I wondered, as the "two Americas'' theme took center stage at the Democratic Convention Wednesday night, how it was playing to the America that didn't make the trip to Boston this week. This America is back in its apartment, still in its polyester waitress dress or blue work shirt, scooping macaroni and cheese onto plates and listening to rousing speeches about poverty from a presidential ticket that owns enough houses to buy furniture polish by the barrel.
The lifestyles of superrich Democratic candidates John Kerry and John Edwards, along with superrich Republican candidates George Bush and Dick Cheney, point up the gaping chasm between the two Americas. The earnings for the poorest fifth of American families rose less than 1 percent between 1988 and 1998. But it jumped 15 percent for the richest fifth, according to a recent joint report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute.
Why, with so much eloquent talk about the working poor during every election, do the two Americas continue to drift farther and farther apart?
Two researchers, one in Los Angeles, the other in Washington, D.C., would be happy to give the candidates a primer.
Thomas Kane and Beth Shulman contributed research to a new report from the Russell Sage Foundation called "Social Inequality.'' In it, they pointed to two major reasons why it is tougher today than perhaps at any time in the last half-century for the working poor to climb into the middle class.
First, unskilled-labor jobs that have not kept pace with inflation and offer fewer of the "middle-class'' benefits, such as health care and paid sick days, than they once did.
Second, as college has become increasingly important in landing a living- wage job, poor students are having more difficulty attending. The costs of college are going up faster than either wages or government grants.
Thus the long-standing gap in college attendance between poor and more affluent students has widened, even among those with similar grades and test scores, says Kane, a UCLA political science and economics professor. Among the highest income Americans, 73 percent of students went on to college despite low test scores, while just 48 percent of low-income students with such scores did. Among high-income students with high test scores, 84 percent went to four- year colleges -- but just 68 percent of low-income students with high scores did.
"A college education is so much more important than it used to be,'' Kane said. "Middle- and higher-income families got that message and have been going at a higher rate. For poor families, there has been less of an increase. So the gap is wider, which means an indirect influence on the next generation's economic future.''
Kane says despite skyrocketing college costs, there has been no increase in federal Pell grants in the last three years. And government loans to students are only slightly higher today than in 1980. The most a single student can borrow on his or her own during the first year of college is $2, 625, which won't cover tuition at any four-year college I know, much less pay for housing, food and books.
As Kane pointed out, without a college education, the job market is grimmer than ever. In the recent past, unskilled laborers could expect a decent wage and reasonable benefits from unionized factory jobs. But those have slowly but steadily moved overseas, leaving uneducated workers to work as nursing home aides, child care workers, janitors, hotel maids, security guards. These are jobs in which wages are often so low that many full-time workers still live below the poverty line, usually without health insurance, sick pay or disability pay.
"We have created an economy where we have one-quarter of workers making less than $8.70 an hour,'' says Shulman, a D.C.-based labor consultant who wrote "The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans and Their Families.''
The upshot is that mothers and fathers work long hours, perhaps taking on second and third jobs. Their children are in substandard day care because that's all the parents can afford. They live in neighborhoods that are likely to have the worst public schools. The Russell Sage report found that the wealthiest 5 percent of public high schools spend more than twice per pupil as the poorest 5 percent.
"It's not only that people aren't making enough these days, but rents are going up. Gas is up. Everything costs more,'' Shulman said.
Here in San Francisco, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is now $1,652 per month - way beyond the reach of a worker making even twice the federal minimum wage. Buying a home, the American dream, is unthinkable. The median price for a single-family home in the nine-county Bay Area hit $545,000 in June, nearly 18 percent higher than last year.
"Wage inequality translates into a vicious cycle where people get stuck, '' Shulman said. "It's not just that people aren't making enough money. That's bad enough. But the normal means of righting itself is not in place. The political and education system are working to the detriment of moving these people up.''
Unions are fading and with them the security and protection of living wage. College is more crucial than ever and yet more out of reach. Quality child care is essential for poor kids to get the same start as affluent kids, and yet politicians still see it as a personal, not a public, issue. Health insurance, sick pay, retirement benefits -- they are the perks for the upper classes.
Kerry and Edwards, Bush and Cheney, have their boats and planes and ranches, living like royalty from another era. Their children will live like royalty, as will their children's children.
Some might see hope in this, saying these men, particularly Edwards, show what is possible in a land of opportunity. Some might take comfort in hearing political leaders at this week's convention -- and surely next month at the Republicans' -- show such fierce concern for the working poor.
