truly homeless & down and out. You don't see nearly the number of beggars and homeless as you see in any big city here where the cold does not keep them out of sight. They just aren't there, compared to America, yet the country is booming and there are plenty of rich people. The abject poverty that we seem to treat as a normal consequence of our free market system is non existent compared to America and Australia is a free market economy like ours. It seems to care more for its down and out.
In America we just let it happen. I see it in LA. I see it in Houston where I live. I find Washington DC appalling within sight of both Congress and the White House.
Sadly, America is heading to at least a "Second" World status.
While the "Third World" is rapidly moving up (whatever that means), Europe, Australia, Canada and other "traditional" established "First World" countries are remaining First World in terms of the condition of most of their people.
I have family in Zambia and family in Australia. I travel through Europe and occasionally Canada.
Zambia has markedly improved over the last decade. It shows in both the big city of Lusaka and out in the rural areas. It is still clearly third world but moving up fast.
Australia is doing well and holding its own. More importantly there are few people truly homeless & down and out. You don't see nearly the number of beggars and homeless as you see in any big city here where the cold does not keep them out of sight. They just aren't there, compared to America, yet the country is booming and there are plenty of rich people. The abject poverty that we seem to treat as a normal consequence of our free market system is non existent compared to America and Australia is a free market economy like ours. It seems to care more for its down and out.
In America we just let it happen. I see it in LA. I see it in Houston where I live. I find Washington DC appalling within sight of both Congress and the White House.
Sadly, America is heading to at least a "Second" World status.
80
And yet the US continues to import more and more uneducated low skilled workers, legal and otherwise, creating an underclass even of US citizens.
Yes, there is inequality and the rich do not pay enough taxes, but unless we control immigration, the demand for workers will never outpace the supply and wages will continue to be depressed.
Yes, there is inequality and the rich do not pay enough taxes, but unless we control immigration, the demand for workers will never outpace the supply and wages will continue to be depressed.
37
I occasionally run a 7-mile stretch along Huntington Dr from San Marino (median home price $2.1 million) to the Cornfield park in Chinatown (median home price $310K). I learn that there isn't a single solution to Mr Tobar's Hooverville.
More taxes might help, but I can't fathom how small businesses lining the street can afford more taxes.
More public spending might help, but after years of construction on the Cornfield Park, the park is still...a construction site.
More transit might help, but it's still faster to drive this stretch than to take the multi-million dollar Goldline train.
More housing might help, but jobs aren't growing in nearby employment centers like Pasadena and Downtown LA.
Better race-relationship might help, but on this stretch, most of the very rich and the very poor are already non-white.
I think we must keep trying to reduce Hooverville. But let's keep our expectation real: It's a very hard task.
More taxes might help, but I can't fathom how small businesses lining the street can afford more taxes.
More public spending might help, but after years of construction on the Cornfield Park, the park is still...a construction site.
More transit might help, but it's still faster to drive this stretch than to take the multi-million dollar Goldline train.
More housing might help, but jobs aren't growing in nearby employment centers like Pasadena and Downtown LA.
Better race-relationship might help, but on this stretch, most of the very rich and the very poor are already non-white.
I think we must keep trying to reduce Hooverville. But let's keep our expectation real: It's a very hard task.
31
As a native Californian, I saw socio-economic changes already beginning in the early 70s in southern California. It did not take a lot of smarts to see that the changes were not for the better, as entire suburban cities were being dragged down by them, even those towns formerly considered upper middle class. I advised my folks to move to the Central Valley, where the cost of living would better fit their retirement situation. They took my advice, sold their home, built a new one, put money in the bank and lived comfortably until their passing, which, thankfully, was before the problems now confronting the entire state. The important thing is that they put LA in the rear-view-mirror, as I did. The so-called California dream has become a nightmare. If you like congestion, smog, a tremendously high cost of living and ridiculously high real estate prices, then by all means move there. Otherwise, pick from a hundred more desirable places to live. You will not regret your decision.
15
So no mention of limiting the influx of low skilled, poor immigrants, both legal and illegal, to prevent more poverty and job competition? Rich benefit, and the working class gets the shaft. In 1931, when the term "Hooverville" was coined, immigration had been shut down for 7 years. Moreover we were a low skilled economy without a welfare, healthcare or expensive education state. You can't admit millions of poor people into a modern economy and grow brief around and ask why there are so many poor people while continuing the same policy .
20
This isn't just a US problem. It is a worldwide problem, where the unemployment rate in Egypt, Afghanistan, Central America, Europe and Africa causes social unrest, radical governments, militant violence, and unsolved problems. The whole world economy is stuck in neutral, not even first gear.
Take a look at youth unemployment rates all over the world. http://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?v=2229
The world economy is not growing as fast as it should and is not creating employment as a result. This is a world problem, not just an LA problem.
Take a look at youth unemployment rates all over the world. http://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?v=2229
The world economy is not growing as fast as it should and is not creating employment as a result. This is a world problem, not just an LA problem.
3
It's not a matter of whether one can afford something. There should be a personal pint of just saying "No". There are many events and places that I have decided to remain in absentia. If owners want to pay baseball players millions of dollars, that's oK by me but I will not support such extravagance with my finances. I find much more fulfillment in life, nature, people and being in the moment at no cost but time. I watch younger folks never take their eyes off of their portable screens and never hear the world around them because of blasting earbuds and I can only feel sorry for them as they let life bypass them in a truly senseless way.
7
One-percenters and other rich people already pay a lot of taxes and possess enough political strength to defeat all efforts to make them pay anything more. Other than a huge economic boom resulting in a massive increase in jobs which no one foresees at present, I see no possible remedy for this situation.
2
No one needs 30 million or more. That is the problem with our world. I think we need to reach a point where the "market" economy takes a back seat to a fair economy. Cap wealth accumulation at a certain point and spread it around through an aggressive tax system. Create homes for the homeless and invest in infrastructure. Ironically, this type of socialism, the spreading around of wealth rather than the isolation of it, makes the "ultra-rich" *more* secure with much less money. As the inequality gap grows, as walls to rich communities get taller, dissent and unrest foment and threaten to destroy the staples of evolved civilization.
9
I drive past a "Hooverville" in Stockton every day. Tents and blue tarps under an overpass on Highway 4.
Tobar has the causes wrong. It wasn't lower property taxes that caused our rich to get richer and our poor to get poorer. It's not like the California government doesn't have enough money. Our schools have more money than Asian schools that outperform us.
The causes of our misfortunes are free trade and immigration itself. Third World immigrants were brought in to pull down American working class wages. You can't have low wages without poverty so you import poverty to bring wages down. And you enact free trade policies to offshore production to countries where wages are low. That way, expenses for high American wages can be lowered and the rich investor class can pocket the difference. We used to have a lot of good paying working class jobs in California but they have all left to Mexico and Asia.
That's how the rich got richer and the middle class go squeezed. Through immigration and free trade.
If you want to bring back the American middle class, you have to end immigration and enact tariffs on imports. But the investor class, which owns the media, won't have that. Instead of raising taxes on imported goods made in overseas sweatshops owned by multinational corporations, they would rather raise taxes on those of us remaining middle class people here who still own our homes.
Tobar has the causes wrong. It wasn't lower property taxes that caused our rich to get richer and our poor to get poorer. It's not like the California government doesn't have enough money. Our schools have more money than Asian schools that outperform us.
The causes of our misfortunes are free trade and immigration itself. Third World immigrants were brought in to pull down American working class wages. You can't have low wages without poverty so you import poverty to bring wages down. And you enact free trade policies to offshore production to countries where wages are low. That way, expenses for high American wages can be lowered and the rich investor class can pocket the difference. We used to have a lot of good paying working class jobs in California but they have all left to Mexico and Asia.
That's how the rich got richer and the middle class go squeezed. Through immigration and free trade.
If you want to bring back the American middle class, you have to end immigration and enact tariffs on imports. But the investor class, which owns the media, won't have that. Instead of raising taxes on imported goods made in overseas sweatshops owned by multinational corporations, they would rather raise taxes on those of us remaining middle class people here who still own our homes.
33
Growing inequality historically has resulted in civil unrest, revolution, or emergence of a dictator. At some point people will reach a breaking point beyond which they have nothing to lose and turn to the streets with torches and pitchforks. The kettle is simmering and may soon reach the boiling point. Politicians and the one-percent are beginning to speak about inequality, but it remains to be seen what will be done about it; I suspect nothing.
2
You can always find out where idiocy lives by following it where it goes. There was a day when the Hoovervilles were cleaned up and city ordinances were enforced. Today, elected officials are only too happy to let this steaming pile of humanity, legal or otherwise, reach critical mass. After all, their re-election is assured. But some point, whatever passed as wealth or middle class will be driven out. Either by punitive taxation to support Hooverville or simply by being being beaten, robbed, or shot to death on a regular basis. It always works out this way. And there are plenty of historical examples to to illustrate it. Wealth goes where it is welcome, and poverty? It's carefully cultivated like a cash crop.
6
The homeless population increased by 85% over the last two years and it is Regan's fault? Please. The "progressive" control of California has concentrated wealth and political power in the State government. This large wealth divide is a result of "progressive" policies which include not enforcing the southern border. What do folk expect when Obama legalizes the population equivalent of a European country, except the folk coming in are from the third world with little to no education or skills?
California represents the result of trickle down government on steroids.
California represents the result of trickle down government on steroids.
15
I applaud the (near) honesty of many conservative posters in this thread. In 1933 we were on our way to shrugging the unworthy poor off the bottom of the economic ladder. Except that FDR rescued them. And so it has been since. We don't have a wealth gap because of the worthy rich. We have a wealth gap because we carry the unworthy poor (including immigrants). Or so my grandmother educated me in the 1950's. My conservative friends tell me that they just want the poor to wake up and work harder. OK. But we'd still have to get rid of any safety net that helps the unworthy. So there it is; we've got to let more of the poor die to motivate those capable of making it. I just wish conservatives were more up front with the requirement that lots of poor need to die in order to shape this country up.
11
Who exactly are the people living on the streets? The term "homeless" is uninformative, for it includes both mentally ill/addicted vagrants as well as people who lost their housing due to financial reasons. Mr. Tobar gives us no facts or demographics, yet he expects us to accept his thesis that the people in these makeshift camps are displaced from the middle class by high prices and reduction in funding for education. That may be so, but I would like to see some evidence.
10
I see the results of a lack of opportunity created by income equality every day. The jobs that allowed someone with only a high school degree to own a home, raise a family and have a chance at a decent retirement are, for the most part, long gone. Even in a State like New Hampshire it is impossible for someone without a high school diploma to make enough money at fast food restaurants or other service related jobs to afford a decent place to live. Even more troubling is that the sense of despair that these people feel often leads to substance abuse and criminal behavior to support it. Right now the haves outweigh the have nots, but if the middle class continues to lose ground to the top 1 percent, you may see people that you could not have imagined living on the streets and in makeshift shelters. I do not know what the answer is but I hope we find one soon.
10
Of course, let's pretend like California is not opening it's arms to thousands of illegal immigrants every month, and promising to feed, shelter, and educate them. Los Angeles is a sanctuary city. Adding thousands each month to the already overwhelmed social services net has created these problems. We don't want to point out the true problem, that might be racist. So let's blame "income inequality" instead. In a couple of decades there will be a massive outflow of taxpayers from California who can't get ahead as the state continues to come to them to support all the new people they are importing. Too bad. It's a beautiful state run by a bunch of knuckleheads.
44
I have lived and worked in Latin America, where I've seen the political and social results of extreme income and wealth inequality due to corruption and crony capitalism. And it's not a pretty picture.
I have also lived and worked in Europe, with its enviable safety net. It's wonderful to walk the streets of Oslo and Stockholm and Berlin and not see 7-year-olds panhandling.
Sadly, the United States has for years been trending toward Latin American income distribution. (Ironically, trend lines today in many Latin American countries are better than the U.S.'s.) We already have 50 million people living in poverty, many of them working full time at minimum wage. People who work 40 hours a week in a great country like the United States should not be living in poverty. Opportunity, social mobility and the middle class were all key parts of the American Dream but have slipped away.
All this is something that can be reversed with the right policies, starting with tax reform. If not, then the United States will continue on its way to become a country of haves and have-nots. Guerrilla warfare like El Salvador's may not be far behind.
I have also lived and worked in Europe, with its enviable safety net. It's wonderful to walk the streets of Oslo and Stockholm and Berlin and not see 7-year-olds panhandling.
Sadly, the United States has for years been trending toward Latin American income distribution. (Ironically, trend lines today in many Latin American countries are better than the U.S.'s.) We already have 50 million people living in poverty, many of them working full time at minimum wage. People who work 40 hours a week in a great country like the United States should not be living in poverty. Opportunity, social mobility and the middle class were all key parts of the American Dream but have slipped away.
All this is something that can be reversed with the right policies, starting with tax reform. If not, then the United States will continue on its way to become a country of haves and have-nots. Guerrilla warfare like El Salvador's may not be far behind.
91
Yet another depressing column complaining about inequality. Ok, we get it. It's appalling, and yes, we'll probably vote for Bernie Sanders. Someday, I'd like to see a piece written about the many local efforts to help those who need it most. A program in our county rescues about 4,000 pounds of fresh food every day from supermarkets and farmers markets and drives it out to over 100 soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and crisis centers; delivers social services to the homeless, and collects gently used clothing and toys to give away free. Like many others like it, these services are run completely by volunteers, mostly retirees who simply choose to serve rather than travel, fish, knit, or play at hobbies.
5
Not sure exactly what your point is. There has always been the billionaire and the "Forgotten Man". if you know your American social history. The Robber Barons at the top of the heap, the "slaves" laying the railroad on the bottom.
Part of the problem is outsized payment for services like CEO pay that in no way reflects what they actually do for a company but suck up money beyond reason, while the minions who do work hard get little for their effort.
If you want to cure homelessness, then you should be writing about the loss of jobs, the loss of self-worth for those out of work due to no fault of their own, you be asking why people pay $1000 for a seat at the ballpark and why that price even exists except to make the greedy richer, and the stupidly sports faithful poorer.
entertainment is KING in America and a lot of other places and one must pay through the nose to be part of that, and , sadly, people do. That is where a lot of their money goes on fancy sneakers, and sports togs.
I've seen my town grow by leaps and bounds in the past two years for reasons that I can't quite figure out--this place is expensive, has little to no work except service jobs and the military but one is hard-pressed to cross the street during the day for the constant rush of cars in both directions.
Jobs lift people out of poverty, real housing prices get people off the street, not the rentals that serve as atms for the greedy. American jobs is what we need.
Part of the problem is outsized payment for services like CEO pay that in no way reflects what they actually do for a company but suck up money beyond reason, while the minions who do work hard get little for their effort.
If you want to cure homelessness, then you should be writing about the loss of jobs, the loss of self-worth for those out of work due to no fault of their own, you be asking why people pay $1000 for a seat at the ballpark and why that price even exists except to make the greedy richer, and the stupidly sports faithful poorer.
entertainment is KING in America and a lot of other places and one must pay through the nose to be part of that, and , sadly, people do. That is where a lot of their money goes on fancy sneakers, and sports togs.
I've seen my town grow by leaps and bounds in the past two years for reasons that I can't quite figure out--this place is expensive, has little to no work except service jobs and the military but one is hard-pressed to cross the street during the day for the constant rush of cars in both directions.
Jobs lift people out of poverty, real housing prices get people off the street, not the rentals that serve as atms for the greedy. American jobs is what we need.
6
Hooverville? Try Paris.
The return of the rich to U.S. cities over the past 25 years, led first by Gen Xers, then their parents seeking a pied-a-terre and now the Millenials, will eventually push the urban poor way out to the older declining suburbs. At least until urban crime makes a comeback due to watered-down policing.
The return of the rich to U.S. cities over the past 25 years, led first by Gen Xers, then their parents seeking a pied-a-terre and now the Millenials, will eventually push the urban poor way out to the older declining suburbs. At least until urban crime makes a comeback due to watered-down policing.
2
Can Mr. Tobar see the nose on his face?
What consequence is anticipated when throngs of unskilled, uneducated, illiterate immigrants, many with uncivil social habits, invade the balmy environs of Southern California? Should they all be occupying comfortable Malibu beach villas?
And does he not expect the cost of living to inexorably rise, especially for the productive few trying to cover the exorbitant taxes necessary for the rising unproductive masses?
What consequence is anticipated when throngs of unskilled, uneducated, illiterate immigrants, many with uncivil social habits, invade the balmy environs of Southern California? Should they all be occupying comfortable Malibu beach villas?
And does he not expect the cost of living to inexorably rise, especially for the productive few trying to cover the exorbitant taxes necessary for the rising unproductive masses?
22
$15 minimum wage is not going to turn the tide. We need to tax the owners of capital. Anything not invested in US job producing technology (not stock buybacks, not automation, not H1B visas, not offshoring) should be taxed. No lower rates for hedge funds or capital gains. Reinvest in non defense employers; we don't need any more pricey weapons systems that don't work and can't be ended.
11
It isn't as simple as people "preferring" to live in L.A. It's as simple as that being the place where they have any work at all, and lacking the contacts or funds to move anywhere else. What everyone well-employed doesn't want to acknowledge - turn your head, look away, look away! - is that they are one layoff or illness away from the shed under the bridge. My industry is busy being gobbled up by vulture capitalists who are taking apart the work of generations, and while a decade ago, I was well-employed in L.A.
Last night I had insomnia, realizing that with both graduate and professional degrees, I am always now one meeting, one aggression away from homelessness. The situation is even more acute as we age and become vulnerable to age discrimination, at precisely the time when the families who might have provided a couch or spare room (as for unemployed college students) are either dead - or are dependent on us. This doesn't resemble in any way the country I thought I belonged to, not just as a child, but even five years ago.
Last night I had insomnia, realizing that with both graduate and professional degrees, I am always now one meeting, one aggression away from homelessness. The situation is even more acute as we age and become vulnerable to age discrimination, at precisely the time when the families who might have provided a couch or spare room (as for unemployed college students) are either dead - or are dependent on us. This doesn't resemble in any way the country I thought I belonged to, not just as a child, but even five years ago.
35
To all of you in your 60s, who rush to blame undocumented immigrants or other phony scapegoats for this growing inequality, I urge you to find an inflation calculator online and plug in the year and salary of your very first job. Then, see how that compares, for example, to the current $8.75 minimum wage in New York.
Mine was in the late '60s as a summer office clerk for a company that wasn't exactly rolling in dough. I had no previous experience other than a high school education. And yet, they paid me about $1.60 per hour, or 10 cents above the minimum wage, which translates into a current $11.39, or $2.64 more per hour than the present New York minimum.
My first job out of college, in an industry not known for paying a whole lot, carried an annual salary that -- inflation-adjusted -- is almost double what large corporations get away with paying young people today. That salary allowed me to rent a Manhattan apartment, own a car and pay all my expenses. By contrast, today's new college-educated workers crowd four or five deep into a small Williamsburg hovel and must depend on subsidies from parents to make up for what the corporations keep for themselves.
Let's pull off the blinders, people. The rich are grabbing a much larger share of the pie and refusing to pay workers for their productivity. It's been going on for decades. We need a revolution to change things. Electing Bernie Sanders is a good start.
Mine was in the late '60s as a summer office clerk for a company that wasn't exactly rolling in dough. I had no previous experience other than a high school education. And yet, they paid me about $1.60 per hour, or 10 cents above the minimum wage, which translates into a current $11.39, or $2.64 more per hour than the present New York minimum.
My first job out of college, in an industry not known for paying a whole lot, carried an annual salary that -- inflation-adjusted -- is almost double what large corporations get away with paying young people today. That salary allowed me to rent a Manhattan apartment, own a car and pay all my expenses. By contrast, today's new college-educated workers crowd four or five deep into a small Williamsburg hovel and must depend on subsidies from parents to make up for what the corporations keep for themselves.
Let's pull off the blinders, people. The rich are grabbing a much larger share of the pie and refusing to pay workers for their productivity. It's been going on for decades. We need a revolution to change things. Electing Bernie Sanders is a good start.
185
Note how many of the new homeless are not drug addicts, not impaired vets, not undereducated immigrants, but those who had jobs previously and who don't right now. Many middle class families are struggling in this economy where there used to be two incomes and now there's only one, or none. My family is experiencing this. After 30 years in the telecom industry, with 30 years of contacts in sales, my husband can't find a job. He's been without a job for over a year. He doesn't qualify for unemployment because he was a sale rep, which is considered a contractor. Many people are in this position and they do not register on the conventional unemployment rolls. Within our circle of friends, every single couple has one or both members unemployed or underemployed. Employers avoid people over 50 and even with high tech knowledge and skills, they don't return calls after resumes are sent. This has not been just my husband's experience, but the experience of all our friends. Those who are underemployed work at jobs like car porter, retail stores and more. Luckily, my teaching job barely covers our bills, but with higher premiums for insurance and higher property taxes on the horizon, that may not be the case this year. Where's the concern for middle class workers over 50? Where's our parade?
118
What about forcing people in an advanced democracy to do "global labor competition" through the mechanism of outsourcing most of this nation's manufacturing jobs over seas to be done by the functional equivalent of none rights bearing slaves, and our 1%'s rigging the domestic labor market, killing wages here with a 4 decade flood of 10's of millions of desperate immigrants does this author not get? LA and ever more of the USA is becoming more like, has the same heinous wealth disparities as places where billionaire sheiks and the descendants of Cortez still treat most people like Medieval serfs - because we have let our leaders globally integrate our economies and societies and so we are moving to a much lower equality and human rights equilibrium in what now pass for degraded liberal 1st world democracies.
11
When a nation allows greed to become it's dominant life force, it becomes a wealth based Darwinien society. And now that the rich can literally buy the government they want, the test of the country slips farther behind.
And it's not just LA. Go anywhere where titans of industry proliferate, and the lower classes are forced to scramble for the dregs of housing and quality of life.
There are solutions of course for this type of inequality which has surpassed anything seen in the Gilded Age. Unfortunately unless campaign financing reform gets addressed, the situation will only worsen. For me the saddest aspect of all this is the change in American values and the loss of any shred of a collective spirit that "we're all in this world together."
And it's not just LA. Go anywhere where titans of industry proliferate, and the lower classes are forced to scramble for the dregs of housing and quality of life.
There are solutions of course for this type of inequality which has surpassed anything seen in the Gilded Age. Unfortunately unless campaign financing reform gets addressed, the situation will only worsen. For me the saddest aspect of all this is the change in American values and the loss of any shred of a collective spirit that "we're all in this world together."
21
In the 1950s, my truck driving father could get on the freeway at 3 a.m. with relatively little traffic. Now? 24/7 parking lot which despite the massive expansions of concrete has done what? Increased the homeless population who breathe the same polluted air.
4
Unfortunately, we now have a state government with a powerful interest in preserving, if not increasing, income inequality? Think I'm crazy? California collects a staggeringly high percentage of its taxes from the rich and ultra rich.
Manufacturing jobs are gone? Yeah, they are, and in Sacramento the response is "so what? manufacturing employees don't make much money and thus don't really pay taxes." So there will be no relief from high energy costs, environmental regulations, and labor constraints that are in all cases among the worst in the country.
I haven't seen the statistics recently, but a few years ago (and this was BEFORE taxes on the rich went up) California collected more than half of its taxes from 150,000 residents. That's in a state of 40 million people.
Any CA lawmaker or regulator with half a brain cell is going to work to create more such people, and keep the other ones just happy enough not to leave. Everybody else? Tough luck.
Manufacturing jobs are gone? Yeah, they are, and in Sacramento the response is "so what? manufacturing employees don't make much money and thus don't really pay taxes." So there will be no relief from high energy costs, environmental regulations, and labor constraints that are in all cases among the worst in the country.
I haven't seen the statistics recently, but a few years ago (and this was BEFORE taxes on the rich went up) California collected more than half of its taxes from 150,000 residents. That's in a state of 40 million people.
Any CA lawmaker or regulator with half a brain cell is going to work to create more such people, and keep the other ones just happy enough not to leave. Everybody else? Tough luck.
7
We need studies about homelessness which reveal its causes. Many people are very losely tying together homelessness with the rise in income inequality, and the higher cost of housing in some regions. However, the homeless that I encounter in my area (and there are many) are clearly not simply people who can't afford a place to live. They are mentally ill or addicted to substances,or both. Encountering them is disturbing, not because poverty or homelessness itself is disturbing, but because of the degree of mental illness one is facing, and the bizarre behavior, lack of self-care, and flithy conditions to which that leads.
So I don't buy the argument that people end up living in cardboard boxes on the streets when they can't afford housing in any given area.
