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01/22/2009
Dollars & Sense
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11/28/2008
Boston Globe Op-Ed
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Karla's Story: |
Who is really missing the buck?
BLOG entry by Karla Walker
1% of this country holds all of the wealth while I take from National Grid to pay Nstar, or better yet I have to choose between gas and lights or my child's PRE-school tuition.... I’m college educated and I love my job! Ironically I educate the community on health disparity issues and health services with the hopes to empower the underserved in the community to be able to advocate for themselves when it comes to health inequities and social injustices.
The part that makes me such a profound expert is not just my college education or the 17 years of experience I have had in the field of social services and advocacy. The one thing that makes me such an expert is the fact I have actually got to practice what I teach!!! Anti-stress techniques for one making sure I don’t fall prey to the fact that African Americans are more likely to suffer heart attack and stroke...so as I approach the gas pump with 35 dollars to put 6 gallons of gas in my tank I must remember to breath deeply as I try to figure out what I can purchase at the Supermarket with the twenty dollars I have left to make a healthy food purchase; a meal that will sustain my 4 year old child and I for at least two meals.
By some standard I am middle class. And I am grateful to find that the tuna and pasta are both on sale, because the milk and orange juice have gone up a whole dollar...but that leaves just enough to buy some produce from the two day old discounted produce shelf. Imagine this... there are families that actually find it more economical to purchase meals from the dollar menu at the local food chain because you can get more for your buck.?. Is there a wonder why there are health disparities?
Being one of the 41,000,000 is not just about waddling in the depth of an economic gap.....it is a gap that encompasses so many of us on so many levels for so many varied reasons; the poor, the lower middle class, the middle class and even the upper middle now! There is no time to feel dishonor as I greet one of my clients in the food pantry line.... but there is some resentment I secretly feel because she doesn't work and only pays 30 dollars a month for rent while receiving supplemental help with her light and gas bill and has a voucher for child care!
However, I don't qualify for any subsidies because I am $25,000 dollars over the income guideline for a family of two...not even FUEL assistance will consider my application. She even has cable with 52 channels including HBO but I can't afford it! Perhaps this is what is meant by trickle down economics.... but somehow the middle class family misses the buck!