We Americans start the twenty-first century with over 30 million of our citizens below the poverty level as defined by federal standards. Of this number, 18 million are White and 12 million are non-White. The latter figure includes approximately 1 million Black Hispanics the balance being Blacks, Native Americans, and Asians. The former figure includes an estimated 4 million White Hispanic Americans.

Of the White poor, 51% reside outside metropolitan areas and 49% in urban areas; while the non-White poor are over 75% urban and less than 25% rural. During the 60s and 70s there occurred a general flight of people from the urban areas, more specifically from the central cities. The exception to this trend has been inner city families headed by a female, which show an increase of over 65% for non-White, while recording only a 4% increase for the White female headed family.

In several respects the characteristics of poor families at the start of the twenty-first century will differ markedly from poor families at the start of the 60s. The proportion of families with a female head among the poor rose from 23 to 44%, the proportion of poor families without a wage earner increased from 24 to 35%, and poor families whose head was not in the labor market increased from 39 to 54%.

PROFILES IN POVERTY

Manuel Chavez - is a Mexican American. Although he is only 38 years old, Manuel looks much older, perhaps because he has been a migrant farm worker almost as long as he can remember. A religious man, he has a large family of four boys and four girls.

Manuel never really attended school for more than three months at a time. By the time he was ten and in the third grade, he was helping his family in the vegetable fields full-time, and he as been moving from job to job ever since.

One time Manuel decided to leave migrant work and took a job at a dairy farm. But he left after a short time because he missed the excitement of frequent moves and different kinds of work.

In the last few years, Manuel has earned as much as $35 a day when the crops are good, but this is only for a few weeks during the harvest time.

After 20 years in the field, Manuel's health is not as good as it was, and he is beginning to be worried about his future prospects. He realizes that eventually he will have to give up farm work and get some other kind of a job.

With this in mind he is attending Adult Basic Education (ABE) classes two nights a week and has learned to sign his name. He is very proud of that accomplishment, but he has not overcome his dread of the class. For a while, he stopped going because he was ashamed of his broken English and of his difficulty in understanding the teacher.

In spite of this discouraging experience, Manuel is back in class now because he still wants to learn to read and write. He is not really sure he can learn anything at all, and he does not know what kind of job he might get if he did learn. But he is sure he wants to try again because he wants something better for his family. (There are close to 4 million poor white Hispanic Americans like Manuel Chavez.)

Ruth Jones - is Black. She is 43 years old and the mother of four children. She is separated from her husband and has not married again, although her last two children were fathered by another man. Ruth was born and reared in a small Southern town of 34,00 people but now lives in a large Northeastern central city area.

Ruth dropped out of school in the third grade and has worked as a maid and a laundry worker. She is attending ABE classes because she has never had steady work or good pay. When the new minimum wage law was enforced, she was laid off because changes made in her work assignment and she could not read well enough to route laundry bundles.

She believes that if she can learn to read and write well enough to do this job, she may finally earn a decent wage and have some security. At present she works as a maid three or four days a week and makes $15 a day. This supplements her welfare check of $205 each month.

Ruth is also worried about her children. Attending adult basic education classes has renewed her interest in their schooling, although she realizes it's now probably a lost cause. Both of her married daughters finished elementary school but did not go on. Her 16-year of son dropped out of school in the ninth grade and worked part-time in the bowling alley setting pins, until the automatic pinsetters were installed. Now he hangs around the neighborhood store with a rough crowd, and Ruth is afraid he'll get into trouble.

She is proud of her 14-year old daughter who is still in school and is doing well in the ninth grade. But Ruth finds it difficult to provide money for the lunches and supplies needed to keep her in school. Besides, lately her daughter has begun to want better clothes and more spending money. The girl has been talking about getting a part-time job. Ruth fears that this may turn into a full-time one and that this child will drop out of school too.

(There are almost 10 million poor blacks in the country, most in circumstances not unlike that of Ruth Jones)

Don Black - is White. He is a young man of 24, married, and the father of a little boy of whom he is very fond. He and his family live with his parents in a city with a population of about 350,000. The $80 a week he earns as a service station attendant is not enough for a home of their own.