Which is not to say that growing income inequality and the rising cost of housing are not significant social problems. They are. But so is overpopulation, which exacerbates these and other social problems. Housing costs are related to supply and demand, and when there are too many people in any one area, or in the world, they won't all be able to obtain affordable housing. We talk about a lot of social and environmental problems, but we aren't talking about the very serious problems caused by overpopulation -- the earth's resources are finite,and in any ecosystem, when population exceeds available supply, die-offs occur. We as humans are not immune from the earth's own methods of restoring balance.
So I don't buy the argument that people end up living in cardboard boxes on the streets when they can't afford housing in any given area.
Which is not to say that growing income inequality and the rising cost of housing are not significant social problems. They are. But so is overpopulation, which exacerbates these and other social problems. Housing costs are related to supply and demand, and when there are too many people in any one area, or in the world, they won't all be able to obtain affordable housing. We talk about a lot of social and environmental problems, but we aren't talking about the very serious problems caused by overpopulation -- the earth's resources are finite,and in any ecosystem, when population exceeds available supply, die-offs occur. We as humans are not immune from the earth's own methods of restoring balance.
57
Single best reply to this column.
2
It's sort of appalling, watching so many commentors try to paint over their callousness and fear by yelling at Obama, or yelling at liberals, or yelling at immigrants.
13
"government" and it's policies is defined as the mechanism by which the wealthy retain theirs and prevent all others from rising.
then these few endlessly proclaim what a great and marvelous "system" we have.
those who are no longer actual-servitudes find themselves as constrained economic serfs.
selfishness and greed are overwhelmingly winning-the-race.
how does any reasonable equilibrium become the norm?
1
In talking with people around the world, I've long referred to the US as a Third World country (switching in recent years to "developing country" for reasons of political correctness). It's not just LA and it's not just the visible homeless populations, but it's inequality across the board, seen in access to affordable first-class health care, the state of our bridges and roads, and the poor quality of public schools. The differences are exacerbated by housing segregation, discriminatory policing practices, and remaining tinges of racism.
We now see more ways for the rich to avoid unpleasant encounters with the poor: Uber instead of public transportation, private jets and company buses, Task Rabbits, and private security in high-end shopping areas, e.g., Rodeo Drive.
These elements are on display in virtually all the larger American cities, with no sign that the situation will improve anytime soon. Movies and TV shows about dystopian "future" American civilizations have more than a ring of truth. Our elected politicians and Presidential candidates mostly turn a blind eye to the worsening situation, and the general public is opposed to spending the vast sums of money that would be needed to reduce the growing gap between the haves and have nots.
We now see more ways for the rich to avoid unpleasant encounters with the poor: Uber instead of public transportation, private jets and company buses, Task Rabbits, and private security in high-end shopping areas, e.g., Rodeo Drive.
These elements are on display in virtually all the larger American cities, with no sign that the situation will improve anytime soon. Movies and TV shows about dystopian "future" American civilizations have more than a ring of truth. Our elected politicians and Presidential candidates mostly turn a blind eye to the worsening situation, and the general public is opposed to spending the vast sums of money that would be needed to reduce the growing gap between the haves and have nots.
54
and even in areas like the Silicon Valley with great public schools, there is a turning away from them by the wealthy and the aspirational wealthy. So the segregation begins very early.
That this situation should come as a surprise to anyone is, well, quite surprising. This is the result of 35 years of "trickle-down" based economics, diligently carried out by servile elected officials concerned more with personal financial reward and dazzled by access to the gilded elite. As a result, the focus for the past few decades has been to sell the United States out from under the people for the massive short-term profits of an elite few.
Public health policies which used to address mental illness among the homeless and the poor was shut down by Ronald Reagan, those in the system at the time were pushed on to the streets. Those who would benefit from these programs at present have no programs to which they can turn.
Real estate, once a solid and long term investment for working Americans, has succumbed to the bubble mentality of our economy, and as a result, the cost of real estate has skyrocketed, while wages and decent employment opportunities have flat-lined or are in decline.
Our elected officials are either blind to the struggles of the middle class and the poor, or treat them with disgust and contempt. For a glimpse at how they really view most of us, look up the original definition of trickle-down economics, which was called "Horse and Sparrow" economics. Hint: We're the sparrows.
The frustration of the struggling American majority is palpable to anyone who is not ensconced in the bubbles of the Beltway, Park Avenue, and Wall Street.
Public health policies which used to address mental illness among the homeless and the poor was shut down by Ronald Reagan, those in the system at the time were pushed on to the streets. Those who would benefit from these programs at present have no programs to which they can turn.
Real estate, once a solid and long term investment for working Americans, has succumbed to the bubble mentality of our economy, and as a result, the cost of real estate has skyrocketed, while wages and decent employment opportunities have flat-lined or are in decline.
Our elected officials are either blind to the struggles of the middle class and the poor, or treat them with disgust and contempt. For a glimpse at how they really view most of us, look up the original definition of trickle-down economics, which was called "Horse and Sparrow" economics. Hint: We're the sparrows.
The frustration of the struggling American majority is palpable to anyone who is not ensconced in the bubbles of the Beltway, Park Avenue, and Wall Street.
39
"That this situation should come as a surprise to anyone is, well, quite surprising. This is the result of 35 years of "trickle-down" based economics, "
The middle class began losing wealth in the early to mid 1970s. It was the manufacturing sector that provided a market for semi-skilled and skilled labor. The US consumer made the decisions in the market place for imported goods. In the 1950's over 90% of autos sold in the US were assembled in the US primarily with US manufactured components. Now if you count the transplants that figure is closer to 45% with a similar drop in components manufactured in the US. And I'm not talking about US off-shoring, these are imports. This trend has crept into almost all manufactured goods with textiles, building materials and food products working towards a similar situation. There's your answer, but blaming "trickle-down" economic policies does make for a better polemic. And no, turbine blade and battery manufacturing will not began to fill the hole in demand for labor in the manufacturing sector. Neither will patching up our highways.
The middle class began losing wealth in the early to mid 1970s. It was the manufacturing sector that provided a market for semi-skilled and skilled labor. The US consumer made the decisions in the market place for imported goods. In the 1950's over 90% of autos sold in the US were assembled in the US primarily with US manufactured components. Now if you count the transplants that figure is closer to 45% with a similar drop in components manufactured in the US. And I'm not talking about US off-shoring, these are imports. This trend has crept into almost all manufactured goods with textiles, building materials and food products working towards a similar situation. There's your answer, but blaming "trickle-down" economic policies does make for a better polemic. And no, turbine blade and battery manufacturing will not began to fill the hole in demand for labor in the manufacturing sector. Neither will patching up our highways.
1
You can thank Ronald Reagan and the Republicans for this canyon of inequality. That would be about 40 years ago, when trickle down became the economic mindset of the country. We have even more of these geniuses berating the poor and working classes, while continuing to insist that we open trade to anyone and import most low pay jobs to cheaper places, where they are afraid to complain. (By the way, Democrats went along with this.) Add to that the demise of unions, who used to protect our people, proposals to cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy, deny health care to anyone who can't pay, and you have the perfect formula for the oligarchs. Republicans are just hoping they can stem the tide of rage long enough for most of the unfortunates to die or go away. I almost put up my flag on the 4th, but then I decided to wait until some time in the future when I feel proud to be an American, once again.
33
There have been 7 presidential terms since Ronald Reagan left office. 4 Occupied by Democrats and 3 by Republicans. The Congress has been largely split in some fashion over that time as well. From afar, your Californians have precisely the government you wished for - just like here in Maryland. Perhaps the blame the other guy scenario is rather shallow and unfounded. When I spend money on something and get so little productivity, I either stop spending the money or expect more in return. Nearly $20 trillion dollars into the eradication of poverty, it is safe to conclude we bought a lemon.
1
We can also thank St Ronnie for the first amnesty of illegals. That was done in cahoots with big business for whom the word enforcement meant nothing. Whole industries (and I am not talking ag) were turned over to illegal mexicans, who saw amnesty as their one-way ticket to USA. Clinton sealed the deal for us with the ill gotten NAFTA.
40 years of Democrat rule in California.....and its still Reagan's fault???
Dayum.
Dayum.
6
Two words: porous border.
20
Unless you're 100% Native American, that's a pretty hypocritical thing of you to say.
The evidence of a blue state is the inequality of income of its residents.
6
Well that's simple nonsense.. Uhhh
Democrat Mayor.
Democrat Governor.
Democrat President.
What could go wrong?
Democrat Governor.
Democrat President.
What could go wrong?
1
It reminds me of Vonnegut's first book, Player Piano. I don't know why it hasn't been made into a film yet....it is so prescient. Manufacturing has gotten so efficient that not everyone needs to work, yet only work yields income, so most people don't. There is a small group of technicians, and a smaller group of owners, who "earn" money. The bulk just beg, and desperately look for some way to contribute and feel valuable, like the "Cowboy" in the story. He mimics a character in the book who proudly repairs something, a hatband, I believe.
15
People who live in 2-bedroom houses worth under a million dollars are the ones who feel threatened by the homeless, be they caucasian or "of color." The 1% can and do take care of undesirable neighbors. This is a set-up for some ugly class conflicts.
9
So how much more does the country need to invest in entitlement programs before we overcome the growing problem of income inequality? You would think that California, ruled by left-of-center politicians for decades, would have the best poverty rate in the nation not the worst. What gives?
10
California has NOT been ruled by left-of-center politicians for decades. Because of the 2/3 rule established by Proposition 13, the minority of Republicans in the Central valley has been able to impose deep cuts on social services, especially on education, by holding the budget hostage. Because the 2/3 rule no longer holds for budgets that do not involve tax increases, and because redistricting removed earlier Republican Gerrymandering, it has now become possible to pass budgets on time without conservative input. But it is still impossible to raise taxes to a level where social service can be supported at the level they were in the 50s and 60s.
2
Here are a few examples (out of hundreds) of "entitlement programs" that are responsible for the current inequality:
the telecoms felt they were entitled to their own little geographic monopolies,
big pharma felt they were entitled to "no bargain" commerce with Medicare and Medicaid, the two biggest pharmaceutical markets in the country,
big oil felt entitled to the $38 billion/yearly in direct federal subsidies, despite being a lucrative corporate sector.
All of these "entitlement" programs result in a huge net transfer - or redistribution - of wealth upward, to the 1% who command their politicians to enact these policies.
the telecoms felt they were entitled to their own little geographic monopolies,
big pharma felt they were entitled to "no bargain" commerce with Medicare and Medicaid, the two biggest pharmaceutical markets in the country,
big oil felt entitled to the $38 billion/yearly in direct federal subsidies, despite being a lucrative corporate sector.
All of these "entitlement" programs result in a huge net transfer - or redistribution - of wealth upward, to the 1% who command their politicians to enact these policies.
3
Most of the transients come from elsewhere... Last week I spoke to folks from Washington State and upstate New York. So called left leaning policies in California attract the poverty stricken and desperate exported by other States, butt mostly it's just easier to get by in California outdoors than lets say upstate New York or Indiana with winter cold and in summer rain and bugs.
This sad condition of California is certainly not limited to LA. I live in a rural central valley town, the population of the two side-by-side cities is over 60 thousand, that does not include the homless encampments we have in what we refer to as the "river bottoms". Hundreds of poor souls eke out a life, if it can be called that, under condition that are no better than the hobo jungles and immigrant camps of the '30's. This shameful situtation is not just a problem in California, it is a national disgrace.
83
Bottom line: California has way way too many unskilled and uneducated people. You allowed millions of people to flock in from other countries and there simply isn't enough work for them. Enjoy.
2
You're not telling the complete story of those rivertowns.
In the 1930s, those rivertowns were created by out-of-work Americans who had no where else to go.
Today, the rivertowns are largely created by illegal immigrants, using the same building materials they had ack in El Salvador or Guatamala......to them, its an improvement!
In the 1930s, those rivertowns were created by out-of-work Americans who had no where else to go.
Today, the rivertowns are largely created by illegal immigrants, using the same building materials they had ack in El Salvador or Guatamala......to them, its an improvement!
1
First, how much longer can Prop 13 remain the touchstone of everything bad about California education. I knew as soon as I started reading Tobar's article there would be the required obsequious statement that "if only we'd had that money instead of the people," we would have entered educational nirvana. California's educational problems aren't a lack of money, they're a failure of good policy.
A second observation, how this can be viewed as anything but an unmitigated disaster for liberals? California in general, and LA specifically, have been run by liberals since the 1970s, and every single problem Tobar identified - housing, income inequality, homelessness, lack of good middle class jobs - are the result of those policies.
This is a state-of-mind, a state-of-economy, and social state that liberals have created and show no signs of understanding how to fix the state.
A second observation, how this can be viewed as anything but an unmitigated disaster for liberals? California in general, and LA specifically, have been run by liberals since the 1970s, and every single problem Tobar identified - housing, income inequality, homelessness, lack of good middle class jobs - are the result of those policies.
This is a state-of-mind, a state-of-economy, and social state that liberals have created and show no signs of understanding how to fix the state.
7
Please, may we come up with a more relevant term than Hooverville. We need the understanding and support of the 18-50 voter. They don't know that Hoover was a president. They may not even know that Reagan continues to be a perpetrator of injustice or that he was a president. Come on NYT headline writers and editor's, help us out here. It was, after all, the crusading writers & editors who made the difference a century ago when we were stalled in the Gilded Age. My, how that era would have gone if you had ignored a Teddy Roosevelt.
15
"They may not even know that Reagan continues to be a perpetrator of injustice ..."
Laughs.
Be serious.
Laughs.
Be serious.
1
Reagan cardboard chalets might be more appropriate.
How about Obamaville.
Along came this guy running for president claiming he'd bring "Change We Can Believe In". After decades of voting for third party candidates I fell for his malarky hook line and sinker (the first time around, there's that old saying "Fool me once..."). Income inequality, did Mr. Change roll back the "Carried Interest" provision of the tax code, no, of course not. Hillary & Bill are worth north of 100 million, one has to be really naive to think she's going to do anything about creating an equitable tax code.
12
I wasn't aware any president could unilaterally amend the tax code. In fact, I kind of remember that the Constitution puts it in the hands of Congress to raise revenue and determine what kinds of taxes are going to be levied and at what rate. Such bills, as I remember it, are proposed first in the House of R. There was another Obama slogan in 2008 and it said, "Yes, we can!", not "Yes, I can." If anything, it was the Republican Party which puffed him up into a savior figure so that, once they took action to ensure he achieved only limited successes, they could blame him for not being a miracle worker. It was the Republicans who not only didn't join the "we", as the president asked all of us to, but purposefully became an "anti-we" party. We shall see how well that strategy and attitude serves them in the 2016 election.
1
Which is why, pjt, Bernie Sanders is the only credible choice for POTUS in 2016. The political revolution he is calling for is what it will take to retake this country from the billionaire class and provide a way out of poverty for our citizens.
2
So you are one of the people who brought us the W. presidency, and you're blaming Obama for these problems?
1
Can a reader help me out? I've tried to track down a radio interview that pertained to Welcome to Hooverville,California in my mind. An author of a book examining the revelation Of John with particular emphasis on John's miff with luxury. Love to know,it was aired on WNYC some years back ,all I can recall is both author and host were male, it may have been a host of a regular show there (archive research has not availed).
As for Hooverville, I'm on my way,maybe. My entire paycheck did not cover the rent and utilities, what was and is the use? I got by using savings, not the second and third job I hear so much about. The rent, a roof over ones house and a place to store and prepare sustenance, is something that need not support luxury. I'd like to read the above mentioned book and give this some deeper thought, please respond if you think you might know.
As for Hooverville, I'm on my way,maybe. My entire paycheck did not cover the rent and utilities, what was and is the use? I got by using savings, not the second and third job I hear so much about. The rent, a roof over ones house and a place to store and prepare sustenance, is something that need not support luxury. I'd like to read the above mentioned book and give this some deeper thought, please respond if you think you might know.
Peer beneath the skin of the new LA rich and you will find a 1960/1970 liberal who lost all sense of proportion, standards and self respect. Its rich liberals like Mark Zuckerberg who now buy up property to keep the dirty poor from his area. Its the Hollywood elite who drop a dime in a bucket and then toss away $15,000 on another useless liberal political type who wants to keep the beaches of Malibu private. On and on...you have met the enemy and its in the mirror, liberals.
You liberals are now the establishment...and conservatives will run the next revolution. We may have been greedy in the 80s but damn we had FUN, and we only ruined the water...you are ruining society, and smiling while you do so.
Peace, baby.
You liberals are now the establishment...and conservatives will run the next revolution. We may have been greedy in the 80s but damn we had FUN, and we only ruined the water...you are ruining society, and smiling while you do so.
Peace, baby.
8
The author just could not resist the opportunity to bash Prop 13 and blame it for the abject failure off the state's education system, awash in money. K-14 gets more than $68 billion this fiscal year from the state budget.
The truth is that the cost of living in California has been driven sky high by the cost of government. The retirement and healthcare bills for public employees, including education administrators, could easily run a small country by themselves. Whether you're trying to teach a classroom full of kids who speak 7 native languages, build a mile of highway or a home, employ a policeman or a firefighter, get a permit to do anything, operate a small business, or any of the other things under government control, you're going to find the costs staggering.
If there is any middle class left in LA, you can be sure that the repeal of Prop 13 and the greedy grab for property tax increases that would inevitably follow would get rid of them forever. They too were being put out in the street, only the culprit in that case was uncontrollable tax bills prior to Prop 13, that's why the law exists today.
The truth is that the cost of living in California has been driven sky high by the cost of government. The retirement and healthcare bills for public employees, including education administrators, could easily run a small country by themselves. Whether you're trying to teach a classroom full of kids who speak 7 native languages, build a mile of highway or a home, employ a policeman or a firefighter, get a permit to do anything, operate a small business, or any of the other things under government control, you're going to find the costs staggering.
If there is any middle class left in LA, you can be sure that the repeal of Prop 13 and the greedy grab for property tax increases that would inevitably follow would get rid of them forever. They too were being put out in the street, only the culprit in that case was uncontrollable tax bills prior to Prop 13, that's why the law exists today.
5
The large amount spent is irrelevant if you don't take into consideration per student expenses, which last I checked was 45th in the nation.
ONE family under a bridge in Minneapolis? I wonder if those harsh mid-west winters are keeping the homeless population low. Wihout adequate housing, I see two obvious consequences: freeze to death or migrate to sunny California.
To those with the ugly comments blaming the homeless population on liberal policies, try a little knowledge. The first population to go homeless were the mental health patients, transferred from inpatient to outpatient care after pyschaitric medications became available. That's good, but there were inadequate resources for outpatient mental health care; so these patients were left to fend for themselves and they ended up homeless.
Now the working poor has joined the homeless on the streets. It's ludicrous (and ugly) to blame the wealth gap on Mexicans. I don't see many filthy rich Mexicans around. I do see billionaires in the highest ranks of government and finance. It's a wise man who understands who's sitting on him.
To those with the ugly comments blaming the homeless population on liberal policies, try a little knowledge. The first population to go homeless were the mental health patients, transferred from inpatient to outpatient care after pyschaitric medications became available. That's good, but there were inadequate resources for outpatient mental health care; so these patients were left to fend for themselves and they ended up homeless.
Now the working poor has joined the homeless on the streets. It's ludicrous (and ugly) to blame the wealth gap on Mexicans. I don't see many filthy rich Mexicans around. I do see billionaires in the highest ranks of government and finance. It's a wise man who understands who's sitting on him.
22
Mr. Tobar (and Mr. Boyarsky) couldn't be more correct. I had an idea that this had become LA since I left it in the late '80s but did not realise fully what had happened. The gutting of the middle class - and LA was always a middle class and working class town - is a belwether. Things always start in California - the rest of the country needs to pay attention.
10
The rising homelessness, the elimination of the middle class and the frustration of young people for whom the "American Dream" is a joke have easy solutions. Raise taxes significantly on the wealthy. Eliminate the home mortgage deduction after $150,000.
15
californian, really? What home here could you buy for 150K?
The guiding principle for the next President and Congress must be to save families with young children. The children must be educated and socialized to value the princples of the American community and its place in the world. That's the only hope for America. All distractions from those goals are wasteful folly.
3
interesting... Wrong headline "Welcome to Obamaville... The decline of America in the 21st century".
8
Obama has NOTHING to do with the homeless problem in this nation.
RONALD REAGAN. Amnesty in 1986. Iran-Contra. et al.
Illegal aliens.
Employers who seek out illegal aliens to work for below minimum wage and off the books. Banks who give out checking accounts and credit cards to people who have zero English skills and no legal documents.
This won't be printed. My comments are not considered worthy of publication.
RONALD REAGAN. Amnesty in 1986. Iran-Contra. et al.
Illegal aliens.
Employers who seek out illegal aliens to work for below minimum wage and off the books. Banks who give out checking accounts and credit cards to people who have zero English skills and no legal documents.
This won't be printed. My comments are not considered worthy of publication.
California reaps the harvest it has sown
100% confiscation of wealth would alter nothing
in nursery school we learned of killing the goose that lays the golden egg
I guess PETA (people for the edible treatment of animals) have out an end to THAT sort of speciesism and cruelty
100% confiscation of wealth would alter nothing
in nursery school we learned of killing the goose that lays the golden egg
I guess PETA (people for the edible treatment of animals) have out an end to THAT sort of speciesism and cruelty
1
Mayor-Democrat
Governor-Democrat
State Senate-Overwhelmingly Democrats
State Assembly-Overwhelmingly Democrats
Most progressive and highest actual income tax rate in the Country
Highest number of illegal immigrants in the Country.
Governor-Democrat
State Senate-Overwhelmingly Democrats
State Assembly-Overwhelmingly Democrats
Most progressive and highest actual income tax rate in the Country
Highest number of illegal immigrants in the Country.
3
We really cannot help the illegals that are here. The first duty of the federal government is to protect our borders. Back in the 80.s Ronald Reagan and the business oligarchy decided to blow that off and passed the first amnesty bill. This was the biggest welcome mat to illegals in history. GOP, guys-- sorry can't blame that on liberals.
1
Imagine Google, Apple, et al hired California residents? Imagine they spent all that money on creating jobs for the homeless? Imagine they didn't lie to the government that no Americans can do the jobs and they must go overseas? Imagine Apple moved it manufacturing from China to the outer ring of LA ? to invest in the people who incubated their success?
23
After private 'charter schools' have sucked up all the tax money for public education, there are no California residents who would qualify to work for Google, Apple, et al. The lower classes get no proper education and are quickly becoming unemployable, because even the menial jobs they used to be able to do are now being done by robots. This process was started under Reagan and this is the result.
If you don't mind paying 1000 bucks for an I- phone that would fail after 2weeks.
Imagine if they built adequate housing for their workforce in the Silicon Valley and SF Bay Area? They import their workers on luxury commuter buses to the suburbs only to dramatically drive up rents there - forcing people who have lived in more affordable parts of the Bay Area to have to move further and further out to the exurbs or give up entirely and move out of state. The lack of regional planning that has gone into creating housing in California is a huge part of the problem, as well. The NIMBYism that thwarts higher density housing, pedestrian friendly communities, enhanced public transit has also created middle class flight and displaced the working class and poor from their housing.
One of the major reasons large crowds are showing up to hear Bernie Sanders is to heat and absorb his treatise on Income Equality, and how, since the days of Reaganomics, the old saying, "the Rich get richer and the Poor get poorer" remains alive well today. And you can add to that, "The Middle Class Stay Stagnant".
A transplanted Socialist Democrat from Brooklyn, that's why we New Yorkers find him so real and endearing, Bernie is not new to the cause of which he speaks. His four decades-plus philosophy has been burnished and is rock-solid in his mind. It is why he can speak so eloquently and off-the-cuff about the topic. He has lived it. Like old Guvna' Moonbean, Jerry Brown, Bernie can "Talk the Walk and Walk the Talk" (My Coined Phrase) because he actually practices what he preaches. Imagine that.
DD
Manhattan
A transplanted Socialist Democrat from Brooklyn, that's why we New Yorkers find him so real and endearing, Bernie is not new to the cause of which he speaks. His four decades-plus philosophy has been burnished and is rock-solid in his mind. It is why he can speak so eloquently and off-the-cuff about the topic. He has lived it. Like old Guvna' Moonbean, Jerry Brown, Bernie can "Talk the Walk and Walk the Talk" (My Coined Phrase) because he actually practices what he preaches. Imagine that.
DD
Manhattan
15
Shame on US.
2
LA is a prime example of the third world country that we're fast becoming.
As to the theory of what happens in Cali then later spreads to the rest of the nation, this does not bode well.
Welcome to Brazil. Where you either have servant or are a servant.
As to the theory of what happens in Cali then later spreads to the rest of the nation, this does not bode well.
Welcome to Brazil. Where you either have servant or are a servant.
