Thursday, 22 October 2015 06:49
Shaming the Poor by Listing Their Names and Addresses Publicly Is
Disgraceful
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
It is greed that is shameful, not poverty. (Photo: See-ming Lee)
Robert E. McDonald, the mayor of Lewiston, Maine, recently wrote a
commentary in his local paper in which he advocates for shaming public aid
recipients by listing their names and addresses on a website. Consistent
with this proposal, he also suggests that harsh restrictions should be
applied to those in poverty who receive financial aid from the government:
We will be submitting a bill to the next legislative session asking that a
website be created containing the names, addresses, length of time on
assistance and the benefits being collected by every individual on the dole.
After all, the public has a right to know how its money is being spent.
Along with this bill, we will be resubmitting HR 368, which will bring local
General Assistance into compliance with federal laws that limit General
Assistance to a 60-month total lifetime benefit.
Additionally, we will be submitting a bill similar to one in Massachusetts,
prohibiting the state from paying benefits for any additional child born
after the recipient has been accepted into General Assistance.
Truthout and BuzzFlash combat corporate power by bringing you trustworthy,
independent news. Join our mission by making a donation now!
McDonald doesn't call his idea for publicly listing government financial
recipients an act of "shaming," but that surely is his intention. It also
may be a perverse strategy to deter families in need from seeking financial
assistance in the first place, out of fear that they may be harassed.
Darren Smith, in a commentary on the Jonathan Turley blog, is critical of
McDonald's morally indefensible plan:
It is rather difficult in reading the mayor's letter to the editor of the
Twin City Times [Lewis-Auburn, Maine] to accept his notion that his actions
are in the public's interest to see where tax dollars are paid, when he
simultaneously makes many references disparaging recipients and those who
advocate their plight. Yet, he claims to support privacy rights in other
respects.....
When coupled with his [McDonald's] political, partisan rants it seems clear
that he believes recipients of welfare benefits have a lesser expectation of
privacy due to their economic status.
McDonald's commentary is representative of those who espouse the pernicious
falsehood that being poor is due to personal weaknesses, failings and
laziness. Often such an outlook is closely linked to racism - a testament to
how insidious racial bigotry is, considering that most people who benefit
from public aid programs are white. As The Root confirmed in a 2013 article:
Despite routine portrayals of poor people as black and Latino, most poor
people in America are actually white....
According to Census figures in 2013, 18.9 million whites are poor. That's 8
million more poor white people than poor black people, and more than 5
million more than those who identify as Latino. A majority of those
benefiting from programs like food stamps and Medicaid are white, too....
The traditional media's one-sided image of poverty has contributed to the
misconception that most poor people are black and that most black people are
poor - although more than 70 percent are not.
This stereotype, like most stereotypes, harms black people in myriad ways,
especially because the political right has linked poverty with moral failure
as a trope to undermine public support for government programs-remember
Ronald Reagan's welfare queen? These tactics didn't end in the 1980s.
There is another component to the champions of the "poor are leeches"
mentality (who include people like Mitt "47 percent" Romney and Paul "Ayn
Rand is my heroine" Ryan): the idea that money is the only measure of
whether one has succeeded or failed in life. Money is the only determination
of who is strong and who is weak. Money is the only way to assess who is
worthy of life and who is not.
When the accumulation of wealth becomes the sole indicator of a person's
value, a society has become morally bankrupt and forsaken its most basic
humanity. When poverty is built into an economic system's structure - as it
is in the United States - the society is to blame, not the poor. When
economic status is largely determined by privilege, the poor are most
frequently offered contempt or indifference - but not jobs.
In one of the comments under Mayor McDonald's screed, a woman named Linda
responds:
How about we publish the names and addresses of all the CEOs that are
collecting corporate welfare instead, while they underpay their employees
who are then forced to apply for assistance? Then we need to publish the
names and addresses of all those putting their money in foreign bank
accounts to avoid paying taxes that could have been used to fund food stamps
for the poor.
The disgrace is not in being poor; it is in the contemptible and oppressive
mindsets represented by the mayor of Lewiston, Maine.
