Everything I Ever Worked for In My Life

was stolen from me back in April 2008, and times have not gotten better. Not for me anyway, although the former principal is still pulling down an obscene salary and the HR guy who spearheaded my illegal termination left the district in August collecting a giant pension.

I went from around 50k a year to 21k a year in UI to basically 3600 a year in a pension--which is taxable--and whatever work I can get as a sub AIDE--I cannot afford to get teacher certification until I can somehow come up with the money to pay for still more stupid tests before I can even submit my application into TSPC--or working seasonal at Harry and David. I am completely and totally destitute, and it is a miracle I even have a place to stay. So I know about this issue this article talks about when it refers to the "extremely poor."

Snip:

Basing itself on US Census Bureau material, the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C., has issued a report on the “Re-emergence of Concentrated Poverty,” which reveals, among other things, that the population in extreme-poverty neighborhoods (where at least 40 percent of residents live below the official poverty line) rose by one third from 2000 to 2005-2009. The report suggests that, given the ongoing economic slump, this process will continue.

When the researchers speak of “extreme poverty,” they are hardly overstating the case. Some 20.5 million people in the US, or 6.7 percent of the population, survive at 50 percent or less of the official poverty line. According to the Associated Press, “Those living in deep poverty represent nearly half of the 46.2 million people scraping by below the poverty line. In 2010, the poorest poor meant an [annual] income of $5,570 or less for an individual and $11,157 for a family of four.” For the record, Goldman Sachs chief executive officer Lloyd Blankfein makes approximately $9,200 each hour.

Extreme poverty is a condition, in other words, of destitution in which getting by from one day to the next is a painful, often humiliating process. The 6.7 percent figure is the highest in the 35 years the Census Bureau has been keeping such records, surpassing the previous highs in 2009 and 1993.

link


I get depressed a lot. Tomorrow I will probably lose the gold coins my mom gave me because I had to put them in a pawn shop. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to raise the money to pay the storage fee of 66 dollars since CSL Plasma tore the living shit out of my left arm last Thursday. The bruising made it impossible to donate. I still have a large bruise although it has faded quite a bit. I will try to see if I can get an extension and come up with a little money, but I think I am going to lose them.