20
Sorry, I don't believe there is such a thing as a Hooverville in the US today. SNAP and TAFDC, formerly known as food stamps and welfare, keep people from starving, the government provides housing assistance, cell phones can be had for free, etc. People live under bridges because they want to, are mentally ill, or are on drugs or alcohol. Any poor person who wants to have a roof over their heads, protection from the elements, and food in their stomach can get it via government assistance. Uncle Sam can provide you with the basics if you are in need. You will have to provide your own luxuries which is what the wealthy do and there is nothing wrong with a gap between the two living standards. America is not a socialist or communist nation.
31
You just don't get it do you.
2
You may want to read what George (below in the NYTimes Picks) has to say.
What happens when you reach the time limit on TAFDC? And when there are not enough low-income housing units for everyone who needs them?
Well said. It is exactly the situation I have been talking about where I live.
And the government looks on from ahigh and allows developers to build ever more luxury housing, poverty be damned.
People who are "secure" have no clue how the others live.
Capitalism and the monster.
And the government looks on from ahigh and allows developers to build ever more luxury housing, poverty be damned.
People who are "secure" have no clue how the others live.
Capitalism and the monster.
5
Liberals are only good at getting rich off of destroying cities.
1
Congratulations, "progressives", you have managed to create a society of a handful of rich and a whole lot of poor.
Please stay in the hellhole you created rather than moving to my state and turning it into another of your feudalistic dystopias.
Please stay in the hellhole you created rather than moving to my state and turning it into another of your feudalistic dystopias.
2
California is a one party state. The Democratic Party controls everything.
It's also a deeply divided state with an extremely high gap between the rich and the poor.
>> the latest census bureau report says that California is both the wealthiest state and has the highest poverty rate in the country at 24 percent — meaning almost a quarter of Californians live in poverty. In a big state like California that's a lot of people — almost 9 million — or about the number of people living in New York City.
Read more at http://national.deseretnews.com/article/2054/California-is-the-richest-a... <<
This is not a difficult line to draw when 'connecting the dots.' It's just inconvenient for the liberals.
It's also a deeply divided state with an extremely high gap between the rich and the poor.
>> the latest census bureau report says that California is both the wealthiest state and has the highest poverty rate in the country at 24 percent — meaning almost a quarter of Californians live in poverty. In a big state like California that's a lot of people — almost 9 million — or about the number of people living in New York City.
Read more at http://national.deseretnews.com/article/2054/California-is-the-richest-a... <<
This is not a difficult line to draw when 'connecting the dots.' It's just inconvenient for the liberals.
3
This sounds exactly like the shanty towns in South Africa, particularly around Capetown. Huge, well-kept mansions line streets that suddenly give way to masses of huts made of corrugated steel, cinderblocks and cardboard.
What happened, America?
What happened, America?
7
Maybe if we hadn't sent 15 million good-paying manufacturing jobs overseas during the last 30 years, things would be a bit easier for the 99%.
18
Welcome to America in the 21st Century. The gated communities are soon going to need armed guards.
12
This picture harbors the future of America. Give us your poor and your homeless but to paraphrase Poco, They Are Us, and soon to be more of us as jobs slip away, as robotics and trolls, and bots and mini IBM Watson's continue to fill more and more human jobs. We address this problem now, or a future America will have more Maseraties, or silent driverless cars making a journey across and through a highway of desolation and human misery.
2
Take away all the illegal aliens in CA and the state would be fine. the liberal politicians who support the illegals are the problem.
13
Ignorance is the hallmark of the Right.
1
Doesn't sound like old "Cowboy" with his background in aerospace and a brain injury who is living under a bridge fits into your idea of a solution. Or is that just the answer for everything whether it makes any sense or not.
The truth is so obvious. We all agree. Why can't we do something about it? We love Bernie, but he can't do it without a movement behind him. We need an equality movement! Nationwide. Worldwide.
12
Trouble in branding here. We don't need equality. Hard work should get rewarded; people make choices. We should start with some common sense though. Henry Ford knew he needed to pay his workers enough to afford cars; the union boss knew robots were not going to buy cars or pay taxes (even though they don't strike or get sick either). We need more opportunity, more jobs, higher and fairer taxation and lower levels of inequality. Monopoly ends great for a game, and terribly for a society.
1
There's a world of difference between identifying a problem and formulating a rational, comprehensive solution... and as far as I can tell, pointing fingers doesn't seem to solve much of anything.
We ALL are the problem, and we ALL are the solution.... what are you going to do, TODAY ??
We ALL are the problem, and we ALL are the solution.... what are you going to do, TODAY ??
4
Let's accelerate the importation of the impoverished, and then grant them amnesty and an automatic voter registration.
9
In all fairness, should the term not be "Obamaville"?
3
See what you get when you keep electing democrats? When will the folks finally figure it out? Baltimore, Detroit, LA etc... All run/run down by career democrats whose jobs are safe until they pass it along to the next crop of socialists.
3
Hooverville? Really?
Is the NYTs being unintentionally ironic today or did they really mean to print "Obamavile?"
Is the NYTs being unintentionally ironic today or did they really mean to print "Obamavile?"
4
What's the problem? LA is just more advanced than other US cities.
1
"He’s earned the trust of his property-owning neighbors. Once, he said, they passed around a petition to keep the police from kicking him out."
Ehhh. That may be part of the problem. How does it help people to "allow" them to sleep on sidewalks and under bridges. Big favor, or, mean joke?
Ehhh. That may be part of the problem. How does it help people to "allow" them to sleep on sidewalks and under bridges. Big favor, or, mean joke?
3
And still they come. Can't be that bad if living in Southern California is still everyone's dream.
6
Hoovervilles are going to be popping up all over America if we don't see more decent affordable rental housing built. We can't live 3 hours away from our jobs. We can't afford the housing that is near our jobs. But affordable decent housing isn't being built by developers for people of modest means. For some of us moving away means leaving behind family and friends. Not all of us make friends easily, have no family obligations, or want to leave the area we currently inhabit, particularly if our jobs are in that area. I've looked all over the country for jobs but only gotten offers in New York. And it would be foolish to move anywhere without a job.
Americans seem to have a real aversion to understanding that living within one's means is impossible when it means living in substandard housing, in unsafe conditions, or where there are bad schools,etc. In other words it's perfectly fine to tell others how to live as long as we have what we want. When will we understand that it can be taken away at any time if we lose our jobs, lose our health, experience a natural disaster, or have the rent increase past what we can afford? The middle class in America is in an increasingly untenable position but it's this same class that seems to feel that once it has what it needs nothing else matters. We are devolving from a first world country to a third world country with fewer chances at a good life for all but the very rich. Housing is one part of the story.
Americans seem to have a real aversion to understanding that living within one's means is impossible when it means living in substandard housing, in unsafe conditions, or where there are bad schools,etc. In other words it's perfectly fine to tell others how to live as long as we have what we want. When will we understand that it can be taken away at any time if we lose our jobs, lose our health, experience a natural disaster, or have the rent increase past what we can afford? The middle class in America is in an increasingly untenable position but it's this same class that seems to feel that once it has what it needs nothing else matters. We are devolving from a first world country to a third world country with fewer chances at a good life for all but the very rich. Housing is one part of the story.
21
Even within the general NYC area, there are more affordable places to live than Westchester....Queens? Staten Island? New Jersey?
All the people I have known who WORKED in New York, LIVED in someplace like New Jersey.
MOVE.
All the people I have known who WORKED in New York, LIVED in someplace like New Jersey.
MOVE.
Really you mean more public transportation. Cities squashed between mountains and ocean are always going to have pricey real estate because there is not enough of it. Can people get cheaply, quickly and easily into those areas from other areas is the main question.
1
My daughter-who is a retail manager-and her husband-who is a psychologist that works with special needs children-pay $900 a month for a small apartment. Their rent is going up to $1050 a month. They can't save money because rent is so high. They have to pay $500 for health insurance but have a $10K deductible which means they pay for everything up to that point. They can't catch a break. And I am betting they aren't alone.
2
We live in a society dominated by an economic system that by its very design impoverishes millions through no fault of their own. This facet of capitalism has been known for generations, and yet, we are still surprised when millions are cast aside and suffer.
Under our current system, people are given a value based on their marketable skills. Is it any surprise that many have no marketable skills? The weakest among us are cast aside because they have nothing of value to give. The truly sickening views are those of neoliberals on the right who blame the poor for the failings of an unjust system. As long as we perpetuate the dogma that markets are in any way moral their will be no solution to the mass poverty created by government inaction. It is not that markets or their outcomes are good or bad, morality doesn't enter the picture. A market is a tool and like a hammer we can either use it for good or evil.
Under our current system, people are given a value based on their marketable skills. Is it any surprise that many have no marketable skills? The weakest among us are cast aside because they have nothing of value to give. The truly sickening views are those of neoliberals on the right who blame the poor for the failings of an unjust system. As long as we perpetuate the dogma that markets are in any way moral their will be no solution to the mass poverty created by government inaction. It is not that markets or their outcomes are good or bad, morality doesn't enter the picture. A market is a tool and like a hammer we can either use it for good or evil.
110
Capitalism counts on us redistributing money via taxes as if we care about our fellow citizens, or decreasing the surplus population if we don't. We'd better decide for the former; the latter is not pretty, and we (Christian or not Christian) should be better than that.
1
First, can you please tell me what you've got to show from the over $7 trillion spent from the beginning of Johnson's War on Poverty? Have you ever been to Cabrini Green Chicago? Compton? South Central? I have. Wasn't that a product of the liberal left?
Why is it that many of the cities that are hardest hit with poverty are run by Democrats?
1) Detroit No GOP mayor since 1954
2) Cinncinati 1984
3) Cleveland 1989
4) Miami Never had a GOP mayor
5) St Louis 1949
6) El Paso Never had a GOP mayor
7) Milwaukee 1908
8) Philadelphia 1952
9) Buffalo 1954
10) Newark 1907
Coincidence? I don't think so. California has tens of billions of dollars of unsustainable pension debt thanks to Democrats.
Chicago is on the verge of economic disaster. Democratic mayors for years.
People are given a value based on their marketable skills? Says who? You? So character, integrity, values don't matter. Only marketable skills. Not you or anyone else will ever determine my value I do. My work ethic, my passion, my commitment to working with some the most dangerous inmates in California. So since I was a parole agent for the California Department of Corrections I guess my marketable value is nonexistent right. After all, how do you market a parole agent? What do you measure it against? By a grading system you determine? I impacted countless lives but you'll never see a story on Dateline. If you want to allow some to judge your value go for it. I think that's a total farce
Why is it that many of the cities that are hardest hit with poverty are run by Democrats?
1) Detroit No GOP mayor since 1954
2) Cinncinati 1984
3) Cleveland 1989
4) Miami Never had a GOP mayor
5) St Louis 1949
6) El Paso Never had a GOP mayor
7) Milwaukee 1908
8) Philadelphia 1952
9) Buffalo 1954
10) Newark 1907
Coincidence? I don't think so. California has tens of billions of dollars of unsustainable pension debt thanks to Democrats.
Chicago is on the verge of economic disaster. Democratic mayors for years.
People are given a value based on their marketable skills? Says who? You? So character, integrity, values don't matter. Only marketable skills. Not you or anyone else will ever determine my value I do. My work ethic, my passion, my commitment to working with some the most dangerous inmates in California. So since I was a parole agent for the California Department of Corrections I guess my marketable value is nonexistent right. After all, how do you market a parole agent? What do you measure it against? By a grading system you determine? I impacted countless lives but you'll never see a story on Dateline. If you want to allow some to judge your value go for it. I think that's a total farce
And not just the weakest are cast aside, also cast adrift are the millions who used to find a measure of security in secretarial positions, now replaced by technology: cellphones and computers; ditto for sales jobs, now replaced by auto checkout lanes; ditto for turnpike collectors, now replaced by cameras and transponders; ditto for factory jobs, increasingly shipped overseas; ditto for college teaching jobs, now replaced by online degree mills and adjunct teaching positions that pay about $1200/semester class. Once upon a time we thought automatic pin spotters in bowling alleys was a miracle of technology, now the miracle of robots are stealing jobs in all sectors.
3
European countries with far less going for them than the US have far lower rates of homelessness than we do. Why? Because those countries have affordable medical care for all and strong social safety nets, while we have the Republicans wanting to defund every program possible while blaming the poor themselves for the problem.
Those self-proclaimed Christians of the right wing should pray there is no afterlife (small joke), because according to everything Jesus taught they're not going to make it into heaven - they're having their heaven on earth, while so many others have lives that are a living hell.
Those self-proclaimed Christians of the right wing should pray there is no afterlife (small joke), because according to everything Jesus taught they're not going to make it into heaven - they're having their heaven on earth, while so many others have lives that are a living hell.
36
I visited LA last week on business and had a rental car and some time to spare. So I drove around in the to see what was up since I lived in LA 25 years ago. I was shocked at what I saw. Even strong middle class enclaves in and around mid Wilshire, Fairfax, La Brea were now in tatters. On the edges of downtown I saw the same thing but downtown LA itself was glittering. This is not sustainable in the long run.
154
If housing/rental costs absorb 75% or more of your take-home pay, you don't have much money to buy stuff, do home improvements, travel, get continuing education, hobbies, etc.
Everything you earn goes to the rent or mortgage note.
It is a lousy way to live.
Everything you earn goes to the rent or mortgage note.
It is a lousy way to live.
8
But California, the Far Left Coast, wanted it this way. How many jobs have they lost due to draconian regulations? How many jobs were lost depriving the Central Valley for the sake of a small fish that may or may not be a critical species? How many high end enclaves now are supplied with water in places like San Jose, Malibu at the expense of towns like Sacramento?
1
Seems to work for Chicago, New York, and Mexico City...
California is learning if you make the free stuff available they will come. Other cities have successfully employed self-deporting strategies for these people that are such a negative to have around your community
6
'Self-deporting' to where? One way bus tickets to California, by the local Government? Just making a problem someone else's headache.
We can all thank Ronald Reagan for creating the plight of the homeless. The Boomers drank the anti-tax anti-govt corporate Kool-aid in the '80s and now we suffer. We need more "we".
26
You know that California has been - for all practical purposes - a 'one-party' state for decades.
Just like Baltimore, Chicago, and Detroit. The only difference is that more well-heeled progressives live in LA, the weather is better, and LA has de facto private beaches where the likes of Barbra Streisand can live without having to interact with "the little people"
Just like Baltimore, Chicago, and Detroit. The only difference is that more well-heeled progressives live in LA, the weather is better, and LA has de facto private beaches where the likes of Barbra Streisand can live without having to interact with "the little people"
"But the gap between rich and poor has been building here for 40 years."
Hmmm 40 years. That coincides with the Nixon Shock that decoupled the dollar from precious metals. And the purchasing power of the minimum wage peaked just before the Nixon Shock.
Fix the money and you fix the economy.
Hmmm 40 years. That coincides with the Nixon Shock that decoupled the dollar from precious metals. And the purchasing power of the minimum wage peaked just before the Nixon Shock.
Fix the money and you fix the economy.
2
Just voting for Bernie won't change much. We need a Congress committed to job creation and infrastructure rebuilding, a new WPA, or a CETA program signed into law in '73 by that great liberal (by comparison) Richard Nixon. Existing economic interests are so firmly entrenched that a well-meaning President can do very little. Just ask Obama.
8
No kidding. Just voting for President Obama primed the Republican hate pump, and they redoubled their efforts to cut the legs from under half of our population, while making sure that the undercurrent of racism became more mainstream. It certainly looks like Dems never tried to stop them.
1
Why do you call it "Hooverville"? Herbert Hoover is no longer the President. Nor, for that matter, is FDR. Call it what it is--Obamaville.
Bush got us into this mess. Obama bailed out the banks, let everyone else sink. The Republicans are no better.
Canada has the same problems. Freedom means the freedom to fail, as well as the freedom to succeed. Here, the banks did not collapse but the aftermath of 2008 was nearly as bad. In Canada the main concerns center of crime reduction and public health. I humbly suggest LA should concentrate on these. If people will not try to rise above poverty no amount of money can force them. Let them sleep under the bridges.
Bush got us into this mess. Obama bailed out the banks, let everyone else sink. The Republicans are no better.
Canada has the same problems. Freedom means the freedom to fail, as well as the freedom to succeed. Here, the banks did not collapse but the aftermath of 2008 was nearly as bad. In Canada the main concerns center of crime reduction and public health. I humbly suggest LA should concentrate on these. If people will not try to rise above poverty no amount of money can force them. Let them sleep under the bridges.
3
The banks were bailed out by Bush.
1
Including all those darn homeless veterans who sacrificed their limbs, lives and brains for 'mission accomplished'. Or this Cowboy, who had the brains, drive and education to work in aerospace until an injury. Or my software developer friend who got multiple sclerosis and is now dependent and unproductive against her training, brains and desires.
I don't think so. We need to come together for each other.
I don't think so. We need to come together for each other.
3
From the Midwest, I can tell that this seems to be a huge problem in the uber liberal coastal cities, where the elite belittle those of us in what is referred to as "flyover country." Make fun of us all you want, but we have the least amount of income inequality — and the most opportunity for young, growing families who want a decent life and home of their own at an affordable price. Sure, our climate may not be as pleasant as the Pacific Coast, but we have numerous family oriented small towns and the streets are safe. That's a quality of life well worth having.
10
Seriously? You're trying to sell us on Kansas? Talk to us about your governor's tax plan problems and your state's cuts to the public education budget, among other disasters. Not to mention your hostility to reproductive rights and poor people.
2
Let's take that as in invitation. LA-- buy these people bus tickets bound for kansas.
2
The economy of the Midwest is anemic and the population is declining. I'm not sure how that jives. Plus Midwest cities for the most part are dying by depopulation.
3
I think this is the time to start discussing not the wealth distribution in Cali but the Proposition 13 which is holding California back. May be once homeowners start paying taxes appropriate for their multimillion homes the state would have the money to help the poor.
187
Higher property taxes would quickly cut the value of these houses down dramatically. Who would pay $1 million for a three-bedroom on 1/3 of an acre, if that entitled you to pay $40K a year in property tax?
1
California has the highest state income taxes in the country.
Increasing taxes does not solve inequality. California's Public Employees siphon off the majority of our tax revenue thanks to generous contributions to our elected officials from their unions. All over the state we have public employees with six-figure salaries who retire at 51 with full pensions.
We have had a liberal Democratic majority in our government for ten years. They are controlled completely by unions and lawyers representing the millions in our state who live permanently off government programs like disability, unemployment and welfare. The homeless have no government-funded revenue stream to funnel back into campaign contributions.
Increasing taxes does not solve inequality. California's Public Employees siphon off the majority of our tax revenue thanks to generous contributions to our elected officials from their unions. All over the state we have public employees with six-figure salaries who retire at 51 with full pensions.
We have had a liberal Democratic majority in our government for ten years. They are controlled completely by unions and lawyers representing the millions in our state who live permanently off government programs like disability, unemployment and welfare. The homeless have no government-funded revenue stream to funnel back into campaign contributions.
1
Not so fast, DL. The people that would be most hurt by repealing Prop 13 would be the lower end of the middle class. That's why it was passed in the first place. People of modest means but who had bought their house 20 or 30 years ago were being forced out of their house because they could not keep up with the tax bill as their house increased in value.
I now live in a city with a 3.5% property tax rate. It is the biggest bill I have to pay. It is insane, because there is no theoretical limit. Once I retire, in two years, my income will be fixed, and meager, but my house will continue to increase in value. How will I keep up?
I now live in a city with a 3.5% property tax rate. It is the biggest bill I have to pay. It is insane, because there is no theoretical limit. Once I retire, in two years, my income will be fixed, and meager, but my house will continue to increase in value. How will I keep up?
1
It's just my impression, not based on real data, but few if any of these homeless people are hispanic. When you see a hispanic person "loitering" on the street, it's probably because they are a day laborer hoping to get picked up for work. These people are hard-working and industrious, and determined to lift themselves up by their bootstraps. They form their own support networks. They are the ones who had the initiative to leave their country and come here in the first place. These are the qualities on which America was built. As other commenters has noted, the homeless population is largely constituted of people caught in a downward spiral of mental illness and/or substance abuse.
21
The illegal immigrants come from countries with no welfare system. In those countries, those who don't work hard, die. So they have good habits, at least for the first generation.
2
Take a day trip out to Pittsburg. See what your hard-workers have done to a once fair to middling suburb. They are not homeless, true, but they pile into homes and live in 3rd world squalor, because it's better than what they came from.
1
easly fixed. enforce the existing immigration laws. stop this 'sanctuary' city, illegal edict. make anchor babies not eligible for citizenship automatically. i have seen what unfettered immigration has done to not just e. LA, but all over the southwest. its not sustainable, its not fair to us taxpayers. my family waited 9 years to get a visa. thats the law.
6
I've lived in California all my life, and I vividly remember the first time I saw a beggar on a corner. I had picked my daughter up from day care when I saw it: a man, woman, and child, huddled on a corner, displaying a "will work for food" sign. I made a u-turn, and tearfully gave the man my last $20. This would have been in the early 80s. Sadly, now it seems that every intersection has beggars. At least I don't see children anymore.
65
Here in the SF Bay Area, there are plenty of children with adults on street corners begging for money.
There are also now mother-child duos and trios roaming the cars of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, stopping at each aisle of two seats, asking for donations, in the middle of the day, during every day of the week.
There are also now mother-child duos and trios roaming the cars of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, stopping at each aisle of two seats, asking for donations, in the middle of the day, during every day of the week.
Why do you not see children any more, I wonder?
I was homeless a few times in the glorious 1970's, just out of high school and wonderfully clueless. The cause was that I did not know how to do anything considered useful upon my graduation. Sure, I knew what I was taught, but industry always seemed to demand some esoteric experience and knowledge that I didn't have. And nowadays, clerical staff need bachelors degrees to get their application considered. Suffice to say that I have survived, and along the way worked in public education and social services administration. Beyond the awful Reagan policies that closed mental institutions and put so many of our helpless out on the streets, the core problem I continue to see is that our public schools do not prepare our young to earn a living. Having lived in pre-unified Germany, I have seen first-hand how an interventionist education policy that places students on career tracks according to their demonstrated abilities avoids this awful waste of human potential, ensures that the country has the right amount of needed workers, and limits the poverty the author describes here. Tax policy, wealth inequality, upheavals in the economy and so on aren't helping, but if we could at least train people to do something useful and require
some cooperation from industry, we can push this monster back a bit.
some cooperation from industry, we can push this monster back a bit.
6
Telling young people, or anyone, what to do is not the American way. We're a free country - study whatever you want! If you don't want to study, that's fine too. Be true to your dreams, even if your dream is watching TV all day in your room.
1
Removing vocational programs to push all kids to head to college was a huge mistake. Our district used to have a wonderful construction program where students learned and built a house from the ground up. They learned framing and carpentry, wiring, plumbing, painting-all valuable skills. Many of the kids from those programs now own their own businesses and make great incomes. Last year I paid my mechanic more than my doctor-yet we have all these families pushing their kids into medical school at all costs even with little personal interest and mediocre grades. We need technicians too!
1
if you want to create a city that virtually eliminates its minority populations, as in san francisco, get rid of your republicans.
if you want to create a city with extreme income inequality such as the author describes los angeles, get rid of your republicans.
if you want a city with countless gun shootings and gun deaths per weekend (ok, we can count them--40 and 7 respectively this past weekend--as in chicago, get rid of your republicans.
these things are not correlation; they are causation.
keevan d. morgan, chicago
if you want to create a city with extreme income inequality such as the author describes los angeles, get rid of your republicans.
if you want a city with countless gun shootings and gun deaths per weekend (ok, we can count them--40 and 7 respectively this past weekend--as in chicago, get rid of your republicans.
these things are not correlation; they are causation.
keevan d. morgan, chicago
5
wrong, just wrong.
Dear Mr. Tobar,
After reading your excellent essay and then listening to the ravings of "presidential" candidate Donald Trump, it seems that, for at least ONE of the two ruling parties, the situation you have described is just fine.
Not that the other "offerings" of the GOP/TP/KOCH AFFILIATE are much better, just not as dumb as "The Donald" in expressing what they actually believe. Inequality, and it's close brother "discrimination", are running rampant through the land yet the electorate appears deaf and blind to it's ravages. The poor voter turnout may be due to laziness but I believe the paucity of excellent choices for politicians of both parties is the primary reason keeping voters away. In sheer numbers, the 1% should be getting clobbered at every turn yet every 2 years, the subdued electorate, with the cries of "don't waste your vote on a 3rd Party", shows up in fewer numbers.
Perhaps people are just sick of "wasting their votes" for the "lesser of two evils"?
After reading your excellent essay and then listening to the ravings of "presidential" candidate Donald Trump, it seems that, for at least ONE of the two ruling parties, the situation you have described is just fine.
