Moyers & Company on PBS Sunday ran excerpts from a program that followed two Milwaukee families, the Stanleys and the Neumanns, whose breadwinners lost factory jobs in 1990. With its once-vigorous economy based on industry, the hub of southeast Wisconsin now misses manufacturing jobs that have gone forever. Workers who once earned $20 per hour with benefits struggle to support their families with jobs paying less than half that with no healthcare or pensions. Many can find only part-time employment, while working odd jobs to fill in the gaps.
Yet, despite the grim realities in Milwaukee and similar cities, we are constantly told that the nation’s economy is recovering from recession; the stock market booms and companies thrive. For an up-close look at the disconnect between the public conversation and the boots-on-the-ground reality, we might look back to Barbara Ehrenreich’s best-selling book “Nickel and Dimed” (a 2011 version is available), in which she goes undercover to chronicle the lives of minimum wage workers in four cities. She chose to live that life for a year with no recourse to savings and emergency funds.
For those of us who grew up in privileged circumstances, it’s a revelation. We were told by our well-to-do parents that poor people are either stupid or lazy, or both. Well, I wasn’t either and believed that jobs were plentiful and I could find work anytime, anywhere. The day after my 18th birthday, I flew to New York with $96 in my pocket, vowing not to write home for help. I had a series of low-wage jobs but they were adequate to meet my low rent (at the Studio Club on East 77th in a reasonably safe neighborhood) with the advantage of public transportation and cheap Automat and coffee shop meals.
In cities across the country, it’s no longer possible to survive on one entry-level job. Affordable rentals are decrepit, unsafe, vermin-infested and/or too far from available jobs and public transportation in many cities is totally inadequate.
How did this happen? How did American cities become so user-unfriendly? Many have developed lovely suburbs, where people must have cars to drive to work. We saw, but didn’t recognize, that city planning departments or zoning boards were legislating this disconnect. It starts with protectionist zoning in the suburbs (read: no mixed use) and many ways for developers to subvert affordable housing laws.
Wealthy and middle class people, city staffers were told, want to own their own homes in gated communities and drive to work in their own status-symbol automobiles (one to a car). If they work, they can stop on the way home to buy dinner at Whole Foods Market or fancy restaurants.
Public transportation has found little support on civic panels, giving way to wider highways accommodating faster traffic with no signals and few opportunities to stop or shop. That may be okay for those wealthy and healthy enough to drive, but it left the poor and elderly completely out of the loop. Even if they could find a job, where would they live and how would they get to and from work?
Some cities have tried to rebuild (gentrify) their downtown areas, but inevitably developers plan for expensive townhouses and lofts where artists can live and work but real affordability is rarely an issue. So where is a young family to relocate when the jobs that once supported them have gone south?
Those who can afford to may go back to school; hence the crush at community colleges and technical schools where would-be students often wait years for classes. Others have graduated from four-year schools with degrees that don’t qualify them for jobs and with student debt that overwhelms their prospects for survival, much less success.
Politicians are elected starting with seats on school boards and then progress to slots on city councils and planning commissions. If they are personable and have the support to fund their increasingly expensive campaigns, they’re elected without the experience necessary to understand and possibly solve these problems.
They tend to vote for the exclusionary zoning and other issues their neighbors say will protect their property values. Unfortunately, they also may punt the more pressing issues of financial inequality, affordable housing and comprehensive public transportation.
Malibu has sky-high real estate prices and “granny flats” for students and single renters, affordability of which depends on individual circumstances more than city regulation. And those who must live in the valley or downtown rely on bus service to transport gardeners, housekeepers and retail workers from home to work.
Tune in to Frontline on PBS this week to learn more about the real cost of income inequality in America.