Not to be reposted without permission of Truthout
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Thursday, 22 October 2015 06:49
Shaming the Poor by Listing Their Names and Addresses Publicly Is
Disgraceful
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MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
It is greed that is shameful, not poverty. (Photo: See-ming Lee)
Robert E. McDonald, the mayor of Lewiston, Maine, recently wrote a
commentary in his local paper in which he advocates for shaming public aid
recipients by listing their names and addresses on a website. Consistent
with this proposal, he also suggests that harsh restrictions should be
applied to those in poverty who receive financial aid from the government:
We will be submitting a bill to the next legislative session asking that a
website be created containing the names, addresses, length of time on
assistance and the benefits being collected by every individual on the dole.
After all, the public has a right to know how its money is being spent.
Along with this bill, we will be resubmitting HR 368, which will bring local
General Assistance into compliance with federal laws that limit General
Assistance to a 60-month total lifetime benefit.
Additionally, we will be submitting a bill similar to one in Massachusetts,
prohibiting the state from paying benefits for any additional child born
after the recipient has been accepted into General Assistance.
Truthout and BuzzFlash combat corporate power by bringing you trustworthy,
independent news. Join our mission by making a donation now!
http://truth-out.org/members/donateMcDonald doesn't call his idea for
publicly listing government financial recipients an act of "shaming," but
that surely is his intention. It also may be a perverse strategy to deter
families in need from seeking financial assistance in the first place, out
of fear that they may be harassed.
Darren Smith, in a commentary on the Jonathan Turley blog, is critical of
McDonald's morally indefensible plan:
It is rather difficult in reading the mayor's letter to the editor of the
Twin City Times [Lewis-Auburn, Maine] to accept his notion that his actions
are in the public's interest to see where tax dollars are paid, when he
simultaneously makes many references disparaging recipients and those who
advocate their plight. Yet, he claims to support privacy rights in other
respects.....
When coupled with his [McDonald's] political, partisan rants it seems clear
that he believes recipients of welfare benefits have a lesser expectation of
privacy due to their economic status.
McDonald's commentary is representative of those who espouse the pernicious
falsehood that being poor is due to personal weaknesses, failings and
laziness. Often such an outlook is closely linked to racism - a testament to
how insidious racial bigotry is, considering that most people who benefit
from public aid programs are white. As The Root confirmed in a 2013 article:
Despite routine portrayals of poor people as black and Latino, most poor
people in America are actually white....
According to Census figures in 2013, 18.9 million whites are poor. That's 8
million more poor white people than poor black people, and more than 5
million more than those who identify as Latino. A majority of those
benefiting from programs like food stamps and Medicaid are white, too....
The traditional media's one-sided image of poverty has contributed to the
misconception that most poor people are black and that most black people are
poor - although more than 70 percent are not.
This stereotype, like most stereotypes, harms black people in myriad ways,
especially because the political right has linked poverty with moral failure
as a trope to undermine public support for government programs-remember
Ronald Reagan's welfare queen? These tactics didn't end in the 1980s.
There is another component to the champions of the "poor are leeches"
mentality (who include people like Mitt "47 percent" Romney and Paul "Ayn
Rand is my heroine" Ryan): the idea that money is the only measure of
whether one has succeeded or failed in life. Money is the only determination
of who is strong and who is weak. Money is the only way to assess who is
worthy of life and who is not.
When the accumulation of wealth becomes the sole indicator of a person's
value, a society has become morally bankrupt and forsaken its most basic
humanity. When poverty is built into an economic system's structure - as it
is in the United States - the society is to blame, not the poor. When
economic status is largely determined by privilege, the poor are most
frequently offered contempt or indifference - but not jobs.
In one of the comments under Mayor McDonald's screed, a woman named Linda
responds:
How about we publish the names and addresses of all the CEOs that are
collecting corporate welfare instead, while they underpay their employees
who are then forced to apply for assistance? Then we need to publish the
names and addresses of all those putting their money in foreign bank
accounts to avoid paying taxes that could have been used to fund food stamps
for the poor.
The disgrace is not in being poor; it is in the contemptible and oppressive
mindsets represented by the mayor of Lewiston, Maine.
Not to be reposted without permission of Truthout
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