Not that the other "offerings" of the GOP/TP/KOCH AFFILIATE are much better, just not as dumb as "The Donald" in expressing what they actually believe. Inequality, and it's close brother "discrimination", are running rampant through the land yet the electorate appears deaf and blind to it's ravages. The poor voter turnout may be due to laziness but I believe the paucity of excellent choices for politicians of both parties is the primary reason keeping voters away. In sheer numbers, the 1% should be getting clobbered at every turn yet every 2 years, the subdued electorate, with the cries of "don't waste your vote on a 3rd Party", shows up in fewer numbers.
Perhaps people are just sick of "wasting their votes" for the "lesser of two evils"?
1
There are 139 separate federal welfare programs - add state and local efforts - how much more $$$$ does the country have to spent to address this issue? Perhaps there should be a restructuring and reduction of the number of programs (also a Paul Ryan suggestion)...that would reduce administrative costs. Thne you could evaluate each individual and/or family and give them a cash payout to get on their feet???
1
Minimum income -- or basic income -- for all.
Once, he said, they passed around a petition to keep the police from kicking him out. As long as Los Angeles holds on to such compassion, it won’t be a true “third world city.”
No, the longer LA holds on to such compassion the more it becomes a third world city. LA and this country in general needs to fix the problems that have people living in squalor not accepting it as part of everyday life and calling it compassion if we don't evict them.
No, the longer LA holds on to such compassion the more it becomes a third world city. LA and this country in general needs to fix the problems that have people living in squalor not accepting it as part of everyday life and calling it compassion if we don't evict them.
5
The U.S. Census Bureau now publishes an annual poverty report titled the Supplemental Poverty Measure that takes regional cost of living into account. The most recent report shows that 16 percent of Americans live below poverty level. However, 23.8 percent of Californians live below poverty level, making it far the poorest of the 50 states. (Nevada ranks second poorest with 19.8% of residents below poverty level.) To make matters worse, California is no longer meeting its diversity goals. After leading all states in diversity for decades, the Golden State is now steadily growing less diverse. Now that Hispanics outnumber non-Hispanic whites in California, the state will continue to grow daily less diverse as long as current immigration and fertility rates continue.
40
I would suggest that the climate of California permits people to live further below the poverty line than the colder climates in the country. A blue tarp would provide a lot of shelter in lower California. This combined with the sanctuary and give away community administrations will let California experience this situation for a long time.
believe me, our beautiful state can definitely use a break from "growth." If the hispanics relocate or finally adopt american standards of 2 kids per couple, we will al be better off.
Income inequality in the US is at the highest in its history and many US urban centers look like third world are because of the choices that the US as a country has collectively made. First, the US model of market capitalism rewards financial engineering and maximizes profit at all costs. Financial engineering produces tremendous wealth and capital rents for a tiny minority of Americans. Perversely, the risks are assumed by the Federal Reserve's policies and taxpayers. Second, companies maximize profit on the back of wage earners by paying low wages and by off shoring middle class jobs. So the choices that the US has collectively made cause income and wealth at the top to exponentially expand and shrink for the rest, especially the middle class and those below. In the US, inequality in incomes makes possible inequality in education, health, housing and much more. Unless there are conscious and deliberate national policies to lessen income inequality, the US will become a country where the first and third worlds co-exist with the attendant security measures to protect the very wealthy and rich and, thus, less civil liberty for all Americans.
189
The too big to fail attitude that our Democrat administration has promoted has led to a lot of these problems. Remember when Barney Frank lied to the public and said the housing financing was just fine? Three days later, big crash, and his partner/roommate was head of the agency.
Income inequality is no longer a relevant statistic. Extreme wealth is not cash in the bank, it is control of large companies, and large companies are the result of a huge population and the multiplication and efficiency effects of the internet, etc. But my life is not affected by how many helicopters Mark Zuckerberg owns.
What matters is whether or not working people have enough, and right now, that is going in the wrong directino, because we are destabilizing the balance of demand of the labor market by importing millions of cheap workers while our own citizens are unemployed. This is driving down wages.
It should be obvious. Both parties are selling us out.
What matters is whether or not working people have enough, and right now, that is going in the wrong directino, because we are destabilizing the balance of demand of the labor market by importing millions of cheap workers while our own citizens are unemployed. This is driving down wages.
It should be obvious. Both parties are selling us out.
1
Women have always been paid less because they are categorized (unfairly) as "supplemental income".
Two of the most liberal cities in the United States are Los Angeles and San Francisco, and they have the highest rate of inequity. Why? Because the "progressive" elites exploit tax loopholes while enacting regulations that limit job creation.
Ultimate proof that the "progressive" elite refuse to take credit for the injustice they create. No wonder they want Hilary Clinton as the next President- she is the embodiment of their corruption and hypocrisy.
Ultimate proof that the "progressive" elite refuse to take credit for the injustice they create. No wonder they want Hilary Clinton as the next President- she is the embodiment of their corruption and hypocrisy.
3
As long as we continue to import millions of unskilled poor people who are always willing to work (and yes, they do work hard) for less than Americans and be exploited by big employers, this cycle will continue. And it will certainly continue to fester as long as any discussion of this problem or expression of concern about it is labeled as "racist" by those who profit from it (business, politicians and the media they control). When cheap labor is everywhere and the flow show no signs of stopping, how can we raise the value of it? That is simple economics.
1
lol. million of illegal immigrants flood into california's "sanctuary cities" and the immigrants are annoyed, greatly annoyed, that they other people have more money.
The solution: raise taxes. confiscate their wealth. redistribute it to the "coffee-colored" Latino masses. of course, this is the strategy that California has purused for decades and it has led to ... more income inequality.
California is a very progressive place. that means it has the worst schools in the country, serious income inequality, the worst air pollution in the country, high taxes, smog and traffic congestion...you know: the gifts of progressive leadership.
The solution: raise taxes. confiscate their wealth. redistribute it to the "coffee-colored" Latino masses. of course, this is the strategy that California has purused for decades and it has led to ... more income inequality.
California is a very progressive place. that means it has the worst schools in the country, serious income inequality, the worst air pollution in the country, high taxes, smog and traffic congestion...you know: the gifts of progressive leadership.
4
Just as income disparity has created Californian Hoovervilles, the ongoing drought threatens to turn the state into the new Dust Bowl. It's easy to imagine Californians being the new Okies, fleeing for greener pastures. West coast homeless at least had a more agreeable climate to be homeless in, but dying of thirst isn't much more fun than freeing to death.
The irony, of course, is that the actual 1930s were a golden era for the golden state. Today, California dreaming seems more like a nightmare.
The irony, of course, is that the actual 1930s were a golden era for the golden state. Today, California dreaming seems more like a nightmare.
2
No surprise. Liberal cities are the most unequal. California has a liberal super majority; the progressives in charge have no one to blame except themselves. They remain, as always, blind to the destructive impact of their socialist policies on the middle class, and the dependency breeding effect on the lower classes.
4
If government pus enough restrictions on how and where one can build it necessarily raises housing costs. In the case of California, rather dramatically. The author manages to avoid the effect of growing regulation, higher minimum wages and all the other governmental impediments to business when he bemoans he loss of manufacturing in the LA basin. He seems to think this is all some kind of evil plot by the "oligarchs" when in reality most poverty is a direct result of liberal governance and it's unseen effects.
Want more poverty? Simply continue to elect the left!
Want more poverty? Simply continue to elect the left!
2
World population does matter. In 1960 the world population was 3 billion today its over 7 billion. Given that natural resources are limited the availability of everything from food to homes becomes more expensive. And the merciless treatment of the natural world and all the critters that live in it goes on, and the barbaric and horrific treatment of animals in factory farms. These are things Tobar probably never even thinks about.
The cost to educate children typically consumes roughly 50% of all local property taxes, plus additional aid from state and federal government. Figures show that 40% of all children come from homes in poverty. People living in poverty almost by definition pay little in taxes that means every one else is left picking up there tab. So i suggest one solution is that the poor instead of having more children than middle class working families were to have the same or even less with the promise that the middle class would continue to provide financial support at the same level would go a long way to wards improving there lot. In reality the millions of people who think society owe them something place far more burdens on the working stiffs then the greedy upper 1%, who can only consume so much.
The cost to educate children typically consumes roughly 50% of all local property taxes, plus additional aid from state and federal government. Figures show that 40% of all children come from homes in poverty. People living in poverty almost by definition pay little in taxes that means every one else is left picking up there tab. So i suggest one solution is that the poor instead of having more children than middle class working families were to have the same or even less with the promise that the middle class would continue to provide financial support at the same level would go a long way to wards improving there lot. In reality the millions of people who think society owe them something place far more burdens on the working stiffs then the greedy upper 1%, who can only consume so much.
2
Where I live, the schools consume 65%.
The problem is not that the 1% consume too much, in reality they don't spend enough to keep the economy going. A vibrant middle class is the economic engine that keeps the economy going and creates jobs.
1
Reality is that the disparity between rich and poor has been steadily widening. The America I knew of the last half of the 1900's with a healthy middle class is gone. California is but a microcosm of a far greater truth. America is becoming a land of two classes: rich and poor. As a wealthy man recently stated: ."..the disparity (between rich and poor) won't remain forever and will resolve in one of three ways: war, taxes or revolution." Look at the shopping options in your community for evidence. Where an abundance of middle market retailers existed not so long ago now either high-end retailers or big box stores remain. You can't ask the poor to fight wars, flip burgers or work to make others wealthy forever. History affirms this truth but then we've never been a nation who paid serious attention to the lessons of history.
10
Mr. Tobar's analysis is a bunch of malarkey. Before the recession hit Los Angeles was losing its middle class faster than any other major metropolitan city. Recent articles have stated that California has a larger percentage of immigrants than any other state. These same articles stated that california is losing its middle class faster than any other state and that nearly one in three people are on need Medicaid. Hardly an anomaly.
During the last immigration reform push under Bush, Senator Dorgan lead the Democratic charge against it. As he stated, the purpose of immigration is to drive down wages. That is the traditional Democratic position...until the money grubbing Clintons and the now corrupt Democratic party. A tight labor market means higher wages, more people competing for a job the less money they'll take just to have one. There was a great article in the Times that nailed this. A black auto body shop owner stated that it was unfair for him to have to compete against an illegal immigrant shop in which the workers lived multifamily in a single residence. That is what has been putting US workers up against it at nearly every level. The high tech workers' wages have been dropping just like those in construction where the union workers (middle class) have been losing market share to the companies with illegals as their work force. Between shipping 60,000 factories out of the country and massive immigration the US is on a downward spin.
During the last immigration reform push under Bush, Senator Dorgan lead the Democratic charge against it. As he stated, the purpose of immigration is to drive down wages. That is the traditional Democratic position...until the money grubbing Clintons and the now corrupt Democratic party. A tight labor market means higher wages, more people competing for a job the less money they'll take just to have one. There was a great article in the Times that nailed this. A black auto body shop owner stated that it was unfair for him to have to compete against an illegal immigrant shop in which the workers lived multifamily in a single residence. That is what has been putting US workers up against it at nearly every level. The high tech workers' wages have been dropping just like those in construction where the union workers (middle class) have been losing market share to the companies with illegals as their work force. Between shipping 60,000 factories out of the country and massive immigration the US is on a downward spin.
4
So, did the black auto body shop owner vote for the Democrats, who advocate unlimited illegal immigration? You get what you vote for....
Yes, when the col grads start sharing living facilities and spending time in line in the welfare office trying to keep out of bankruptcy, a lot of them will gain skills that will pull themselves out of it.
It will be 20-30 years before some of these economic extremes are lessened. income and wealth redistributed with the willing participation of the wealthy. People need housing, healthcare, good schools and good food. These are basic to insuring that future generations will have the roadway to a decent life. Progress will be slow. But there has been progress: i.e., the healthcare nut was finally cracked. Now it can be amended and enhanced. But it is a start. Portland has it's Hoovervilles in every part of the city. These are growing as Portland goes through it's first real real estate boom causing rents to sore as some people can't afford any of the current housing stock. Elected officials are a day late and a dollar short as usual. It will take time to slow the momentum and reverse the trend. Time and leadership.
1
I doubt that the promoted socialistic atmosphere of the city administration will cure any of these problems in 20 or 30 years.
Whenever liberal Democrats call for a tax and spend policy to alleviate poverty, eg.: LBJ's War On Poverty, something of greater value than this fear-invoked constant War on Terror tripe, Republicans cry foul.
They claim throwing Big Government money at a problem is wasteful and fruitless. In the meantime they want to pump billions into their Sacred Cow, the military, which seems to know no bounds. If questioned, they tell us, "It's in the Constitution."
Republicans, especially the Tea Party Constitutional Originalist Fringe, all of whom seem to be experts on the matter, could not fill a thimble with what they actually know about the Constitution. They're worried more about those Mexicans The Trumpster refers to, the ones who are 'not quality people like us." Think that's ridiculous? Well, check out the burgeoning GOP Presidential Hopeless Clown Car. Republican rank and file are eating this chump Trump's nonsense with an over-sized spoon. That's what Democratic Liberals have to deal with.
DD'
Manhattan
They claim throwing Big Government money at a problem is wasteful and fruitless. In the meantime they want to pump billions into their Sacred Cow, the military, which seems to know no bounds. If questioned, they tell us, "It's in the Constitution."
Republicans, especially the Tea Party Constitutional Originalist Fringe, all of whom seem to be experts on the matter, could not fill a thimble with what they actually know about the Constitution. They're worried more about those Mexicans The Trumpster refers to, the ones who are 'not quality people like us." Think that's ridiculous? Well, check out the burgeoning GOP Presidential Hopeless Clown Car. Republican rank and file are eating this chump Trump's nonsense with an over-sized spoon. That's what Democratic Liberals have to deal with.
DD'
Manhattan
1
How appropriate (ironic?) that the Mr. Tobar also authored "Deep Down Dark: the Untold story of the Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle that Set Them Free". Trapped in a deadly environment with little chance of escape these hardscrabble miners were ultimately saved by a coming together of the world community to craft extraordinary solutions--spiritual and technical. This is not different from what is needed in the nation's Hoovervilles and not the inertia and familiarity-bred-contempt that undercuts personal initiative and bankrupts the community programs needed to lift the poor and vulnerable to a level of living that permits them to integrate. Hoovervilles emerging from the increasingly skewed income distribution are deadly for the economy and for the populace--the US ranks 48-50th in the world in maternal and infant mortality and homicides and burgeoning prison populations are further testament.
The miners survived because we found solutions. The effort spoke to the dignity, ingenuity and caring of society. But what of our trapped neighbors? The ones next door to us. If we will but look we can see them from our church pews, high rises and hearths. Surely we can and must do better. Much, much better.
The miners survived because we found solutions. The effort spoke to the dignity, ingenuity and caring of society. But what of our trapped neighbors? The ones next door to us. If we will but look we can see them from our church pews, high rises and hearths. Surely we can and must do better. Much, much better.
88
Liberals are definitely lazy. They will never find a way out of this morass.
The miners survived because "we" WANTED to find solutions.
The big and uncomfortable question we face: Do we really WANT to find solutions? Pay for them? Implement them? And continue to do the work which will come and go on after the solutions are in place?
At this point, our "trapped neighbors" and many of us once-secure Americans are considered "collateral damage" by the business world.
Our much-prized hyper-competitive "exceptional American spirit" predominates, rewards a few, and tosses to the side of the road the very young, the old, minorities and people who had the bad luck to fall into the cracks during the latest mega-downturn in 2008. Where are our hearts, our souls and our basic "brains" regarding how we treat others and the great things we can all do if and when we do reach out to the "trapped"?
The big and uncomfortable question we face: Do we really WANT to find solutions? Pay for them? Implement them? And continue to do the work which will come and go on after the solutions are in place?
At this point, our "trapped neighbors" and many of us once-secure Americans are considered "collateral damage" by the business world.
Our much-prized hyper-competitive "exceptional American spirit" predominates, rewards a few, and tosses to the side of the road the very young, the old, minorities and people who had the bad luck to fall into the cracks during the latest mega-downturn in 2008. Where are our hearts, our souls and our basic "brains" regarding how we treat others and the great things we can all do if and when we do reach out to the "trapped"?
1
Between the disappearance of the middle class due to substandard education, underpayment of property taxes due to the Proposition 13 tax giveaway to homeowners, the systematic destruction of unions begun in earnest under Ronald Reagan, in cities like Los Angeles and the the effect of the greed in the Billionaire capital of California, Silicon Valley, where the minimum cost of a livable, small house is 1.5 million, and the dumping of the mentally ill onto the streets of California by St. Ronny Reagan, when he was Governor, what should one expect?
As a long formerly time resident of LA, I can say the author neglects, due no doubt to political correctness, to mention the role of illegal immigrants and their role in over burdening the social infrastructure, including public hospitals, schools, social services, and housing.
As a long formerly time resident of LA, I can say the author neglects, due no doubt to political correctness, to mention the role of illegal immigrants and their role in over burdening the social infrastructure, including public hospitals, schools, social services, and housing.
5
I live in an idyllic college town, and once when I dared comment on an urban problem, another commenter who had gone to school here leapt on me with a litany of everything that isn't bad here, with a scolding that I don't know what I'm talking about.
But here's what I do know. During the quarter of a century I've lived here, the character of homelessness has changed visibly and dramatically. In the first decade or so, when you saw a homeless person along Kirkwood, the street connecting the university gates to the courthouse square downtown, you almost certainly recognized that person's face, and may even have known a name. There was the lady—and I use the word advisedly—who looked like a down-and-out June Cleaver as she pushed her shopping cart along the street, clean, dignified, and even dainty about herself. There was the prophetic raconteur with the long wild hair who had so many stories you stopped to talk to him when you had time. For whatever reasons, they didn't have permanent housing, but they were individuals with problems, not as A Problem.
Now, the homeless are A Problem. They have become anonymous and ominous in their numbers. "They" make shoppers and diners feel threatened pressing for alms. "They" defecate outside restaurants. "They" camp out in unoccupied buildings. "They" remind us of the short distance between Bedford Falls and Pottersville. We care, but we don't know what to do with "them". They're still prophets, but we're afraid of what we hear.
But here's what I do know. During the quarter of a century I've lived here, the character of homelessness has changed visibly and dramatically. In the first decade or so, when you saw a homeless person along Kirkwood, the street connecting the university gates to the courthouse square downtown, you almost certainly recognized that person's face, and may even have known a name. There was the lady—and I use the word advisedly—who looked like a down-and-out June Cleaver as she pushed her shopping cart along the street, clean, dignified, and even dainty about herself. There was the prophetic raconteur with the long wild hair who had so many stories you stopped to talk to him when you had time. For whatever reasons, they didn't have permanent housing, but they were individuals with problems, not as A Problem.
Now, the homeless are A Problem. They have become anonymous and ominous in their numbers. "They" make shoppers and diners feel threatened pressing for alms. "They" defecate outside restaurants. "They" camp out in unoccupied buildings. "They" remind us of the short distance between Bedford Falls and Pottersville. We care, but we don't know what to do with "them". They're still prophets, but we're afraid of what we hear.
16
I live here in a mid western city. Here the homeless when confronted by their lifestyle become very defensive about their situation. Often they are on the run from responsibilities.
1
Gee, I wonder if the Democrat Party's insistence on retaining tens of millions of illegals (in the hopes that they will be amnestied and will vote Democrat) would have anything to do with the number of Americans who lack jobs in America? Or perhaps the Country Club Republicans, whose expenses for labor are minimal, given the surfeit of illegals willing to work for not much more than welfare payments (of course we provide for their health care and education as well)?
If you care about the American working class, and indeed America as a whole, you can't trust Democrats or Country Club Republicans.
If you care about the American working class, and indeed America as a whole, you can't trust Democrats or Country Club Republicans.
7
No but I will trust a plumber or electrician.
1
While Los Angeles suffers from skyrocketing levels of homelessness, Houston has actually made significant progress in CUTTING homelessness. San Antonio, too. It just takes some leadership from City Hall to actually provide adequate shelter beds, and to coordinate services city wide. Urban development policies that allow the construction of new housing also help, by keeping costs down.
3
I'm not sure there are many places to build left in LA, maybe up, but that's not a cheap alternative.
1
'“We lost a huge number of middle-class jobs.” At the same time, the tax revolt led by the businessman and politician Howard Jarvis cut funding for public education.'
Is there really a sound reason why any Americans still believe that the damage of conservative Cayman Island buyout barons transferring American middle-class jobs to their Communist clients in The Peoples Republic of China can be offset by conservative politicians cutting funding for education or other services?
Is there really a sound reason why any Americans still believe that the damage of conservative Cayman Island buyout barons transferring American middle-class jobs to their Communist clients in The Peoples Republic of China can be offset by conservative politicians cutting funding for education or other services?
17
Nope Cuba will become the new manufacturing center. Labor will be cheap and housing is even cheaper. The communists will simply point a gun at labor, and labor will go to work. None of these people will complain of minimum wages and they all, according to Michael Moore, have excellent healthcare. Those that have dealt with Mexicans wont see any difference except the Cubans probably wont be wearing designer labeled clothing.
This is what happens when you spend all of your money on food and shelter for illegal aliens -- no money for American citizens. If only the L.A. homeless would do the jobs that illegal aliens won't do.
7
No, this is what happens when you cut taxes on the wealthy and corporations and all of the money goes to the rich, who don't give a damn about the homeless.
1
I can only assume that you have been to LA and got to know the homeless and the illegal aliens and why they are where they are/
When are we going to confiscate some of the obscene wealth out there and give everyone a livable annual wage?
At least the rich are not stuck together with the poor and middle-class on the freeways: now they can get a transponder, pay a fee and zip along in their Porsches in the express lanes. California freeways are no longer the great equalizers.
https://www.metroexpresslanes.net/en/about/howit.shtml
At least the rich are not stuck together with the poor and middle-class on the freeways: now they can get a transponder, pay a fee and zip along in their Porsches in the express lanes. California freeways are no longer the great equalizers.
https://www.metroexpresslanes.net/en/about/howit.shtml
7
"confiscate"! A favorite word for Progressive Democrats.
1
Isn't it possible that these people did pay their taxes and had money left over to buy those cars? Or is your problem that idea that they did have money left?
Very interesting and sad as well. In Minneapolis we have a couple who lives under the 35W bridge. They have actually built a home out of cardboard and other materials and have a very eclectic yard filled with their art. The police do not bother them. BUT this is only one home...if allowed there would be many, many more such structures. Begging has become commonplace not only in Minneapolis but the suburbs as well. We have a wonderful social service system but I believe some do not take advantage of it because of their persistent drug/alcohol use.
6
If you don't like Hoovervilles stop voting for politicians who view corporations, big multinationals, as ther only constituents. Unfortunately, we have been betrayed by the very people we thought would protect the workers and humans. Obama is working hard to strip voters of what little power they have by supporting and pushing in any manner possible the TPP. The decision by Congress to pass FAST TRACK has virtually sealed the deal. Its corproate friendly arbitration panel will make our puny legislaturers irrelevant!
We expected this from the GOP but not a Democratic President and his Demicratic supporters. The 13 Democratic senators were: Michael Bennet (CO), Maria Cantwell (WA), Tom Carper (DE), Chris Coons (DE), Dianne Feinstein (CA), Heidi Heitkamp (ND), Tim Kaine (VA), Claire McCaskill (MO), Patty Murray (WA), Bill Nelson (FL), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Ron Wyden (OR), and Mark Warner (VA). Add Senator Ben Cardin who voted no on Fast Track, but he was allegedly a backup yes if any of the others came to their senses. Remember these Senators when you get their requests for your hard earned money. DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz let the 28 Dems in the House who supported TPP Fast Track. Vote agains all the GOP MEMBERS AND THE DEMS WHO SUPPORTED THIS TRAVESTY. Fight TPP.
We expected this from the GOP but not a Democratic President and his Demicratic supporters. The 13 Democratic senators were: Michael Bennet (CO), Maria Cantwell (WA), Tom Carper (DE), Chris Coons (DE), Dianne Feinstein (CA), Heidi Heitkamp (ND), Tim Kaine (VA), Claire McCaskill (MO), Patty Murray (WA), Bill Nelson (FL), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Ron Wyden (OR), and Mark Warner (VA). Add Senator Ben Cardin who voted no on Fast Track, but he was allegedly a backup yes if any of the others came to their senses. Remember these Senators when you get their requests for your hard earned money. DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz let the 28 Dems in the House who supported TPP Fast Track. Vote agains all the GOP MEMBERS AND THE DEMS WHO SUPPORTED THIS TRAVESTY. Fight TPP.
14
Good thinkng. After all, refusing to vote and sneering at Democrats worked really well to keep the Republicans from taking over Ci gress and a majority of State houses.