As the speeches boom through the FleetCenter, I imagine the other America leafing through the end-of-the-month bills, waiting for the talking, talking, talking to turn into something they can take to the bank.
Joan Ryan SFGATE.com
The lifestyles of superrich Democratic candidates John Kerry and John Edwards, along with superrich Republican candidates George Bush and Dick Cheney, point up the gaping chasm between the two Americas. The earnings for the poorest fifth of American families rose less than 1 percent between 1988 and 1998. But it jumped 15 percent for the richest fifth, according to a recent joint report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute.
Why, with so much eloquent talk about the working poor during every election, do the two Americas continue to drift farther and farther apart?
Two researchers, one in Los Angeles, the other in Washington, D.C., would be happy to give the candidates a primer.
Thomas Kane and Beth Shulman contributed research to a new report from the Russell Sage Foundation called "Social Inequality.'' In it, they pointed to two major reasons why it is tougher today than perhaps at any time in the last half-century for the working poor to climb into the middle class.
First, unskilled-labor jobs that have not kept pace with inflation and offer fewer of the "middle-class'' benefits, such as health care and paid sick days, than they once did.
Second, as college has become increasingly important in landing a living- wage job, poor students are having more difficulty attending. The costs of college are going up faster than either wages or government grants.
Thus the long-standing gap in college attendance between poor and more affluent students has widened, even among those with similar grades and test scores, says Kane, a UCLA political science and economics professor. Among the highest income Americans, 73 percent of students went on to college despite low test scores, while just 48 percent of low-income students with such scores did. Among high-income students with high test scores, 84 percent went to four- year colleges -- but just 68 percent of low-income students with high scores did.
"A college education is so much more important than it used to be,'' Kane said. "Middle- and higher-income families got that message and have been going at a higher rate. For poor families, there has been less of an increase. So the gap is wider, which means an indirect influence on the next generation's economic future.''
Kane says despite skyrocketing college costs, there has been no increase in federal Pell grants in the last three years. And government loans to students are only slightly higher today than in 1980. The most a single student can borrow on his or her own during the first year of college is $2, 625, which won't cover tuition at any four-year college I know, much less pay for housing, food and books.
As Kane pointed out, without a college education, the job market is grimmer than ever. In the recent past, unskilled laborers could expect a decent wage and reasonable benefits from unionized factory jobs. But those have slowly but steadily moved overseas, leaving uneducated workers to work as nursing home aides, child care workers, janitors, hotel maids, security guards. These are jobs in which wages are often so low that many full-time workers still live below the poverty line, usually without health insurance, sick pay or disability pay.
"We have created an economy where we have one-quarter of workers making less than $8.70 an hour,'' says Shulman, a D.C.-based labor consultant who wrote "The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans and Their Families.''
The upshot is that mothers and fathers work long hours, perhaps taking on second and third jobs. Their children are in substandard day care because that's all the parents can afford. They live in neighborhoods that are likely to have the worst public schools. The Russell Sage report found that the wealthiest 5 percent of public high schools spend more than twice per pupil as the poorest 5 percent.
"It's not only that people aren't making enough these days, but rents are going up. Gas is up. Everything costs more,'' Shulman said.
Here in San Francisco, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is now $1,652 per month - way beyond the reach of a worker making even twice the federal minimum wage. Buying a home, the American dream, is unthinkable. The median price for a single-family home in the nine-county Bay Area hit $545,000 in June, nearly 18 percent higher than last year.
"Wage inequality translates into a vicious cycle where people get stuck, '' Shulman said. "It's not just that people aren't making enough money. That's bad enough. But the normal means of righting itself is not in place. The political and education system are working to the detriment of moving these people up.''
Unions are fading and with them the security and protection of living wage. College is more crucial than ever and yet more out of reach. Quality child care is essential for poor kids to get the same start as affluent kids, and yet politicians still see it as a personal, not a public, issue. Health insurance, sick pay, retirement benefits -- they are the perks for the upper classes.
Kerry and Edwards, Bush and Cheney, have their boats and planes and ranches, living like royalty from another era. Their children will live like royalty, as will their children's children.
Some might see hope in this, saying these men, particularly Edwards, show what is possible in a land of opportunity. Some might take comfort in hearing political leaders at this week's convention -- and surely next month at the Republicans' -- show such fierce concern for the working poor.
As the speeches boom through the FleetCenter, I imagine the other America leafing through the end-of-the-month bills, waiting for the talking, talking, talking to turn into something they can take to the bank.
Joan Ryan SFGATE.com
