Costs of povery

Believe it or not, he's still alive! A Post from Pete:

There is an interesting article in the Washington Post today about poverty. It takes the stance that you have to be rich to be poor. When you are "rich" you can drive to cheaper grocery stores, have access to banks to avoid check cashing fees, you have washer and dryers... When you are poor, you have to pay to have access to luxuries such as washers and dryers, etc. When you are Rich, you can save money by driving to Costco, when you are Poor, you only have the expensive corner store. Studies have shown that groceries are close to 30% more expensive in Poor neighborhoods because no one can afford to drive to a cheaper store (no competition).

One of the things that I have been thinking a lot about lately that is addressed in this article is "Food Deserts." I was driving by a corner store that claimed to be a grocery store in an economically depressed part of north Philly. On the awning it listed things that it describes as groceries, "Candy, ice cream, snacks, cheese stakes." There was no mention of bread, milk, cheese (except in a cheese stake) or eggs.

There is a coming epidemic of Obesity and Type II diabetes in this country. I am not suggesting that obesity is limited to poor urban environments or that all Type II Diabetics got that way from diet problems, but its pretty hard to avoid these health problems when you don't have access to proper nutrition. Since Type II Diabetes comes partly from eating foods high in sugar, it's not surprising that there are much higher rates of diagnosis in communities that only have access to processed foods. Type II is no joke-- it results in blindness, amputations, loss of sensation in limbs and just about every other health problem you can think of.

It is no secret when driving through north Philly you see more fast food than grocery stores. When driving through Ardmore, (a rich suburb of Philly) you see places like Food Source (think Whole Foods meets Nordstroms) and only the occasional fast food restaurant.

I don't know what the solution to this problem of poverty and access to food is. There are never easy solutions to poverty because it has so many facets. What I am growing to realize more and more, is that there are 2 separate worlds (perhaps 3 if we divide rich, middle class, and poor). The Rich have Food Source, the Middle Class have supermarkets, and the Poor have corner stores.

The same breakdown of Rich, Middle Class, Poor can be seen in almost every other aspect of life

*Investment banks, neighborhood banks, check cashing
*No interest loans, normal loans, loans with interest rates approaching 1000%
*Boutique doctors offices, family practice docs, Emergency Room
*Mercedes, Toyota, City bus
*Harvard, Temple, Community College
*Early retirement (to a nice, warm, tropical climate), 65 retirement (to your kid's spare bedroom), Walmart Greeter
*Melting Pot, Friendly's, KFC


I guess the biggest obstacle to change is the fact that the Rich are the ones making the decisions about the programs and policies that affect the Poor. I would submit that there is very little that these 3 classes know about the way the other ones live.