This is the most succinct article I have seen on wealth inequality yet. Those people driving Maseratis and Teslas refuse to pay taxes to support the social infrastructure that made them so wealthy. The spoiled ultra-rich who think they "did it all themselves" and are masters of the universe. Time for them to pay US back for all the wealth they have stolen in the last 40+ years with tax loopholes, OUR government taxpayer dollar contracts, and "status" perks. NOW. WE must vote for people who have the courage to restore democracy in America. As we have seen, a strong courageous President is not enough and we must replace the financial elite operatives in every elected office in the land and they must purge OUR governments of financial elite operatives. They are destroying America.
42
The wealthy people in California pay 13.3% of their income in California state income tax. This is the highest rate of any state in the country.
What do you suggest?
What do you suggest?
There was a guy who ran for President under the moniker "Change We Can Believe In"...
" Those people driving Maseratis and Teslas refuse to pay taxes to support the social infrastructure that made them so wealthy."
Why would you think that? Perhaps they actually had money left after they paid their taxes. Or is it your idea that they be reduced to penury after those taxes are paid?
Why would you think that? Perhaps they actually had money left after they paid their taxes. Or is it your idea that they be reduced to penury after those taxes are paid?
1
Some of this is because people don't want to leave areas where they have family or that have become familiar. When the economy in our home area tanked three decades ago, my spouse and I had to move about 1500 miles away from our extended families in order to support our own immediate family. It wasn't easy, but today we are better off financially than any others in the extended family. You do what you have to do.
That said, I wonder why, exactly, that all of the ultra-rich but left-leaning people in this country seem to want to hang onto their wealth every bit as much as those on the right. In other words, is voting Democratic and giving what, to them, is a pittance, to Democratic causes, as well as paying lip service to the same, really enough? I don't think so. They are talking the talk, but not really walking the walk.
That said, I wonder why, exactly, that all of the ultra-rich but left-leaning people in this country seem to want to hang onto their wealth every bit as much as those on the right. In other words, is voting Democratic and giving what, to them, is a pittance, to Democratic causes, as well as paying lip service to the same, really enough? I don't think so. They are talking the talk, but not really walking the walk.
14
Excellent point. I recall that when France passed a 75% tax on the highest incomes, American celebrities who had been vocal Dem advocates against inequality and said they personally wanted taxes raised, suddenly balked. Apparently the existing top marginal tax rate is 39.6% is too low but 75% is too high for people who earn tens of millions of year and have net worths in the 100s of millions. Lip service indeed.
6
That is why the national Democratic party cares more about gay marriage and global warming than helping the poor.
At least they're not evil racists, although they do seem to employ a lot of illegal immigrants at low wages.....
At least they're not evil racists, although they do seem to employ a lot of illegal immigrants at low wages.....
2
Yes, it seems they are all too willing raise taXes on all of us, instead of having, say, a Hollywood taX that would only affect people in the business that make millions and billions. They could spend the money easily without even missing it.
I don't want to take anything away from Mr. Tobar's analysis, but this kind of wealth disparity isn't exclusive to Los Angeles. In fact, LA's official poverty rate is well below New York City's, and the federal measurement is worthless here. According to a New York Times story last year, when you factor in the cost of housing, nearly half of New Yorkers are struggling to get by. This is an American problem, and it won't get better until the nation decides it's a national problem.
126
A reader in Brooklyn, NY, wants to think that this is an American problem. It's a liberal problem. You promise the poor that in exchange for their votes, you will tax the rich and serve the poor. Then the poor vote for you and you don't tax the rich and you don't serve the poor. Yes, education matters, but when education serves the teachers rather than the students, it fails. Perhaps next June the SCOTUS will break the back of the teacher's union power, but don't count on it. The rich are smarter than you.
Whatever the statistics, I find that L.A. is a place apart. You hear an awful lot of Spanish in the city and whites are a decided minority. Venice Beach and Santa Monica are upscale beach communities with large homeless populations. The subways tend toward poor, young, and non-white. And, for what it's worth, Baldwin Hills is an upscale black neighborhood like nothing in NYC. It's not just that L.A. is different. The poor and the non-white have a much lower profile in NYC. And upscale blacks are dispersed. L.A. is predominantly Hispanic and feels it and its poor have a relatively high profile. NYC is a mish mash or a melting pot if you prefer. LA wears its diversity on its sleeve.
When everyone wants to live in a sunny climate, the price of housing naturally rises. But just as not everyone can afford to live in Manhattan, not everyone can afford to live in Los Angeles. There are affordable cities with good jobs all across the nation, but people are reluctant to move. Not just newcomers either - the Rust Belt denizen is also reluctant to leave Detroit or Gary or Buffalo even though he/she knows there are steady jobs in Dallas and Oklahoma City and Atlanta. How long does a person say I like my current city a lot even though jobs at my skill level are few and the cost of living is outrageous? How long do we listen?
87
It's more complex for the denizen of Detroit or Gary or Buffalo -- they may own a home on which they are "underwater". Let the home go (or into foreclosure) and you may lose being a homeowner....FOREVER. Homes are not affordable in all cities.
If you are a displaced factory worker in Detroit, what exactly awaits you in Dallas or Oklahoma? They have MORE jobs, but mostly in tech industries. If you have no college degree, no recent work experience, are over 45 and no tech skills -- you will just be unemployed in Dallas instead of unemployed in Detroit. And of course, you just walked away from YOUR HOME (and likely friends & family that form a support system for you).
It is of course easier to do this as a young singleton, than as a middle aged head of household with 3 minor children and a spouse (who perhaps DOES have a job).
Also this conundrum equally fits people who insist on living in the hippest areas -- Brooklyn, Manhattan, the nice parts of LA, SF, etc. -- and who HAVE jobs, but not jobs that will pay for a decent apartment (and a house is out of question!). Should they move? and to where? Because there is no place in the US that is overflowing with jobs. Moving is costly. Giving up a home can be a lifetime setback in living conditions. If you are a family, this is also about the spouses job, relatives, children's schools and so on.
To leave Detroit and end up in the slums of Dallas is not an improvement.
If you are a displaced factory worker in Detroit, what exactly awaits you in Dallas or Oklahoma? They have MORE jobs, but mostly in tech industries. If you have no college degree, no recent work experience, are over 45 and no tech skills -- you will just be unemployed in Dallas instead of unemployed in Detroit. And of course, you just walked away from YOUR HOME (and likely friends & family that form a support system for you).
It is of course easier to do this as a young singleton, than as a middle aged head of household with 3 minor children and a spouse (who perhaps DOES have a job).
Also this conundrum equally fits people who insist on living in the hippest areas -- Brooklyn, Manhattan, the nice parts of LA, SF, etc. -- and who HAVE jobs, but not jobs that will pay for a decent apartment (and a house is out of question!). Should they move? and to where? Because there is no place in the US that is overflowing with jobs. Moving is costly. Giving up a home can be a lifetime setback in living conditions. If you are a family, this is also about the spouses job, relatives, children's schools and so on.
To leave Detroit and end up in the slums of Dallas is not an improvement.
12
. . . so the solution is to become nation of nomads? I heard a lof of this kind of talk when the Rust Belt hit my hometown in the Great Lakes region. Rather than deal with our fundamental problems -- de-industrialization, lack of job skills, a cratering economic base -- we're supposed to uproot families and keep on chasing a better place. That's not only short-sighted -- it won't work.
5
When you have no money - -and people sleeping on the streets have no money -- you cannot move.
4
Maseratis and shanties. Not a permanent caste? Unless we get back living-wage jobs for those without college educations, it will be rigid and permanent in a generation. One wrong move, one layoff or medical crisis and under the bridge you go.
We live now in the dystopian future of the 1980s Cyberpunk writers. We may have a few years left to turn that around.
We live now in the dystopian future of the 1980s Cyberpunk writers. We may have a few years left to turn that around.
105
But we wont (Turn it around). As long as there are people who don't have to live that way , it won't be turned around. People don't want to do anything bout it. They don't want to be reminded of it. They don't want to deal with it till a camp Sprouts near them. Then hear them cry. And No One is interested in the WHY.
These so-Called "Compassionate Conservatives"? Who Cherish your life before you are Born ? The moment you are Born, it is get the Hell away from Me ! Get Outta Here ! Go Away you Lazy Bum.
These so-Called "Compassionate Conservatives"? Who Cherish your life before you are Born ? The moment you are Born, it is get the Hell away from Me ! Get Outta Here ! Go Away you Lazy Bum.
1
Speaking of bridges, I am often reminded of Anatole France's famous quote,
"In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread."
"In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread."
1
Meanwhile we let millions of people come here with no education... so we constantly have a poor underclass. Great plan.
1
LA is not the oil rich & glittering hyper modern city of Dubai built on the backs of cheap, exploited guest workers. Nor is it the precursory of China's urbanization plan which fashioned shiny sterile & ghostly third tier cities like Ordos overnight. Simon & Garfunkel's 'Sound of Silence' plays with a Chinese erhu in a piped in Musak fills the empty streets waiting for investment buyers to arrive with flush cash. How this materially wealthy albeit empty (literally & figurally) city longs for the sounds of real Mariachis or the smell of outdoor taco stands with happy people laughing over the street ruckus & the colorful character of an old beat up Ford pickup truck sputtering by with rust stains. This is the sort of colorful character than China's new money just can't buy.
Instead in LA, there is a type of détente or relaxed urban environment in which the haves, the have-nots, the desperate, the comfortable, the givers, the takers, the bypassers, the taxpayers, the welfare recipients, the illegals, the ex-cons, the Nuns, the mentally ill, the developmentally disabled, the down & out, the up & comers, the hip, the academic, the discontents, the misfits, the unemployed actors, the drug addicted, the starving artists, the hustlers, the grifters, the shop owners, the non conformists, the rebels, the protestors, the grandparents all live in close proximity as a human experiment teeming with microorganisms that interact with each other. Is it a perfect place to live? Maybe....
Instead in LA, there is a type of détente or relaxed urban environment in which the haves, the have-nots, the desperate, the comfortable, the givers, the takers, the bypassers, the taxpayers, the welfare recipients, the illegals, the ex-cons, the Nuns, the mentally ill, the developmentally disabled, the down & out, the up & comers, the hip, the academic, the discontents, the misfits, the unemployed actors, the drug addicted, the starving artists, the hustlers, the grifters, the shop owners, the non conformists, the rebels, the protestors, the grandparents all live in close proximity as a human experiment teeming with microorganisms that interact with each other. Is it a perfect place to live? Maybe....
11
you make it all sound lovely.... perhaps you missed the despair and horror of the folks on Skid Row living on the street....
People have a choice whether to stick a needle in their arm & congregate with other junkies or schizos or winos on Skid Row. Believe it or not, some people gravitate to skid row like a kid in a candy store. There are drug treatment facilities, mental health hospitals & restorative courts in LA that will gladly help those that want to help themselves as well as welfare, food stamps, low/free housing subsidies, free medical care (Medicaid), church charities, soup kitchens, free clothing, etc. Many, like Jack Kerouac, prefer the life of the unencumbered hobo although once they get hooked on smack, crystal, whiskey, crack, xtc, etc., its hard to ever get back to "normal," whatever that is to the free spirits. I feel much more sorry for the WalMart worker who gives it the company his blood, sweat & tears, 40 hrs. wk/ 52 wks yr/ 30yrs, then keels over from a heart attack. Now that guy deserves my respect.
1
Capitalist selfishness and greed were some of the factors that led to the Great Depression of the 20's and 30's.
We might very well be headed in that direction again since the selfishness and greed of many is as bad or worse than it was in the past.
World War II finally got us out of the last great depression.
What will get us out of the next one?
We might very well be headed in that direction again since the selfishness and greed of many is as bad or worse than it was in the past.
World War II finally got us out of the last great depression.
What will get us out of the next one?
34
elect GOP and close the borders
The Third War: either from the collapse of Saudi Arabia or a stumbled-into war with China over the waters around Japan and Taiwan.
Pick your poison.
Pick your poison.
Er, the 1920s were not depressed and it actually took until 1953, when a Republican administration finally took control again, for the stock market to regain its 1929 level. That was 24 years, but who's counting.
You can't get a job from a poor man, you can't help your fellow man when you are bankrupt, and nothing good comes from throwing good money after bad.
Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he can eat for a lifetime. Give him the environment to sell his fish and he can eat steak.
You can't get a job from a poor man, you can't help your fellow man when you are bankrupt, and nothing good comes from throwing good money after bad.
Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he can eat for a lifetime. Give him the environment to sell his fish and he can eat steak.
it's the blue state model: high taxes combined with costly regulations and protectionist policies for unions. The result: small and midsize businesses struggle and middle class individuals leave. Poor kids get stuck in lousy schools and the split between wealthy and poor increases.
19
There are plenty of towns and cities in CA with putative high taxes and costly regulations that are doing just fine. Except that by historical standards, taxes are quite modest and regulations are for the little guys - the barons in timber, wine, almonds (i.e. water) and oil get around them with little hindrance. So far.
2
"Blue state model." Really?
You might try visiting Texas, with its bottom-rated school system, a Bush "dynasty" hand-picked governor with evil, regressive policies, a Lt. governor -a position that runs the legislature - a corrupt district attorney and a Republican system that has taken over every state-wide elective office by hook or crook. There is no union protection, small and midsize business in trouble and a wide chasm between wealthy and poor.
It's a poster model of a red state. It would rather spend 800 million dollars building a fence using the Reserve and other military forces as monitors than use that money to fix the roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
You should come visit this model sometime. See which model you prefer to live in.
You might try visiting Texas, with its bottom-rated school system, a Bush "dynasty" hand-picked governor with evil, regressive policies, a Lt. governor -a position that runs the legislature - a corrupt district attorney and a Republican system that has taken over every state-wide elective office by hook or crook. There is no union protection, small and midsize business in trouble and a wide chasm between wealthy and poor.
It's a poster model of a red state. It would rather spend 800 million dollars building a fence using the Reserve and other military forces as monitors than use that money to fix the roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
You should come visit this model sometime. See which model you prefer to live in.
3
Yes that why Bernie sanders is drawing in thousands while the parade of GOP clowns must recruit people to stand behind them while they blather on about Obamacare and gay marriage. Was it the unions who killed the middle class or was it corporate greed and lack of patriotism which motivated the employers to move their businesses to foreign countries. Like Judge Judy says don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining.
1
The solution to homelessness is expensive, and tax payers are unlikely to implement it. It will involve a combination of private-public enterprise building BMR housing and the extensive use of rental vouchers. The cost would be in the billions of dollars per year, but the problem could be fixed.
10
Growing up in LA in the 60's it was all about the beach, and parents forbid us to go south of the Santa Monica Pier into Venice, a no-man's land of rotting teeth, poverty, and drugs. But things change and Venice is now a no-man's land of celebrities, architectural whiz-bangery, sky high real estate, and the ubiquitous drugs. As the rich of the world flee to our shores gentrifying used-to-be slums, poverty has no where to sleep except under bridges, in parks, and hutments on the fringe of dumps. And yes poverty in LA is on the march practically outpacing the guys in their Porches.
36
Regardless of the multiple causes of political corruption, income inequality, and poverty, the writer perfectly describes third world "countryism", where extremes of wealth are clearly visible, and your birth on one side of the tracks or other determines your life trajectory. Being blessed with short memory and/or optimism, the towns, cities, and states are capable of change regardless of Washington. In the 1980's, NYC looked like a first world-third world country, with its subways full of beggars. Tax dollars were invested to make changes. More housing can be built; wages can go up as can unemployment contributions; health care costs can be contained; mental health hospitals or facilities can be reopened/built. Kudos to the writer for reframing an issue up close.
22
Here is your solution.
Raise the state income tax to 35%. Use the money to add public sector union members with large pensions. Raise the gas tax $2 per gallon, raise the minimum wage to $16/hour with 4 weeks paid vacations, raise the property taxes 100% and use that money to build public transportation networks throughout the state.
When people cannot afford their property taxes due to the much higher cost of living, confiscate their homes and give them to the homeless with a generous monthly stipend, and when the money runs out, beg the Federal Government to force all 50 states to do the same complaining that it just is not fair that California must suffer (The Supreme Court will definitely be on board!). Problem solved, everyone but the ruling class is poor!
Raise the state income tax to 35%. Use the money to add public sector union members with large pensions. Raise the gas tax $2 per gallon, raise the minimum wage to $16/hour with 4 weeks paid vacations, raise the property taxes 100% and use that money to build public transportation networks throughout the state.
When people cannot afford their property taxes due to the much higher cost of living, confiscate their homes and give them to the homeless with a generous monthly stipend, and when the money runs out, beg the Federal Government to force all 50 states to do the same complaining that it just is not fair that California must suffer (The Supreme Court will definitely be on board!). Problem solved, everyone but the ruling class is poor!
19
The largest growth in the middle class came during the time that labor unions were strongest. Membership in labor unions is at an all time low. Income equality is at an all time high. Giving ordinary workers the ability to negotiate with management is very bad for management. Business leaders will tell you that if their sky high profits are reduced bad things will happen. That's true for business their profits will be lower.
Re: Herman Munster - very nasty and sarcastic comment blaming the usual ones - unions!! - the only group working people have to aid and defend their rights - and just what "large pensions are you talking about??" Working people paid in to pensions along with the businesses who were supposed to also. But didn't. They only pensions I know of that are "large" are those Ceos with the golden parachutes. Get real and get your facts.
In Feb 2015, the NY Times ran a series of articles by Louise Story, on how foreign money flooding into NYC Real Estate, mostly under the names of "Shell Corporations".
One article showed that a Condo at ONE57 sold for more than $100 MILLION in Jan. 2015. The 2014 Property Tax on that Condo? $17,268 (Seventeen thousand two hundred sixty eight dollars). Of course, the 2014 Property Tax would be based on the Assessed Valuation in 2014 and not on the future selling price in 2015, but bear with me.
I rent an apartment in a four-family Brooklyn private house, with a Fair Market Value (FMV) of $800,000. The 2014 Property Tax? $8,100 (eighty-one hundred). The Manhattan Condo had a Selling Price of 100 million / 800,000 or 125 TIMES that of the Brooklyn property's FMV. And yet the Manhattan Condo's Property Tax Bill was 17,268 / 8,100 or a little over TWICE that of the Brooklyn Property's. If the Condo was taxed at the same rate, its Property tax would be $1 million.
Of course, "Selling Price vs FMV" is an "Apples vs. Oranges" comparison. But I feel that even "FMV VS. FMV" would be essentially the same.
The seller of the Manhattan Condo says he obtained the Property Tax break since he invested in "Certificates" to subsidize low income housing in the Bronx.
But do you really think that those "Cerificates" would be more than a nearly $1 million Property Tax Break? If so, there is a Bridge I'd like to sell you. No, not the Brooklyn Bridge- the Delancy Street Bridge.
One article showed that a Condo at ONE57 sold for more than $100 MILLION in Jan. 2015. The 2014 Property Tax on that Condo? $17,268 (Seventeen thousand two hundred sixty eight dollars). Of course, the 2014 Property Tax would be based on the Assessed Valuation in 2014 and not on the future selling price in 2015, but bear with me.
I rent an apartment in a four-family Brooklyn private house, with a Fair Market Value (FMV) of $800,000. The 2014 Property Tax? $8,100 (eighty-one hundred). The Manhattan Condo had a Selling Price of 100 million / 800,000 or 125 TIMES that of the Brooklyn property's FMV. And yet the Manhattan Condo's Property Tax Bill was 17,268 / 8,100 or a little over TWICE that of the Brooklyn Property's. If the Condo was taxed at the same rate, its Property tax would be $1 million.
Of course, "Selling Price vs FMV" is an "Apples vs. Oranges" comparison. But I feel that even "FMV VS. FMV" would be essentially the same.
The seller of the Manhattan Condo says he obtained the Property Tax break since he invested in "Certificates" to subsidize low income housing in the Bronx.
But do you really think that those "Cerificates" would be more than a nearly $1 million Property Tax Break? If so, there is a Bridge I'd like to sell you. No, not the Brooklyn Bridge- the Delancy Street Bridge.
If I were homeless, I would not choose to live around here, at least in the winter months. Wintering in southern California sounds attractive to me. Sleeping in a cardboard box under a bridge in sub-zero temperatures should not be attempted and would likely result in death. Our urban campers, by necessity, must perform a few minimum requirements to survive like going inside when its cold, listening to something like a sermon and maybe even be seen by a health care professional while they are there. Homeless shelters are available. Deaths due to cold are very rare. "Three hots and a cot" are provided through private charities, mainly. Our rust belt economies are much worse than LA. If we can do it here, they can do it in the golden state. It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention. Take away the necessity, there is no invention.
7
The New American Compassion, ladies and gentlemen - from poverty shall come innovation!
Get a grip.
Get a grip.
Among the homeless in LA are a significant percentage of manifestly mentally ill people and/or people with substance abuse issues. The same is true here in my city. The causes of homelessness are many and complex. But, it seems that devoting adequate resources, and creating comprehensive programs, to treat mental illness and substance abuse is critical.
82
Well, it was Ronald Reagan who closed mental hospitals for those who are neither violent nor a danger to themselves. Ever since then there have been homeless roaming the streets. Many of them simply have difficulty coping with the challenges of paying rent and utility bills and remembering to take the anti-psychotics they have been prescribed.
Often ignored, is the fact that many of the homeless are veterans. When a society cannot or will not care for those who have served the country that is a very sad indication of the life there.
Many who were caught in the recent downturn and lost their homes initially had jobs that paid over $100k per year. Suddenly, the company moved operations off shore or replaced US citizens with new people who had just arrived on H1B visas, and discarded all those who worked there.
Yes, they had saved to cover emergencies for several months, but as time goes on that minimum wage job does not pay enough to cover the mortgage and put food on the table.
Often ignored, is the fact that many of the homeless are veterans. When a society cannot or will not care for those who have served the country that is a very sad indication of the life there.
Many who were caught in the recent downturn and lost their homes initially had jobs that paid over $100k per year. Suddenly, the company moved operations off shore or replaced US citizens with new people who had just arrived on H1B visas, and discarded all those who worked there.
Yes, they had saved to cover emergencies for several months, but as time goes on that minimum wage job does not pay enough to cover the mortgage and put food on the table.
20
This is an interesting thought. I have seen commentary that a large number of the homeless are the result of mental illness and substance abuse. I am wondering if there are hard statistics on this, i.e. how much of the homeless issue is due to income inequality and how much to other causes.
That said, I am also wondering whether people worrying about the income inequality issue are developing solutions that would ensure that their proposals to correct the inequality would actually affect those in most need.
Aligning on these two questions, possibly, suggests other courses of action as we look to address the homeless situation.
That said, I am also wondering whether people worrying about the income inequality issue are developing solutions that would ensure that their proposals to correct the inequality would actually affect those in most need.
Aligning on these two questions, possibly, suggests other courses of action as we look to address the homeless situation.
There are no mental hospitals that were federally funded so Ronald Reagan had no control over the closing of mental hospitals. In the 1980s, the ACLU took cities and states to court for the "unlawful" confinement of the seriously mentally ill. They won - and the mentally ill were let loose.
2
There is something morally wrong with living in the richest country in the World and living in poverty while working full-time. Neither the mainstream Democratic nor Republican parties propose a living wage with full benefits for all Americans. Neither party advocates single payer healthcare for all Americans. Neither party opposes trade agreements that transfer more wealth to the wealthy. Both parties--yes both--are beholden to the moneyed class and almost every law passed in D.C. is intended to further enrich the rich.
Both parties support the military industrial complex that radical left-winger Eisenhower warned us about 60 years ago. Both support spending a trillion dollars a year on the phantom terrorist threat abroad while our cities at home literally crumble before our eyes. Child poverty explodes while both parties do nothing to stem the tide.
The trick is to fool voters into believing we live in a Country with real choices of candidates. Sorry--maybe somewhat on the local level--but nationally you don't become President unless you drink the neoliberal Kool-Aid.
There are solutions, but the moneyed class has no interest in seeing them enacted, so their servants in Congress do nothing. Bernie Sanders offers economic alternatives that should be discussed on a daily basis, but the mainstream media will call him a "radical" to try and scare the voters away.
We desperately need "radical" changes and should be scared to death by the status quo.
Both parties support the military industrial complex that radical left-winger Eisenhower warned us about 60 years ago. Both support spending a trillion dollars a year on the phantom terrorist threat abroad while our cities at home literally crumble before our eyes. Child poverty explodes while both parties do nothing to stem the tide.
The trick is to fool voters into believing we live in a Country with real choices of candidates. Sorry--maybe somewhat on the local level--but nationally you don't become President unless you drink the neoliberal Kool-Aid.
There are solutions, but the moneyed class has no interest in seeing them enacted, so their servants in Congress do nothing. Bernie Sanders offers economic alternatives that should be discussed on a daily basis, but the mainstream media will call him a "radical" to try and scare the voters away.
We desperately need "radical" changes and should be scared to death by the status quo.
238
I wholeheartedly agree with you! It is high time we all acknowledge that the partisan divide is meaningless. The reality is we have a single ruling elite, and the voting public is distracted and bitterly divided by a highly manipulative media. There are two sides in this, but not the familiar "Democrats & Republicans". There are those who are extracting and consolidating wealth and power, and there are those who are being expropriated.
43
Along with affordable healthcare, we need free contraceptives for those who cannot otherwise afford them. Remember, not all of those who need these contraceptives, but cannot pay for them are married couples who live together.
The alternative is more children born into poverty to continue the cycle.
The alternative is more children born into poverty to continue the cycle.
13
Well said!
GM, Goodyear Tire, little shops of tool and dye men making parts for the military industrial firms of L.A. up and down Alameda Avenue, all wiped out by the rise of globalism and the end of the cold war. But the decline had set in at the bottom as early as the 1950s, and first to notice and feel it were the last hired and first fired minorities who migrated during and after WWII.
Now the homeless camps and their fires spied from gentrified sections of Highland Park tell the tale of income inequality and global capital Part II: NAFTA and the flattening of farm commodities prices, and the outsourcing of first-rung service industry jobs.
Here we are litigating the 1970s and 1980s on and on, pointing fingers at Jerry Brown I, and Jerry Brown Redux, or Ronald Reagan, when the writing on the wall is in Greek. Do we, as Americans, want to keep pointing down the hill at the homeless blaming them for their own fecklessness, or do we want to confront global capital and finally get right with the source of income inequality?
Time to stop "kissing up" and "kicking down" in the hope that grabbing a seat on the property rocket will be enough to protect you and yours. "OXI" has won in Greece this morning; time to vote "No" everywhere before the tarp-people crash your property values and you are one of the elite living out of your car.
Now the homeless camps and their fires spied from gentrified sections of Highland Park tell the tale of income inequality and global capital Part II: NAFTA and the flattening of farm commodities prices, and the outsourcing of first-rung service industry jobs.
Here we are litigating the 1970s and 1980s on and on, pointing fingers at Jerry Brown I, and Jerry Brown Redux, or Ronald Reagan, when the writing on the wall is in Greek. Do we, as Americans, want to keep pointing down the hill at the homeless blaming them for their own fecklessness, or do we want to confront global capital and finally get right with the source of income inequality?
Time to stop "kissing up" and "kicking down" in the hope that grabbing a seat on the property rocket will be enough to protect you and yours. "OXI" has won in Greece this morning; time to vote "No" everywhere before the tarp-people crash your property values and you are one of the elite living out of your car.
55
Wish I could recommend this comment more than once!!
Any politician, whether local, state or federal that has a sensible solution toward solving* the homeless crisis gets my vote.
* Or at least a step in the right direction because sweeping reforms don't often happen in our lobby rich political system
* Or at least a step in the right direction because sweeping reforms don't often happen in our lobby rich political system
6
This constant use of the mentally ill as proof of economic failure is useless. Blaming Republicans for the state of the economy in LA is avoidance come mental itself.
7
Well, that brings up another HUGE issue in this country, and that is the lack of services for the mentally ill, mostly brought on by budget cuts. I would call that an economic failure.
The way many who are still well off to afford a middle class or upper class lifestyle respond to such sights is, as the essay points out, to just move it out of sight. They
1) don't want to see it, and therefore have to think about it, and
2) they believe deep down that they deserve what they have and that somehow the poor have some moral failing and are culpable for their poverty.
1) don't want to see it, and therefore have to think about it, and
2) they believe deep down that they deserve what they have and that somehow the poor have some moral failing and are culpable for their poverty.
32
Agreed. Just as our "elite" leaders in Washington keep the struggles of the middle class out of sight, and completely out of mind.
The extreme wealth in California is increasingly tied to two industries - Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Both tend to be liberal bastions. So the idea of the "limousine liberal" is alive and well.
It's also this extreme wealth that makes property values in places like SF and LA so high, making housing unaffordable for the middle class, much less the poor.
It's also this extreme wealth that makes property values in places like SF and LA so high, making housing unaffordable for the middle class, much less the poor.
18
Another reason for skyrocketing home prices is people who have acquired vast wealth in certain other countries who desire a safe place of escape with a home in place, but they want to continue living for now in the country that does not look too carefully at the source of their wealth. They arrive here for a visit. Real estate agents escort them around the city in busses to see current homes for sale or homes the real estate agents can convince owners to sell. By the busload, the visitors select a house to buy, then pay the full asking price or enter a bidding war for the home. These visitors pay all cash for the home--often in excess of $3 or $4 million.
The visitors who purchased the home neither live in it or rent it to someone else. It stands empty.
I see it every week. All you need are excellent schools and a reasonably safe area.
That is a large part of why home prices in some areas are rising so fast.
The visitors who purchased the home neither live in it or rent it to someone else. It stands empty.
I see it every week. All you need are excellent schools and a reasonably safe area.
That is a large part of why home prices in some areas are rising so fast.
13
The term limousine liberal came about many years ago after i'd coined the term cadilac conservative to describe the arrogant stogie smoking conservative class whose dream was to amass riches while complaining about high taxes, unions, etc. all the while racking in the money.
One ploy conservative commentators have used is to deflect their own weaknesses is by accusing liberals of having them instead. It seems to have worked because a majority of Americans accept mass produced misinformation rather than validate it.
We started running into income disparity problems about the time folk just started thinking it grand to pay outlandish prices to identify with corporations by purchasing t-shirts and such with their logos on them.
We will always have problems as long as we pit one manufactured class against another in order to distract from the actual reality of how we are being manipulated.
If only we could distribute some kind of glasses like in "They Live," to make us see through the cloud.
One ploy conservative commentators have used is to deflect their own weaknesses is by accusing liberals of having them instead. It seems to have worked because a majority of Americans accept mass produced misinformation rather than validate it.
We started running into income disparity problems about the time folk just started thinking it grand to pay outlandish prices to identify with corporations by purchasing t-shirts and such with their logos on them.
We will always have problems as long as we pit one manufactured class against another in order to distract from the actual reality of how we are being manipulated.
If only we could distribute some kind of glasses like in "They Live," to make us see through the cloud.
7
Silicon Valley and Hollywood elites are the highly visible members of the 1 per centers but the fact is that many of the world's weathiest people have ploughed their money into prime NYC, SF and LA properties, pushing their values to unforeseen heights and causing a ripple effect to the prices in all neighborhoods.
It has also had a strong upward effect on rents. A 1 bedroom apartment in a newer, full service building in LA easily tops $3000 a month now. That's chicken feed compared to NY and SF.
It has also had a strong upward effect on rents. A 1 bedroom apartment in a newer, full service building in LA easily tops $3000 a month now. That's chicken feed compared to NY and SF.
51
I don't want to ignore the homeless problem but I do wonder if the point of this editorial is the homeless or the wealth gap. I for one am sometimes jealous of the "ultra rich" but I also see people, ever day, who have broken through and made a good life for themselves. In other words I do not support the notion that we live in some kind of caste system and there is no mobility. The author makes my point coming from a "Guatemalan-American family" and now writing editorials for the NY Times and living in a neighborhood where the value of local homes has climbed to $750,000.
11
You haven't been paying attention.
Pre-crash, at least, the US has had worse class mobility than most of Europe for at least 25 years. You can't pick an example such as the author and proclaim, "All is well."
Step back from the tree and look at the forest.
Pre-crash, at least, the US has had worse class mobility than most of Europe for at least 25 years. You can't pick an example such as the author and proclaim, "All is well."
Step back from the tree and look at the forest.
1
One of the points you're missing is that he is talking about small "starter homes" as going at $750k. Which is difficult for most people to afford as incomes have not climbed along with home prices.
2
Superb piece by Hector Tobar on "Hooverville, California"! And fine illustration by George Bates of poor people locked together in shanty-villes on Skid Row. That East LA has a "developing world" metropolis within its demesne - "Little Bangladesh" - is beyond belief, but no more incomprehensible than the octopus tentacles of inequality of income, raw poverty and human beings' search for daily bread reaching far under the city's freeway bridges and scary ghetto society. The Haves, with their Maseratis and Teslas, the Have-nots with their homelessness, shanty camps and indigents. How can it be that California has the worst poverty rate in America? The freeways are choking The City of Angels - suffocating her people with traffic and noise pollution, fumes of fossil fuels and gridlock beyond imagining. No more "take me out to the ballgame" - a Dodgers field seat at $1,000 a pop! How long could a homeless person live on that $1,000? Tobar asserts that homelessness is a kind of caste, that the poorest squatters have become semi-permanent residents. Hope is in short supply in the shanty-camps, the "Hoovervilles" of villages that have sprung up in Hollywoodland. Los Angeles - now a "third world city" - is the thin edge of the wedge of great change in our American society.
15
Excellent essay. What is most significant, and tragic, is that this situation did not happen by accident, and it is not the result of "natural" market forces. This is a culmination of some 35 years of policies that were written by and for corporate and financial elites, carried out by their minions in the Republican and Democratic parties, to ensure that wealth flowed toward them, and away from the rest of us. Postwar efforts to level the playing field were undone under the cynical guise of (false) patriotism. They took our country; how do we get it back?
60
Boycott,garden,ride a bike, don't smoke, make wine,change marahuana laws,read and write, follow the advise you give others, control,sympathize ,give alms. Wear a sweater, check your tire's inflation even.
1
Excellent comment, highlighting a multi-factorial problem that's literally been decades in the making, on many fronts.
One "brick in the wall" was 1976's passage of MICRA, the so-called malpractice reform that conveniently "forgot" to account for the effects of future inflation. The net result was the greatest gift to med-mal insurers such that, much like fine wine, it keeps getting better with age.
CA voters were actually given an opportunity to fix the problem of caps last Nov via a ballot initiative, but instead selfishly voted it down by a 2:1 margin, perhaps thinking that defeating it would somehow bestow invincibility, never needing to sue THEIR doctor for actual malpractice.
Narcissistic delusional fools.....
One "brick in the wall" was 1976's passage of MICRA, the so-called malpractice reform that conveniently "forgot" to account for the effects of future inflation. The net result was the greatest gift to med-mal insurers such that, much like fine wine, it keeps getting better with age.
CA voters were actually given an opportunity to fix the problem of caps last Nov via a ballot initiative, but instead selfishly voted it down by a 2:1 margin, perhaps thinking that defeating it would somehow bestow invincibility, never needing to sue THEIR doctor for actual malpractice.
Narcissistic delusional fools.....
1
I do not pretend to have an answer to this. The U. S. Is a magnet for people from all over the world. Anyone who has travelled in Texas, Florida, or California can see this first hand. The Hooverville's he cites are likely to be better than from where many of them came. The more benefits we supply, the more they will come, not because of any character flaw, simply because what they get here is better than from whence they came. This is a world wide phenomenon. Europe is trying to figure out the same problems. World wide there are too few jobs for the lower skilled. This is all happening at a time when many states have strapped themselves with debt and infrastructure needs which limits their options. You simply cannot have tons of low skill immigrants and rising wages at the bottom. I suspect the outcome is going to be higher taxes, more stress between long time residents and new arrivals, and greater environmental issues as the population rises. Hang on tight!
30
Exactly. California used to be the golden state, the embodiment of the American dream. Now LA is a dystopia but still they come. ..but from outside our borders. It's a matter of balance. ..you can't cram endless numbers of people into a finite space and expect it to remain livable. And to top it off outsource every job that isn't nailed down. It's a case study on how to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
1
Camp of the Saints.
One of my neighbors wants our neighborhood (upper middle class area) to fund a private security firm to deter house and car break-ins because the Seattle police department isn't sufficiently responsive to our problems. Seems to me that this is a natural evolution of squeezing government over many years. Will we all have to be rich enough to pay privately for services that used to be provided by the government? Personally, I'd rather pay a higher rate of tax and return to the days when the government provided more support for a middle class life.
58
If the far right get into the Presidency, you will need private security to protect your lifestyle. They want each person to pay his/her way for everything--no subsidies.
Tax the rich! Eat them right up!
Does anyone actually think that's going to solve anything long-term? We need to have that "conversation" the left continues to ask for. We need to let those who have failed bear more responsibility for their failings instead of constantly pointing them toward a new person to blame for it.
Economics is not a zero sum game. The people in the shanties are not poor because someone else is driving a Maserati or a Tesla. I will bet, to a person, that at least 90% of those people whose circumstances Tobar bemoans, at one point or another, scoffed at the idea of education. Let them enjoy the fruits of their scorn then. I suppose it's all sorts of "ists" and "isms" to insist that people who didn't take the chance to better themselves think long and hard before having children.
In the age of free smartphones and near-ubiquitous free wifi (especially in cities) there is no excuse for a lack of education. But an hour spent on wikipedia is an hour not spent watching something to do with the Kardashians or spinning car rims I suppose.
Does anyone actually think that's going to solve anything long-term? We need to have that "conversation" the left continues to ask for. We need to let those who have failed bear more responsibility for their failings instead of constantly pointing them toward a new person to blame for it.
Economics is not a zero sum game. The people in the shanties are not poor because someone else is driving a Maserati or a Tesla. I will bet, to a person, that at least 90% of those people whose circumstances Tobar bemoans, at one point or another, scoffed at the idea of education. Let them enjoy the fruits of their scorn then. I suppose it's all sorts of "ists" and "isms" to insist that people who didn't take the chance to better themselves think long and hard before having children.
In the age of free smartphones and near-ubiquitous free wifi (especially in cities) there is no excuse for a lack of education. But an hour spent on wikipedia is an hour not spent watching something to do with the Kardashians or spinning car rims I suppose.
14
Free smartphones? In what parallel universe is that happening?
1
Even if the wifi is free, what if one doesn't own a computer, a house to put the computer in, and if all the public libraries have been shut down? Yes, just keep blaming the poor for their moral failings. That will keep working for a while longer.
2
Many of your children are taught STEM subjects by adjunct faculty; very well educated PhD's in many cases who have lost their job in the tech sector, particularly Pharma. Be wary of overgeneralizing ...
2
The author quoted Bill Boyarsky who is wrong about one big thing: taxes and the property tax revolt (Prop 13) led by Howard Jarvis did not cut funding for public education over the long term.
California has the 4th-highest state and local taxes as a share of state income. After adjusting for its high cost of living, it does spend less on K-12 education than do many other states, but, it spends far more on just about everything else (except roads and water infrastructure).
The Legislature needs to prioritize. Public education could be improved with choice, but the powerful teachers unions in California aren't interested in reform -- their sole interest is in higher salaries and benefits.
California has the 4th-highest state and local taxes as a share of state income. After adjusting for its high cost of living, it does spend less on K-12 education than do many other states, but, it spends far more on just about everything else (except roads and water infrastructure).
The Legislature needs to prioritize. Public education could be improved with choice, but the powerful teachers unions in California aren't interested in reform -- their sole interest is in higher salaries and benefits.
7
But if they had the highest property taxes, then they could lead the nation in all categories of local tax! Think of what a paradise they could be then...
1
I'm nearly finished with reading "Primates of Park Avenue", by Wednesday Martin, in which the author explores the culture of Manhattan's (and quite possibly the country's) most elite and competitive living environment, and one thing I read over and over is the fixation that the people described in its pages have with displaying the perfect purse, the perfect dress, the perfect home--all to compete with their neighbors, as if nothing else in the world exists. The bottom line--everyone described in the book is deeply convinced that they don't have enough because someone, somewhere has more.
It has to be possible to for things to improve. There are places in the world where politicians care about their citizens and things people need get done. It's been a long time since the US was like that but I have to believe it's possible.
It could be that it isn't possible, which means the US, as a country, won't last that much longer--we are in permanent decline and things will only get worse. It certainly feels that way, given our incarceration rate, the income gap, the cost of education (and the education gap), the disappearance of the middle class and the cost of health care, even with the ACA still in place.
Ultimately, what it will take is for a lot of people with power to give some of it up so there is a chance to raise the standards back to what we were used to.
It has to be possible to for things to improve. There are places in the world where politicians care about their citizens and things people need get done. It's been a long time since the US was like that but I have to believe it's possible.
It could be that it isn't possible, which means the US, as a country, won't last that much longer--we are in permanent decline and things will only get worse. It certainly feels that way, given our incarceration rate, the income gap, the cost of education (and the education gap), the disappearance of the middle class and the cost of health care, even with the ACA still in place.
Ultimately, what it will take is for a lot of people with power to give some of it up so there is a chance to raise the standards back to what we were used to.
32
Ultimately, it will take a Franklin Roosevelt, one from the landed gentry who actively sought the scorn and hatred of his peers to lead the less fortunate of his nation out of their darkest time in four generations and onto the road to unparalleled prosperity.
But instead we get Donald Trump. And that, my friends, is as clear an indicator as can be that we are in permanent decline, and the US as a country won't last that much longer. God save us all.
But instead we get Donald Trump. And that, my friends, is as clear an indicator as can be that we are in permanent decline, and the US as a country won't last that much longer. God save us all.
6
The problem is simple. Jobs have been shipped overseas.
The recent climate decisions by Obama will ensure more jobs are shipped overseas. We impose requirements on our businesses that third world countries do not, and then we seem surprised when our workers cannot compete with cheaper labor working for peanuts in dangerous, polluted environments. Obama wants to increase the burden on US businesses by imposing carbon taxes and restrictions, while China does not need to even begin thinking about reducing its carbon output for a generation. Then we enter into free trade agreements with China that let them sell goods made under these conditions.
When I first saw this, I wondered whether the people making decisions were geniuses that somehow knew this would work out. I then realized it is merely politicians, bureaucrats, and businesses all trying to fulfill short term goals in unrelated areas without considering either the long term or the interaction of these things.
The problem is not simply "rich people are taking more." It is more complicated than that. Rich people have no desire to impoverish anyone. People don't suddenly become cruel when they get rich. A very meaningful percentage of US billionaires were not among the richest Americans 20 years ago. Many of these people are doing good things.
We need to find a way to enable our workers to compete fairly with foreign workers, while maintaining our health, safety, and environmental standards.
The recent climate decisions by Obama will ensure more jobs are shipped overseas. We impose requirements on our businesses that third world countries do not, and then we seem surprised when our workers cannot compete with cheaper labor working for peanuts in dangerous, polluted environments. Obama wants to increase the burden on US businesses by imposing carbon taxes and restrictions, while China does not need to even begin thinking about reducing its carbon output for a generation. Then we enter into free trade agreements with China that let them sell goods made under these conditions.
When I first saw this, I wondered whether the people making decisions were geniuses that somehow knew this would work out. I then realized it is merely politicians, bureaucrats, and businesses all trying to fulfill short term goals in unrelated areas without considering either the long term or the interaction of these things.
The problem is not simply "rich people are taking more." It is more complicated than that. Rich people have no desire to impoverish anyone. People don't suddenly become cruel when they get rich. A very meaningful percentage of US billionaires were not among the richest Americans 20 years ago. Many of these people are doing good things.
We need to find a way to enable our workers to compete fairly with foreign workers, while maintaining our health, safety, and environmental standards.
8
Yes, good thinking. But you also need to talk more about "inclusive capitalism." It is the nature of our unregulated capitalism which has no value system -- our economic system needs to be rebuilt and our trade deals need to be re-written.
Remember Obama is pushing hard for a new trade deal, the trans-pacific partnership which will send even more jobs oversees and could further severely restrict our environmental protection in this country.
thanks for your thoughts. see www.oxfordhumanists.org.
Remember Obama is pushing hard for a new trade deal, the trans-pacific partnership which will send even more jobs oversees and could further severely restrict our environmental protection in this country.
thanks for your thoughts. see www.oxfordhumanists.org.
1
I clicked to recommend after the first paragraph ... and then unclicked when I reached the second. We do not want to turn into China, with its air so filthy that there was concern the athletes in the Beijing Olympics wouldn't be able to breathe well enough to perform. (It's also time we stopped referring to China as a 'Communist' country. Communism there is mere cant; it's authoritarian capitalism with a veneer of rhetoric.)
Your statement that 'Rich people have no desire to impoverish anyone. People don't suddenly become cruel when they get very rich' is in fact belied by social science research. Out of many possible citations, here is an article from the impeccably conservative Economist magazine: http://www.economist.com/node/16690659 There are people who, no matter how much they have, will not rest easy as long as one penny remains in someone else's pocket.
Your statement that 'Rich people have no desire to impoverish anyone. People don't suddenly become cruel when they get very rich' is in fact belied by social science research. Out of many possible citations, here is an article from the impeccably conservative Economist magazine: http://www.economist.com/node/16690659 There are people who, no matter how much they have, will not rest easy as long as one penny remains in someone else's pocket.
1
Globalization coupled with oligarchic control on both the federal and state level is the reason why the disparity between the rich and the rest have reached such an outrageous height. Obamacare is a classic example of the collusion between big business and government, as well as the refusal of the U.S. government to institute a foreign labor tax to bring jobs - manufacturing jobs - back home. Manufacturing is the cornerstone of any well functioning economy, not service sector, paper-pushing, pyramid jobs that produce nothing. And it's true elsewhere in the world. As businesses across the globe are merging and becoming invincibly large, seeking out the cheapest labor available in the poorer populations, exploiting it with little regard for working conditions, all to line their own elite, absurdly deep, unpatriotic, narcissistic, unethical pockets, nations are finding it harder and harder to maintain a reasonable standard of living.
Why do people tolerate it? At the moment they feel helpless, but they won't forever. Every dog has his day, and I fully expect that the people in the U.S. and elsewhere will rise up because the situation is glaringly unnatural from any philosophical, moral or economic perspective.
Why do people tolerate it? At the moment they feel helpless, but they won't forever. Every dog has his day, and I fully expect that the people in the U.S. and elsewhere will rise up because the situation is glaringly unnatural from any philosophical, moral or economic perspective.
24
We won't get a return to jobs at home until we reform campaign financing, so that we can elect politicians responsive to the citizens. We need a *constitutional amendment*, not a law that can easily be revoked. This is the way to rise up.
5
As a resident of Pasadena, California, I am glad to see someone drawing attention to this situation. This is the real story of our nation's "economic recovery" and the trend seems to be accelerating. To me it seems very important that we - all Americans - put aside our preconceptions and come to a clear and sober understanding of what is happening in our society.
In California, there has been a severe erosion of the middle class, and an exodus of the companies that employ them. I believe this is due - at least in part - to short-sighted state policies and a tax system that targets higher level wage earners (those paid on a W-2) who are mistakenly identified as "the rich" and bear a heavy state tax burden. Earning $150 K/year in California affords a basic middle class lifestyle, at best.
There are the old familiar battle lines in any discussion about the growing gap between rich and poor, and the disappearance of the middle. It is heart-breaking to see this happening in our nation, but we've been pushing toward such an outcome for several decades. If we continue to do what we've been doing, without a clear-minded assessment of the unintended consequences of all our good intentions, and a reevaluation of all our many policies, I fear the result will soon be irreversible. This is not some military threat on the far side of the planet; we are doing this, quite deliberately, to ourselves.
In California, there has been a severe erosion of the middle class, and an exodus of the companies that employ them. I believe this is due - at least in part - to short-sighted state policies and a tax system that targets higher level wage earners (those paid on a W-2) who are mistakenly identified as "the rich" and bear a heavy state tax burden. Earning $150 K/year in California affords a basic middle class lifestyle, at best.
There are the old familiar battle lines in any discussion about the growing gap between rich and poor, and the disappearance of the middle. It is heart-breaking to see this happening in our nation, but we've been pushing toward such an outcome for several decades. If we continue to do what we've been doing, without a clear-minded assessment of the unintended consequences of all our good intentions, and a reevaluation of all our many policies, I fear the result will soon be irreversible. This is not some military threat on the far side of the planet; we are doing this, quite deliberately, to ourselves.
35
The system does not just target wages earners on a W-2. There is no special rate in California state income tax for dividends and capitals gains, no 'carried interest'. All income from whatever source is taxed at a punishingly high rate, 13.3% for the top bracket.
Oh believe me, I know! I always wind up sending the state extra payments in addition to the maximum withholding, and they're nowhere near as courteous as the IRS.
RIght now, it's our impoverished and lower-income people who are being pushed into favelas and shanty towns--much like our neighbors to the south. And they have been pushed there by leaders with a Soviet-style adherence to calamitous economic ideology.
But when this starts happening to the middle and the upper-middle classes--and, believe me, if nothing changes this will happen very soon--then watch out. Massive social realignments occur when you have a disaffected middle: history has proven this to be true over and over. These groups of people have the time and education to theorize their "relative deprivation," the yawning gap between and the social myths that have been propagated and the reality in which they live. And, if they are young--which they most certainly will be in a society that has chosen to cannibalize its youth with the gnashing teeth of debt--then they will have the energy, too.
But when this starts happening to the middle and the upper-middle classes--and, believe me, if nothing changes this will happen very soon--then watch out. Massive social realignments occur when you have a disaffected middle: history has proven this to be true over and over. These groups of people have the time and education to theorize their "relative deprivation," the yawning gap between and the social myths that have been propagated and the reality in which they live. And, if they are young--which they most certainly will be in a society that has chosen to cannibalize its youth with the gnashing teeth of debt--then they will have the energy, too.
39
Very well stated.
The middle and upper-middle classes have a simple option; sell their house for $750K, and leave the state. They can live very nicely in many other places.
1
One of the biggest problems in California with the cost of property is the artificially suppressed property taxes. If the property taxes rose appropriately the cost of real estate would have been contained.
Another thing for which you can thank your Republican Legislature. They pushed the through the measure to cap property taxes at artificially low levels. It was their idea and now so many average people own properties valued at a million dollars if they increased it to where they should be it would bankrupt them.
Another thing for which you can thank your Republican Legislature. They pushed the through the measure to cap property taxes at artificially low levels. It was their idea and now so many average people own properties valued at a million dollars if they increased it to where they should be it would bankrupt them.
17
That is an interesting theory, but taxes are incredibly high in NY and New Jersey, and yet they have extremely high real estate prices.
The speculation in real estate is so entrenched in investors AND the public that even the debacle of the housing/foreclosure crisis of 2008-2013 -- so recent! -- has not cooled their jets even one iota. In most coastal cities, prices now exceed those of 2006 (the peak of the pre-crash speculation)!
The truth is that people want real estate -- and those delicious double-digit equity increases! -- and house flipping and HGTV shows that encourage it -- SO MUCH, that no amount of property tax will contain it. (After all, even if you RENT, you are paying the property tax for the landlord indirectly -- he must raise your rent if taxes go way up.)
The speculation in real estate is so entrenched in investors AND the public that even the debacle of the housing/foreclosure crisis of 2008-2013 -- so recent! -- has not cooled their jets even one iota. In most coastal cities, prices now exceed those of 2006 (the peak of the pre-crash speculation)!
The truth is that people want real estate -- and those delicious double-digit equity increases! -- and house flipping and HGTV shows that encourage it -- SO MUCH, that no amount of property tax will contain it. (After all, even if you RENT, you are paying the property tax for the landlord indirectly -- he must raise your rent if taxes go way up.)
1
I assure you that, having lived in CA pre and post Prop 13, the reason it was enacted was precisely because outrageously rising property taxes forced savers - mostly seniors - from their homes. Can't pay your property tax bill ma'am, you'll have to sell your house. Revisionist history obscures a necessary dialogue.
1
"Bill Boyarsky, a retired city editor at The Los Angeles Times, dates the beginning to the decline of industrial Los Angeles in the 1970s: “We lost a huge number of middle-class jobs.”"
You think? And it is has been replaced by the mindset that we need to be 'post-industrial', to move beyond making things, as if the swelling population of the US magically transformed from those needing such jobs to a nation of college graduates. I'm a second generation Californian, spent almost a quarter of century there at different times, and remember the increasing homeless during the Reagan era especially. The population grew after the savings and loan fiascos in the Midwest, the meltdown of finance on the east coast, and especially with immigration. All of a sudden 'La Raza' was showing up spray painted all over the state on signs, buildings, and infrastructure from the city to the rural areas. The sleepy beach communities turned into hip places to go with crowds and no parking, and migrant workers lived in camps in the canyons separating the multi-million dollar estates in other areas. San Diego somehow managed to keep the crime rates fairly low but LA and other cities weren't so lucky.
I don't see it improving, as long as the nation thinks that it is ok to essentially have a large red star on the top of the Christmas tree, to pay homage to where all of the gifts came from, and as a sign of surrendering the loss of jobs that goes with the loss of manufacturing capacity.
You think? And it is has been replaced by the mindset that we need to be 'post-industrial', to move beyond making things, as if the swelling population of the US magically transformed from those needing such jobs to a nation of college graduates. I'm a second generation Californian, spent almost a quarter of century there at different times, and remember the increasing homeless during the Reagan era especially. The population grew after the savings and loan fiascos in the Midwest, the meltdown of finance on the east coast, and especially with immigration. All of a sudden 'La Raza' was showing up spray painted all over the state on signs, buildings, and infrastructure from the city to the rural areas. The sleepy beach communities turned into hip places to go with crowds and no parking, and migrant workers lived in camps in the canyons separating the multi-million dollar estates in other areas. San Diego somehow managed to keep the crime rates fairly low but LA and other cities weren't so lucky.
I don't see it improving, as long as the nation thinks that it is ok to essentially have a large red star on the top of the Christmas tree, to pay homage to where all of the gifts came from, and as a sign of surrendering the loss of jobs that goes with the loss of manufacturing capacity.
18
Raise taxes on the rich, redirect money from the military machine to government jobs programs for the poor, pass national laws preventing companies from outsourcing jobs, establish national tax rates for corporations, pass national laws requiring the top paid worker in any company to earn no more than, say, twenty times the lowest paid worker. Oh, and pass a law requiring anyone running for public office to not only have attended a public school themselves but also to have sent their children to public schools (and watch our education system change overnight). We could do all of this - if we could drag ourselves away from our big screen TVs long enough to pay attention to things (and to show up to vote at every election). Meanwhile, where's the remote?
90
California has the highest state income tax on the rich of any state, 13,3%. About 90% of the taxes they collect comes from the top brackets.
1
In a country as wealthy as ours, it is disgraceful that we have such poverty. Poverty will always be here, but permanent homelessness should not be acceptable. Perhaps we could funnel some of the billions we spend on political campaigns to assist folks like the "cowboy". Maybe some of the billions going to subsidize corporations could be put to better use. Is it possible that our priorities are backwards? People are people and people deserve to be treated with dignity and sometimes a bit of altruism would not hurt.
46
Assuming government assurance of necessities and having the rich pay for them are the ways to go, I'd like to hear the details of a successful program. I'm challenged to find an example of a large scale, efficient, government run program for housing, food, health care or transportation. Tax the rich but waste the taxes is a poor recommendation.
9
Social Security and Medicare for one. They are both largely successful programs which achieve their goals.
8
An example of an efficiently-run government program that works?
Medicare
Medicare
8
Well, I guess we could just shoot 'em. Maybe make them into high-quality leather goods and premium dog food. And soap and lampshades.
It always amuses me that the 'conservatives' are the ones who most loudly proclaim their faith in Jesus - the man who walked away from a productive job to spend his entire ministry effectively homeless, couch-surfing among his followers, and actually rebuked Martha for working rather than simply sitting at his feet like her sister. Who preached 'take no thought for the morrow' and 'the poor ye have always with you' and 'it is easier for a camel to pass through the needle's eye (a narrow gate in Jerusalem) than for a rich man to enter heaven).'
Who proclaim the 'right to life' for foetuses, and would force the poor and/or the severely disabled to be carried to term, but one they're born basically toss them on the dungheap.
And who named one of their most prominent think tanks, less hypocritically, after Cato - a Roman parvenu who amassed great wealth and was famous for working his slaves nearly to death and selling them cheap when they were too broken down to work, and priding himself on his economic savvy in this respect.
It always amuses me that the 'conservatives' are the ones who most loudly proclaim their faith in Jesus - the man who walked away from a productive job to spend his entire ministry effectively homeless, couch-surfing among his followers, and actually rebuked Martha for working rather than simply sitting at his feet like her sister. Who preached 'take no thought for the morrow' and 'the poor ye have always with you' and 'it is easier for a camel to pass through the needle's eye (a narrow gate in Jerusalem) than for a rich man to enter heaven).'
Who proclaim the 'right to life' for foetuses, and would force the poor and/or the severely disabled to be carried to term, but one they're born basically toss them on the dungheap.
And who named one of their most prominent think tanks, less hypocritically, after Cato - a Roman parvenu who amassed great wealth and was famous for working his slaves nearly to death and selling them cheap when they were too broken down to work, and priding himself on his economic savvy in this respect.
8
Time for LA to take a wrecking ball to the public education system. Education has the only real shot of getting people out of poverty in the long term. From what i read in LA like in NYC, the dept of ED is a jobs program for adults and not a education system for kids. Then again I dont really cate much beyond neither school system have produced results in 50 years. Time to start over. It could hardly be worse. Can anyone name another government program that can actually solve the program long term?
13
This is MRS. What government program could help it? A clean sweep into making "family values" what it sounds like it should be. A return to morality and practice of ethics would go a long way, too. There is no true government program that could pull anyone out of poverty except one that provides work with a living wage paycheck. There is plenty of infrastructure that needs to be redone in this nation, but nobody seems to want another alphabet program in place like during the Great Depression. Welfare payment for actually doing something for the nation would give people a self-pride they probably don't have, but those who collect have their rights and civil liberties and we wouldn't want to burden them with having to work for what they get for doing nothing but going to a mail box and then to a cash station.
From what you've read? Do tell. I just spent a week working with five teachers from LA who are spending their summer break doing what they can with their time to get the professional development needed to stop the damage done by an absence of funding and strong leadership.
I read a lot in education policy, I'd really like your reading list. :)
I read a lot in education policy, I'd really like your reading list. :)
1
One wonders whether the author thought long and hard what to call such shanty towns in the age of free cell phones. It really is odd that he chose a pseudonym of the 1930s (Hoovervilles, dreamt up by FDR's think tank) to describe what has been created by a vast shoveling of taxpayer dollars down to the depths of society without any economic result. Why, it is exactly what prolonged a decades long misery when America kept re-electing (4 times!) an administration who kept digging the hole deeper.
Obamaghettos?
Obamaghettos?
8
Here's a story about "shoveling" tax payer dollars to the poor. Toyota started an apprenticeship program for car mechanics in South Central after the 1992 riots. One of those public-private ventures people feel good about. And this one truly felt good, because it was one of the few success stories.
Unfortunately, the program failed, because it required a base-line 8th grade-level literacy that very few of the prospective mechanics had as students of LAUSD. Proposition 13 utterly destroyed public education in Los Angeles and other California large cities.
How great it would be to actually read Héctor Tobar's article (in which he mention's Howard Jarvis) instead of going all the way to write a comment and coming up with some vague Left-Right platitude.
Try this formula instead: Low commercial taxes for SoCal industry = high property taxes for SoCal homeowners = tax revolt that destroys entire tax base for education = American citizens too poorly served when they were children by their fellow citizens to acquire the basic skills to succeed. A recipe for income inequality.
Can we finally bury the 1960s and just deal with this mess? Please?
Unfortunately, the program failed, because it required a base-line 8th grade-level literacy that very few of the prospective mechanics had as students of LAUSD. Proposition 13 utterly destroyed public education in Los Angeles and other California large cities.
How great it would be to actually read Héctor Tobar's article (in which he mention's Howard Jarvis) instead of going all the way to write a comment and coming up with some vague Left-Right platitude.
Try this formula instead: Low commercial taxes for SoCal industry = high property taxes for SoCal homeowners = tax revolt that destroys entire tax base for education = American citizens too poorly served when they were children by their fellow citizens to acquire the basic skills to succeed. A recipe for income inequality.
Can we finally bury the 1960s and just deal with this mess? Please?
16
The capital gains tax rate has sunk precipitously in the past five decades. No money goes to these people, which is why they are homeless. How can you attribute rising homelessness to welfare? Where is this welfare?
2
Interestingly, if any of the people in these shantytowns got sick, they'd be taken to the hospital and receive hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medical care under MediCal. Of course, the money would go to the hospitals, doctors, and nurses, not to them.
2
In my previous life as a stand up comic, I traveled to every major and secondary city in 49 of the 50 states. After living in the San Fernando Valley for 13 years -and now thankfully back in the suburbs of New York City- it was profoundly obvious that Los Angeles is far and away the most segregated city in America, both economically AND racially. The hypocritical leftists who have run L.A. at the local level as well as the region's congressional delegation have done nothing but further impoverish the poor and minority populations whilst expecting -and receiving- re-election every 2 or 4 years.
21
TJ: you are simply factually wrong. Sometimes impression a person gets are misleading -- anecdotal -- but economic FACTS are that New York City is the most segregated city (racially AND economically) in the US, especially their schools. No place else has been more astonishingly effective at driving out middle class families.
Los Angeles is on the short list, god knows, but not worse. And the primary reason is space -- LA is huge and sprawling. NYC is compact and vertical. The $750,000 that will buy you a 2 bedroom bungalow in Los Angeles will only get you a studio apartment or junior 1 bedroom in Manhattan or Park Slope -- and that is death to families. They have no hope of moving up, or finding space for even one child. Heck, people can barely move in together, when they must rent shoeboxes.
Note that both cities (and states!) are liberal, blue Democratic strongholds. It is liberal policies that have created this disparity, largely through high taxation, pampered public unions and relentless real estate speculation.
Los Angeles is on the short list, god knows, but not worse. And the primary reason is space -- LA is huge and sprawling. NYC is compact and vertical. The $750,000 that will buy you a 2 bedroom bungalow in Los Angeles will only get you a studio apartment or junior 1 bedroom in Manhattan or Park Slope -- and that is death to families. They have no hope of moving up, or finding space for even one child. Heck, people can barely move in together, when they must rent shoeboxes.
Note that both cities (and states!) are liberal, blue Democratic strongholds. It is liberal policies that have created this disparity, largely through high taxation, pampered public unions and relentless real estate speculation.
3
Be careful when you throw around words like "minority" in CA for the facts here are different than in other parts of the country. A few years ago, CA became the first state in which caucasians no longer represent the majority race. We have a virtual lock on a one party system in Sacramento, and a decidedly liberal electorate. Perhaps the rest of the country is unaware that our state takes in the most immigrants of any state in the country, both legal and illegal. Our problem must be couched in terms of the sheer number of new arrivals, most starting out working menial jobs just as our ancestors did before us, a lack of land, water and other natural resources, and the highest tax rates in the country on an ever-shrinking tax base (our labor participation rate is now below 47%).
1
Non-wealthy people in NY do not look to buy apartments on the Upper East Side or Park Slope. I know the Times would cringe at this but families can buy large homes in the Bronx (gasp) for relatively cheap prices. I suppose it is just a matter of time before hipsters and trust-fund babies make the Bronx the new hip and happening place with million dollar homes and artisanal pickle shops on every corner.
Welcome to the Republican world where the rich pay a small portion of their income in taxes and the poor is blamed for their own inadequacy. It all started with Reagan in 1981. The Republican hero with his trickle down theories where the only thing trickling down was poverty and the destruction of the social fabric. What else can we expect when the rich pay less taxes percentage vise than secretaries.
268
California has the highest marginal income tax rate in the nation, 13.3%, and has the 4th-highest state and local taxes as a share of state income. Their tax policies are steeply progressive.
Reagan was just a mouthpiece, a hired gun for powerful military-industrial interests whose think tanks had long experience developing propaganda and running messaging wars against other countries. The difference was that they decided to take over the U.S. government using the same tactics. Along the way, they've also had to fix a national election, buy statehouses, and a few other sordid details, but they're almost there.
You're wrong. It started when Reagan was elected governor of California in 1966.
This is really just the culmination of the ponzi scheme that is real estate. My mother had a friend who was a single school teacher her whole life in LA beginning in the 1950s. She became a multi-millionaire many times over by simply owning a place to live and buying a couple of rentals over the years.
Without an increase in wages that is compatible with the increase in the cost-of-living a place becomes affordable. I already recognized this 25 years ago and have lived in various backwaters ever since as have many of my post-boomer cohorts.
Without an increase in wages that is compatible with the increase in the cost-of-living a place becomes affordable. I already recognized this 25 years ago and have lived in various backwaters ever since as have many of my post-boomer cohorts.
21
You do not need to be a major investor to have benefited, because the increases in California are so extreme and continuous over 40+ years.
I have some distant relatives in the near-LA area. In the 1930s, my great uncle was a barber. He had a tiny barber shop in a small strip shopping center, with about 4-5 shops. It came up for sale, and he decided to buy it, thus avoiding rent & rent increases in the future. I believe family legend says he paid $4000 for the whole plaza at a time when real estate prices were at historical bottoms. This was a huge struggle for his family, but they managed it.
In the 1950s, the US post office approached them and rented the space at above market rates. They are still there. Uncle Joe is long gone, of course. But that little tiny property has expanded in value about 10,000%. Today it's probably worth well over $10 million. All of Joe's children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren are living off the rents from this ONE investment he made (it did not pay off at all during his lifetime). They are rich.
Meantime, my great-grandmother (Joe's mother in law) owned a nice colonial in an urban residential area of Cleveland. It also cost about $4000 in the 1930s. It was sold in the 40s for less than that, the area was already declining. Today, it is a sad inner city slum. The house still stands, but looks tragic. It is likely not worth more than $4000 today in 2015.
MY family is not wealthy; we inherited nothing.
I have some distant relatives in the near-LA area. In the 1930s, my great uncle was a barber. He had a tiny barber shop in a small strip shopping center, with about 4-5 shops. It came up for sale, and he decided to buy it, thus avoiding rent & rent increases in the future. I believe family legend says he paid $4000 for the whole plaza at a time when real estate prices were at historical bottoms. This was a huge struggle for his family, but they managed it.
In the 1950s, the US post office approached them and rented the space at above market rates. They are still there. Uncle Joe is long gone, of course. But that little tiny property has expanded in value about 10,000%. Today it's probably worth well over $10 million. All of Joe's children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren are living off the rents from this ONE investment he made (it did not pay off at all during his lifetime). They are rich.
Meantime, my great-grandmother (Joe's mother in law) owned a nice colonial in an urban residential area of Cleveland. It also cost about $4000 in the 1930s. It was sold in the 40s for less than that, the area was already declining. Today, it is a sad inner city slum. The house still stands, but looks tragic. It is likely not worth more than $4000 today in 2015.
MY family is not wealthy; we inherited nothing.
3
HA! Love the ending statement.
"Like a bad habit I'll keep coming back into your world."
And that about sums the gated community and Elite types worse fears doesn't it? But they don't seem able to understand that by their very habit of recoiling from the "common man/woman," by conducting the practices of extraction (from society) and exclusion rather than fostering the practices of inclusion, they themselves are leading us ever onward down the well-trodden path of ruin.
History is replete with endless examples of what happens to a society when the ruling classes grow so insular as to forget that they may be fat and privileged, but their own particular brand of entitlement is non-sustainable. By their self-centered self-interested actions they leads us all to ruin because those on the other end of that spectrum grow tired of the disparities and begin to act in kind.
I'll keep coming back indeed. And more and more it will be en mass, too, so long as such inequalities grow.
John~
American Net'Zen
"Like a bad habit I'll keep coming back into your world."
And that about sums the gated community and Elite types worse fears doesn't it? But they don't seem able to understand that by their very habit of recoiling from the "common man/woman," by conducting the practices of extraction (from society) and exclusion rather than fostering the practices of inclusion, they themselves are leading us ever onward down the well-trodden path of ruin.
History is replete with endless examples of what happens to a society when the ruling classes grow so insular as to forget that they may be fat and privileged, but their own particular brand of entitlement is non-sustainable. By their self-centered self-interested actions they leads us all to ruin because those on the other end of that spectrum grow tired of the disparities and begin to act in kind.
I'll keep coming back indeed. And more and more it will be en mass, too, so long as such inequalities grow.
John~
American Net'Zen
47
A friend just came back from Copenhagen and said how relaxed he felt there. Only later did he realized that it was because there was virtually no poverty there. When one visits other major cities, such as Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, and many more, the way in which infrastructure and transportation are beautifully maintained is almost shocking to Americans. The growing inequality in the US is indeed rapidly making us into a "developing" country. Until the political system ceases to be an oligarchy controlled by corporations and the wealthy, it is in all likelihood going to stay that way.
384
Those places also have something else in common: almost no immigration. Their society is nearly homogeneous. Welfare states are possible, and can even succeed for a time, when their is only one culture.
2
Poverty in Denmark is centered outside the tourist areas your friend probably visited. Poor people in Denmark live in the countryside - in abandoned industrial areas like Nykøbing Falster or Sønderjylland (think Gary, Indiana) or in suburban ghettos like Ishøj or Vaerbroparken. There is also a substantial homeless population in Copenhagen, particularly in the summers. (Non-Danish citizens are not eligible for social welfare services.) Try finishing off a can of soda in a Copenhagen city park. Some desperate soul will come by to collect it before you've finished the last drops.
2
Yeah Bill, well other countries have their own problems. Japan slaughters dolphins, whales and porpoises, and does so in a while that they are tortured to death.
The glorification of the wealthy results in the marginalization of the poor. The evidence of this, as expressed in LA homelessness, is amplified because the area is the center of the movie industry. Hollywood's myths and legends surrounding The West and The Good Life permeate the consciousness of America and solidify the notion in our minds that the myth of wealth for all is sustainable. The homeless live in the shadow of that myth, mostly unseen by moviegoers.
15
Interesting to see so many commenters claim that the problem is "illegal" immigrants and that the solution is tighter boarders. Some claim that the Latinos are the homeless; others that they create homelessness by taking jobs. I have worked both in social services and as a pastor in Chicago. While Chicago certainly has a significant Latino population, the homeless are mainly white or black, not Latino.
As to the immigrants "taking the jobs," many of the homeless have issues which stretch far beyond simply not having a job available. They have mental illness of all kinds; they have substance abuse problems; they have learning disabilities and/or are functionally illiterate making any employment difficult; they have criminal backgrounds. Some of them have a combination of these things and are now in their 40s, 50s or even 60s and lack any consistent job history or even any history of having worked at all (other than the occasional cash economy, i.e., unrecorded, odd job). In short, they are simply unemployable without special programs, which must include all kinds of expensive supports, therapy, housing and clothing help etc. It is easy to blame the "illegal" immigrants, but they are not the problem.
As to the immigrants "taking the jobs," many of the homeless have issues which stretch far beyond simply not having a job available. They have mental illness of all kinds; they have substance abuse problems; they have learning disabilities and/or are functionally illiterate making any employment difficult; they have criminal backgrounds. Some of them have a combination of these things and are now in their 40s, 50s or even 60s and lack any consistent job history or even any history of having worked at all (other than the occasional cash economy, i.e., unrecorded, odd job). In short, they are simply unemployable without special programs, which must include all kinds of expensive supports, therapy, housing and clothing help etc. It is easy to blame the "illegal" immigrants, but they are not the problem.
196
I both disagree and agree. To say that illegal immigrants are not "the" problem is not to say that they are not "a" problem. The influx of cheap labour undercutting working conditions and wages, the fact that illegals won't complain about labour violations for fear of being deported, and the lack of strong penalties for hiring illegals, creates a strong economic incentive for employers. Nor is amnesty the solution, because once the present illegals are legalised, their employers will simply fire them, putting them on the dole, and replace them with yet another influx of illegals who expect, eventually, another amnesty to extend to them, and so it goes.
But I suspect illegals are not the homeless; more likely they are living 12 to a room in the cheapest available housing.
You are, though, correct about the mentally ill, disabled, and chronically unemployable making up a large percentage of the homeless. Many of them have no family left to take them in - couch surfing being the most common refuge of the homeless. (If we count the homeless who have no home of their own, not just the sleeping-under-bridges, the numbers would increase appreciably.) And I also suspect illegals are taking those under-the-table jobs that the homeless citizens with issues might be able to pick up.
1500 characters is not sufficient for a nuanced discussion of illegal immigration.
But I suspect illegals are not the homeless; more likely they are living 12 to a room in the cheapest available housing.
You are, though, correct about the mentally ill, disabled, and chronically unemployable making up a large percentage of the homeless. Many of them have no family left to take them in - couch surfing being the most common refuge of the homeless. (If we count the homeless who have no home of their own, not just the sleeping-under-bridges, the numbers would increase appreciably.) And I also suspect illegals are taking those under-the-table jobs that the homeless citizens with issues might be able to pick up.
1500 characters is not sufficient for a nuanced discussion of illegal immigration.
23
While that's true to some extent, you cant ignore the effect on the broader society of a population that is willing to be exploited. Housing is very expensive in NYC in part because it's in limited supply. But then you have neighborhoods where a person is willing to live with 8-10 others in a 2 bedroom apartment...it changes the fabric of the neighborhood, keeps thing unaffordable, and forces others to live in cramped conditions in order to compete for scarce housing.
1
But if all the illegal immigrants disappeared tomorrow, employers would be desperate. They'd need people and would hire anyone. They'd say we don't care if you're a drunk and a drug user who just got out of jail, if you can stay sober enough for 8 hours to wash dishes and clear tables, you're hired!
Such a situation would probably help these people far more than any social programs would.
Such a situation would probably help these people far more than any social programs would.
3
>
Get used to it. Hoovervilles are America's future. Wake up!
Read carefully:
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2879083/southern-california-edison-...
Get used to it. Hoovervilles are America's future. Wake up!
Read carefully:
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2879083/southern-california-edison-...
17
Greedy corporations, always ready to improve their bottom line, will do anything to improve their stock value and make more money at the expense of the working people. So they hire cheep labor from overseas and fire Americans. I bet they blame it on Obama too.
9
You forget that we live in a Capitalist country! A corporation is not "greedy" when it tries to improve its stock value; it is fiscally responsible. Reaching out for ways to lower costs is not a new concept. I remember when the US Steel industry lost out to foreign steel. It's "foreign" only because the world is shrinking. Ultimately, the only solution is world-wide equity of some sort.
You wrote, "As long as Los Angeles holds on to such compassion, it won’t be a true 'third world city'" As someone who grew up in Mumbai, a third world city by most yardsticks, I know that compassion exists in third world cities. Your statement is as prejudicial and derogatory to people who live in third world cities as the statement with which you opened this piece and that you found offensive.
Also, how much of the homelessness is a result of importing massive numbers of people into the underclass? Yes, I mean illegal immigration. The enormous scale of this one phenomenon depresses wages and leads to unemployment for Americans. Other dysfunctions that have their roots in such displacement - from alcoholism to family disintegration and resultant homelessness - are therefore not far behind.
Also, how much of the homelessness is a result of importing massive numbers of people into the underclass? Yes, I mean illegal immigration. The enormous scale of this one phenomenon depresses wages and leads to unemployment for Americans. Other dysfunctions that have their roots in such displacement - from alcoholism to family disintegration and resultant homelessness - are therefore not far behind.
51
I agree fully... That comment was ridiculous. In fact in 3rd world cities that I know personally- the average citizen is more empathetic because they know it could be them.
9
Welcome to the future. In my travels with the navy and army I went to many third world countries. They all had the same basic problems, lack of jobs that paid anything that allowed a person to live comfortably. A huge gap in wealth and poverty, and a government that could not provide the most basic of services. When I hear some politician blaming all the problems in America on the people who are working, and can't make ends meet without some form of government aid, that's just an attempt to turn the middle class against the lower classes.
When the woman told President Bush that she works three jobs and has a hard time making ends meet, what did the President say? He praised her willingness to work. My friends wife in Berlin saw the same clip and was horrified that a person needs to work this many hours in the United States. She looked at her husband and asked: "What is wrong with the United States?" He said: "Many people think the poor have too much money."
When the woman told President Bush that she works three jobs and has a hard time making ends meet, what did the President say? He praised her willingness to work. My friends wife in Berlin saw the same clip and was horrified that a person needs to work this many hours in the United States. She looked at her husband and asked: "What is wrong with the United States?" He said: "Many people think the poor have too much money."
515
Confusing.........should Bush have told the woman to quit working? What does "Many people think the poor have too much money" have to do with anything?
8
No, but it's a sad state of affairs when a person is forced to work three jobs and still struggles to support themselves. It just goes to show how miserable the economy is for a lot of people. Because when you look at where they want to cut spending, it is always programs that are a part of the safety net. We constantly hear how these programs are bankrupting us.
12
I think you missed the point. The point was that Bush thought is was just fine for someone to have to work three jobs to make ends meet. More willful blindness.
13
Instead of looking for scapegoats to blame the blight, it would be helpful to have articles which show that, when communities comprise the well-to-do, middle-income, and lower-income, they are more stable, vibrant and exciting places to live.
If they exist anymore....
If they exist anymore....
15
Lets vote for Bernie and take the first step out of the self perpetuating inequality morass
395
"Lets vote for Bernie and take the first step out of the self perpetuating inequality morass"
Words are cheap my friend. It's not the President who is the problem. It's the congress. You might have an eye toward them and stop trying to elect someone who will eventually ensure a Republican President if you continue your relentless drumbeat.
Words are cheap my friend. It's not the President who is the problem. It's the congress. You might have an eye toward them and stop trying to elect someone who will eventually ensure a Republican President if you continue your relentless drumbeat.
8
Shocking how some people try to blame the victims, e.g., by pointing the finger at undocumented people, or people who don't want to work, and so on. Or blaming the Democrats, or Obama, or any other political party or person that they currently hate.
It's widely acknowledged that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. That's not because the poor are trying to get poorer and have the political clout to make it happen. It's because the rich are trying (and succeeding) to get richer and have the political clout to make that happen! They also have the resources to buy a public relations establishment that widely promotes an ideology that blames the poor for their plight.
It's widely acknowledged that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. That's not because the poor are trying to get poorer and have the political clout to make it happen. It's because the rich are trying (and succeeding) to get richer and have the political clout to make that happen! They also have the resources to buy a public relations establishment that widely promotes an ideology that blames the poor for their plight.
369
Uh, don't tell me we haven't made it more "comfortable" to be poor. Lowest labor participation rate since the 70's - that means people QUIT LOOKING. IF you want to subsidize that, fine, but I'd prefer my tax dollars didn't.
1
Our country is crumbling from within. Perhaps the most painful thing is that the rhetoric continues to blame the poor and disenfranchised---as if they had the wherewithal and power to steer their own fate. This catastrophe flows from top down.
272
And what percentage of the "poor and disenfranchised" weren't born here??
1
This is an important piece, but I was dumbfounded by the suggestion at the end that "true" third-world cities lack the sort of compassion the author encounters in L.A. The author thus denigrates entire cities and many millions of human beings in just the way he decries at home, rather than recognizing that the downtrodden everywhere, not just in his home city, often have far more humanity than the wealthy.
53
Nice to know that “Los Angeles still has a much larger middle class than your average developing-world city.” If not for that grudging admission, we might think L.A. was actually Guatemala City.
That will be my last attempt to one-up Ann Coulter. She’s MUCH better than I could ever be at this.
But it says a lot that some of the most energetic support for illegal immigration amnesty as well as unrestricted immigration comes from a state that has such problems with homelessness. California’s unemployment rate is 6.3% while the nation’s is 5.4% and that of Texas 4.2%. And it’s not like the L.A. area and CA generally couldn’t generate employment – the author’s own citation of the middle-class strength of manufacturing long ago enjoyed in L.A. attests to that. Of course, that was when CA was solidly Republican. Seems its economic troubles really started with Jerry Brown’s FIRST gubernatorial term, starting in 1975 (I was there).
CA is one of the most heavily-taxed, most oppressively regulated states in the Union. Its income taxation is so lopsidedly focused on the “wealthy” that when a recession hits affecting the income of those actually taxed, they become an economic basket-case because revenue is available from no other source. Yet despite all this high taxation and regulation, their middle-classes are disappearing. You suppose there may be a connection there that has nothing to do with the fact that despite the taxation and regulation, there are still a few who have money?
That will be my last attempt to one-up Ann Coulter. She’s MUCH better than I could ever be at this.
But it says a lot that some of the most energetic support for illegal immigration amnesty as well as unrestricted immigration comes from a state that has such problems with homelessness. California’s unemployment rate is 6.3% while the nation’s is 5.4% and that of Texas 4.2%. And it’s not like the L.A. area and CA generally couldn’t generate employment – the author’s own citation of the middle-class strength of manufacturing long ago enjoyed in L.A. attests to that. Of course, that was when CA was solidly Republican. Seems its economic troubles really started with Jerry Brown’s FIRST gubernatorial term, starting in 1975 (I was there).
CA is one of the most heavily-taxed, most oppressively regulated states in the Union. Its income taxation is so lopsidedly focused on the “wealthy” that when a recession hits affecting the income of those actually taxed, they become an economic basket-case because revenue is available from no other source. Yet despite all this high taxation and regulation, their middle-classes are disappearing. You suppose there may be a connection there that has nothing to do with the fact that despite the taxation and regulation, there are still a few who have money?
10
After Jerry Brown's first time as governor, California was governed by Republican governors, except for Grey Davis, until Jerry Brown was elected again. It was the Republicans who destroyed the state and Jerry Brown who has put it back together.
9
Korean doesn't use logograms! It's basically an alphabet, oriented around syllables. A logographic system uses a different written symbol for each word, requiring lots of memorizing. Korean, like English, has a different symbol for each sound, which combine into words.
14
If we "import" a lot of uneducated, low skill workers and their families, it stands to reason the number of low income people in society will increase. While many immigrants have the desire to work hard and get ahead, (insert Vietnam family that owns a restaurant or Pakistani family that owns a Dunkin' Donuts or motel), it is not true across the board. Increasing the number of people in poverty naturally results in an increase in income inequality. So, to reduce income inequality, let's confiscate the wealth of the rich. We could start with all those self satisfied Hollywood types, driving their Teslas and getting free publicity by showing up to support the current "in" cause. But, if we are going to have a Chinese style "cultural revolution", what would be better than bringing down all the bureaucrats? It would save a lot of money too..... Will we really lose anything if we take money and property from the rich of Manhattan, the Hamptons or Hyannisport?
6
On the reverse side if we stopped sucking up all the talent then the economies of the countries many come from would be better. That lowers the rate of migration.
2
You don`t call it "confiscate" when you get your property back from a pick pocket. In general I have long had the belief that at any given moment there is only so much money. For the rich to get richer someone or a lot of someones have to get poorer.
2
Yet the president, Mrs. Clinton and other political heavyweights have made more fundraising trips to the West Coast than anyone can count. One of the dangers of spending so much time hobnobbing with the glitterati is that they blind you to everyone else, especially those referred to biblically as "the least of these my brethren."
The Hooverville 2.0 of which Mr. Tobar writes isn't visible from Beverly Hills, Silicon Valley or similar well-heeled environs. Which is consistent, at least so far, with the subliminal slogan of Campaign 2016: "Out of Sight, Out of Mind."
But other than Sen. Sanders, who among the presidential candidates crisscrossing the country in their private jets and luxury SUVs has anything meaningful to say about the ravages of economic dislocation and what can be done to ease them?
The Hooverville 2.0 of which Mr. Tobar writes isn't visible from Beverly Hills, Silicon Valley or similar well-heeled environs. Which is consistent, at least so far, with the subliminal slogan of Campaign 2016: "Out of Sight, Out of Mind."
But other than Sen. Sanders, who among the presidential candidates crisscrossing the country in their private jets and luxury SUVs has anything meaningful to say about the ravages of economic dislocation and what can be done to ease them?
124
I think the last President that took actual action on poverty was Lyndon Baines Johnson - in office 50 years ago. There was a segment of the population hostile to those actions then, we've only become more callous since.
7
Super Op-Ed on The City of Angels.
Abridged, fr Wiki, A much better book on LA`s devolution into what it has become:
City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles is a 1990 book by Mike Davis examining how contemporary Los Angeles has been shaped by different powerful forces in its history. The book opens with Davis visiting the ruins of the socialist community of Llano, organized in 1914 in what is now the Antelope Valley north of Los Angeles. The community moved in 1918, leaving behind the "ghost" of an alternative future for LA.
The rest of the book explores how different groups wielded power in different ways: the downtown Protestant elite, led by the Chandler family of the Los Angeles Times, and the new elite of the Jewish westside; the surprisingly powerful homeowner groups, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Catholic Church. The book concludes at what Davis calls the "junkyard of dreams," the former steel town of Fontana, east of LA, a victim of de-industrialization and decay.
Critical reception
In the Boston Review, Mark Haefele called the book "a black hole of Southland noir," but also wrote, "What's brilliant about Davis's book is his perception of Los Angeles as incarceration, its new prisons a major industry. . . . He's right that a broad landscape of the city is turning itself into Postmodern Piranesi. And to young black males in particular, the city has become a prisoner factory."[2]
Abridged, fr Wiki, A much better book on LA`s devolution into what it has become:
City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles is a 1990 book by Mike Davis examining how contemporary Los Angeles has been shaped by different powerful forces in its history. The book opens with Davis visiting the ruins of the socialist community of Llano, organized in 1914 in what is now the Antelope Valley north of Los Angeles. The community moved in 1918, leaving behind the "ghost" of an alternative future for LA.
The rest of the book explores how different groups wielded power in different ways: the downtown Protestant elite, led by the Chandler family of the Los Angeles Times, and the new elite of the Jewish westside; the surprisingly powerful homeowner groups, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Catholic Church. The book concludes at what Davis calls the "junkyard of dreams," the former steel town of Fontana, east of LA, a victim of de-industrialization and decay.
Critical reception
In the Boston Review, Mark Haefele called the book "a black hole of Southland noir," but also wrote, "What's brilliant about Davis's book is his perception of Los Angeles as incarceration, its new prisons a major industry. . . . He's right that a broad landscape of the city is turning itself into Postmodern Piranesi. And to young black males in particular, the city has become a prisoner factory."[2]
5
The ferocious divisions along class lines in Mexico are discussed in an interesting column on Slate this morning.
Perhaps some of the divisions in LA are a reflection of the new population.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/06/mexican-elites-secretly...
Perhaps some of the divisions in LA are a reflection of the new population.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/06/mexican-elites-secretly...
9
That should have been Daily Beast, not Slate.
2
It's not a new population. Like Texas - California was a part of Mexico. They weren't all expelled. Now more are just "returning".
3
We can have Hooverville everywhere
If only all voters forbear
From voting for Bernie
Republican journey
Includes Hoovervilles to spare!
If only all voters forbear
From voting for Bernie
Republican journey
Includes Hoovervilles to spare!
52
What rhymes with "McGovern"?
Maybe these "open borders" and "sanctuary cities" aren't all they are cracked up to be. Couple that with one-party Democrat ruled that runs roughshod over the taxpayer, that constantly increases taxes and incentivizes cronyism, and you have a recipe for disaster.
23
The self-proclaimed "taxpayers" are the ones making out like bandits in this equation (mostly through not having to pay many taxes). You might want to read the article instead of trotting out complaints Pavlov-style.
30
Proposition 13 (which killed local school funding mechanisms) means that children start out in a system which they'll never catch up to their parents. Thanks to all of you conservatives who hate paying for the education of your children so you can save a few tax dollars.
11
Taxes were increased by voter initiative in 2012. Increasing taxes in California is otherwise extremely difficult due to the Jarvis-Gann initiative of 1978. We have a modestly progressive tax system that puts the average Californian's total tax bill in the middle of average taxes by state.
We need higher taxes because we value education in this state, but unfortunately we also have high corrections costs due to the expensive, excessively punitive legal system developed under successive terms of Republican governors.
We need higher taxes because we value education in this state, but unfortunately we also have high corrections costs due to the expensive, excessively punitive legal system developed under successive terms of Republican governors.
8
These homeless communities are not Hoovervilles. The are Obamavilles.
25
If you were honest, you'd call them Reaganvilles.
141
Try Reaganvilles or Bushvilles!!
162
How so?
10
While there are the reasons for income inequality and they need to be corrected, the increase described here also ignores the 800 lb gorilla...illegals living in the US. Some will drag out the arguments that illegals do jobs "Americans" will not, but that is a myth. Of those in these camps who are US citizens, they would surely take the job that illegals are doing. I was in this situation in Miami and could not get a job scrubbing toilets since I was not Latino.
On that note, Miami is certainly a third-world city filled with corruption and a mentality which rejects responsible behaviour from top to bottom. I saw it change, so I emigrated.
On that note, Miami is certainly a third-world city filled with corruption and a mentality which rejects responsible behaviour from top to bottom. I saw it change, so I emigrated.
74
Forty years ago in Los Angeles, which the author mentions, getting a real estate license was big fad in Southern California. People were doing it in lieu of other careers.
When Reagan and company encouraged the speculator class but did nothing for manufacturing in the 1980's, prices shot out of sight in L.A. The $750,000 bungalow is the product of a lot of factors, not the least of which people were willing to do anything to own property, so realtors asked the prices. L.A. is just a microcosm of around the country. People should have figured this would happen
When Reagan and company encouraged the speculator class but did nothing for manufacturing in the 1980's, prices shot out of sight in L.A. The $750,000 bungalow is the product of a lot of factors, not the least of which people were willing to do anything to own property, so realtors asked the prices. L.A. is just a microcosm of around the country. People should have figured this would happen
57
In his 2009 overview of the financial crisis, 'I.O.U.: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and Nobody Can Pay," British novelist John Lancaster points out as long as the spectre of Communism was haunting the world, those at the top of the capitalist system in America had a strong incentive to produce a thriving, broad middle class by reducing inequality and spreading the wealth around with workers, thus countering the USSR's appeal to the poor of the Third World with an alternative model for alleviating their misery.
When we won the Cold War, the American worker lost, because there was no longer any incentive to present that alternative role model. It's no coincidence that we started to go seriously off the rails at the same time the Soviet Union was crumbling. (And look at Russia now, barreling backward through kleptocracy to feudalism.)
And China, with its combination of authoritarian government and unbridled capitalism, is a portrait of looming dystopia - filthy air and water, sweatshop factories churning out shabby junk, a handful of plutocrats gorging themselves on endangered species, who have the real power in their pocket through laws that are window-dressing, slogans, and empty rhetoric.
When we won the Cold War, the American worker lost, because there was no longer any incentive to present that alternative role model. It's no coincidence that we started to go seriously off the rails at the same time the Soviet Union was crumbling. (And look at Russia now, barreling backward through kleptocracy to feudalism.)
And China, with its combination of authoritarian government and unbridled capitalism, is a portrait of looming dystopia - filthy air and water, sweatshop factories churning out shabby junk, a handful of plutocrats gorging themselves on endangered species, who have the real power in their pocket through laws that are window-dressing, slogans, and empty rhetoric.
18
But we won't touch the hundreds of billions annually for wars, as we bomb others into accepting the 'freedom & democracy' that gives us shantytowns. Don't like it? Better vote for Bernie in that case, as all the other candidates will continue to deliver exactly this & more of the same. With Bernie, at least we may have a chance at sanity.
503
Although "Bernie" is like a breath of fresh air his record does not demonstrate he is soft on support of the military. However, his record about actual war is better and does not match HCs or any of the Republicans.
Mediare for all I say, tho, go Bernie.
us army 1969-1971
Mediare for all I say, tho, go Bernie.
us army 1969-1971
2
Is L.A.'s homelessness partly a result of illegal immigration? Would enforcement of our immigration laws have alleviated this situation. Sounds like we have simply imported the world's poor to some extent and so the inequality gap is made worse. Yes, some of the homeless are our own, including veterans, but many are from other countries. So solving the world's problems will help to address our own poverty in cities like L.A., which appears to become a magnet for the poor, domestic and international, especially from nearby Latin America.
39
We didn't import the world's poor; we created them.
105
Please note that nobody is saying the homeless ARE illegal aliens -- a few are, but most are long-time black and white American citizens. Most of them are mentally ill and/or substance abusers. This is a mental health issue, more than anything else.
But the homelessness is execrated by very high rents and a lack of available housing -- and THAT is caused by the MASSIVE INFLUX of illegal aliens in the poor and working class neighborhoods. They have sucked up all the available housing, and driven up costs drastically. Since they live 10 to a room, and pay in cash under the table, landlords LOVE LOVE LOVE this. They can make a fortune off some rundown roach motel. They don't have to take checks, or report income on their taxes. It's a sweet deal.
Meanwhile ordinary US citizens are driven out of the housing (AND RENTAL) markets, because prices have exploded. If you have not been in the big coastal California cities, or tried to rent/buy there, you just literally have no idea. The "bubble" is back, prices are going up 20% a year and more.
But the homelessness is execrated by very high rents and a lack of available housing -- and THAT is caused by the MASSIVE INFLUX of illegal aliens in the poor and working class neighborhoods. They have sucked up all the available housing, and driven up costs drastically. Since they live 10 to a room, and pay in cash under the table, landlords LOVE LOVE LOVE this. They can make a fortune off some rundown roach motel. They don't have to take checks, or report income on their taxes. It's a sweet deal.
Meanwhile ordinary US citizens are driven out of the housing (AND RENTAL) markets, because prices have exploded. If you have not been in the big coastal California cities, or tried to rent/buy there, you just literally have no idea. The "bubble" is back, prices are going up 20% a year and more.
9
Actually, the reason the homeless can't find work may well be that the illegal aliens have all the jobs. They work for less, work harder, and give less trouble. Naturally, employers will prefer them.
9
A huge "empathy gag" and incredibly empty political rhetoric have subverted every attempt to meet the challenges of a permanent underclass as a common cause for societal action in America. These people have no champions, no lobbyists, no voice in Washington where corporate capitalists are at work 24/7 to cut taxes by vilifying those programs intended help those in need. Long term initiatives, like Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty" died with his generation of politically progressive leaders when Reagan gave voice to a political backlash that blames the victims and allows for little concern for generations of children raised in poverty. The projected statistics regarding enrolling kindergarten children this September places nearly half of them at or below the poverty line. For shame America!
296
"These people have no champions, no lobbyists, no voice in Washington where corporate capitalists are at work 24/7 to cut taxes by vilifying those programs intended help those in need."
You say this as if you imagine the rest of us do.
You say this as if you imagine the rest of us do.
7
I met a lot of homeless people in Atlanta who had mental issues. Some had livable money from the military, but could not function in apartments or other housing. Some had alcohol problems. But many people are just poor, and living in the housing provided by the city, with small children growing up there.
Everyone should have free food and medical care.
But many of the white male street people that we tried to get jobs for and get them back into the work force did not want to participate in society. So people who do need jobs and want to work should be helped with training and job placement. The judicial system has half way houses where people are required to work and to get treatment for alcohol and drugs. Some succeed. And some do not.
Everyone should have free food and medical care.
But many of the white male street people that we tried to get jobs for and get them back into the work force did not want to participate in society. So people who do need jobs and want to work should be helped with training and job placement. The judicial system has half way houses where people are required to work and to get treatment for alcohol and drugs. Some succeed. And some do not.
12
And who will pay for this free food and medical care? Why not throw in free housing too? At that point, maybe we should add in a free trip to Disneyland, and a car with a lifetime supply of gas.
11
QED: consider the number of jobs that would be created with such a support network, and the societal cash flow and tax revenue that would follow. It doesn't have to be either-or.
7
Barbara - you fail to answer the question. Who is going to pay for it? Ah, yes, of course....the taxpayer. Where is the benefit of yet more public sector jobs that really just soak up money and move us further down the road to being Greece v2? No thanks. I'll donate to charity if the homelessness issue really starts to bother me.
3
A story like this with numerous references to the "homeless" leaves me longing for the Good Old Days when a bum was a bum, and so identified.
I do not exclude self. I have lived in a broken car, and "on the bum" occasionally. I wasn't "homeless," I lived in the Mustang Hotel.
I do not exclude self. I have lived in a broken car, and "on the bum" occasionally. I wasn't "homeless," I lived in the Mustang Hotel.
11
A bum doesn't want to work. Tell my educated friends with good work ethics who can't find jobs that they are bums.
17
kat, it would be interesting to break down the homeless unemployed by age. I wonder how many were discarded by their employers after age 40 and are passed over by employers. (Yeah, I know. Age discrimination is illegal. Just try to prove it.)
Not much has changed since George Bernard Shaw wrote Major Barbara a hundred years ago.
Not much has changed since George Bernard Shaw wrote Major Barbara a hundred years ago.
12
You can see exactly the same thing happening right here in Bend, Oregon, of all places. The number of new cars (and trucks as big as tanks) is astounding, while homeless camps spring up everywhere on the outskirts of town. The homeless panhandle on every busy street. It is indeed like living in a Charles Dickens novel.
299
The Republicans haven't proposed a policy and program to re-institute debtors' prisons yet. Perhaps Frank Luntz can come up with something euphemistically sounding like "Financial Restitution Resettlement Centers" where destitute people could be put to work for no wages and take classes in the political philosophies of Ayn Rand.
14
I lived in Bend in the late 60s and worked as a reporter for The Bulletin. It was such an idyllic and beautiful town in those days. So sad to think of the changes you are describing.
2
Government policies created income disparity so don't count on government policies to fix it.
We must always remember one important law of nature: " Rich people own the government."
Name a country where the rich do not run the place. Any country. Any where. Any time.
We must always remember one important law of nature: " Rich people own the government."
Name a country where the rich do not run the place. Any country. Any where. Any time.
131
In countries with significant wealth disparities, the wealthy are always privileged but in America in the 50s and 60s and Scandinavia, until more recently, laws that favored the less affluent were passed. More generally, if your post is a call for anarchy, please provide an example of an anarchy which has led to positive results for the masses.
18
Cuba.
3
You seem to be confusing anarchy with revolution. So here's an example: the American revolution. The French revolution, too, although it was unnecessarily bloody. Even the US Declaration of Independence recognizes the right of revolution.
2