Don had a problem in school as far back as he can remember. He was tall for his age, and after several failed grades, he found that he could no longer get along with his teacher or his classmates. He wanted to take shop work, but he could not get it until the tenth grade, which looked a long way off while he was struggling through the eighth grade.

In the ninth grade, he became a truant from school, and by the time his parents found out, it was too late. Although he squeaked through the eighth grade, his tests indicate that he is at a sixth-grade level. After doing various part-time jobs, he began working full-time at the service station when he was 20. He had applied for many other jobs that he thought he could do, but each time the lack of a high school education kept him from being hired.

Shortly after, he got a nice girl pregnant and had to get married. But his marriage is a happy one, and his main ambition is to get a better job so he can support his family and afford his own home. This is why he is attending ABE classes. Nothing less important would have gotten him there.

To his amazement, Don finds that he likes the class. He is treated like an adult and is doing well in his work. He attends class regularly and is already planning to go on to adult high school so he can work toward a diploma. After that, he hopes to get into a mechanics training program.

(There are over 14 million persons with problems similar to Don Black throughout the country.)

Bennie Atencio - is a Native American. He was born on the reservation in New Mexico 45 years ago. During the Viet Nam War he enlisted in the Marine Corps dropping out of the Bureau of Indian Affairs High School in Santa Fe to do so. At the Indian School he had been a star basketball player. In the Marine Corps he had little trouble adjusting to the physical training required although he had some minor disciplinary problems. He and other Native Americans were assigned to a special radio intelligence unit because of their ability to communicate with each other in a common Indian dialect with little chance of being understood by the enemy.

Bennie returned from the war a highly decorated hero. He was taken on a national tour with other heroes, and he married a White girl. He also became an alcoholic. A Navy psychologist reported that Bennie was driven to drink because of the conflicts between his early Pueblo upbringing and the very different customs and mores outside the reservation. He suffered from culture shock, in other words.

Recently, Bennie has taken the cure. He has lost his family and is serious about learning a useful skill.

(There are over 500 thousand poor Native Americans in this country. Those who have left the reservation find themselves in circumstances similar to Bennie Atencio. Those who have remained on the reservation have not fared out much better.)

General Characteristics of the Poor.

Under educated adults represent as much as 15 percent of the adult population. There are more than 25 million people like them over the age of 14, who have less than an eighth-grade education. Most of them are crowded together in city barrios and ghettos or rural slums doing what little menial work has not yet been taken over by machines. Many seek out a meager income in seasonal farm work and migrate from one low-paid, uncertain job to the next.

About half of the adult basic education students come from minority groups. It is not just the fact that they are in the minority which sets them apart, it is their educational, social, cultural, and economic poverty. The minority groups most prominently represented in adult basic education classes are Blacks, particularly Black women who are family breadwinners, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Native Americans.

The common practice of generalizing that minority groups is equivalent to non-White is fallacious. Approximately 90% of persons of Spanish descent are caucasian. Among Puerto Ricans and Cubans, there is a small number who are black. The Spanish speaking population represents the most heterogeneous yet integrated group in America, ranging from pale pink blue-eyed blonds, through bronze browns, to ebony black.

The ABE teacher's background, more often than not, is quite different from that of his students. The teacher may find that he has a difficult time getting to know people who think so differently, act so differently, and live so differently. But learning will not take place until teacher and student know each other well enough to trust each other.

The disadvantaged consumer has a different set of problems, some of these are:

(1) Lack of cash - Certainly low income or lack of cash affects the poor consumer's ability to shop where he can save money and receive adequate value for his or her dollar. Their funds are so limited as to prevent making cash purchases in economical quantities. Instead, they must pay gouging prices for small uneconomical quantities.

(2) Lack of Low-Cost Credit - The US economy runs largely on credit. Credit is the avenue to a high standard of living for the middle class, but for the poor, it is often the only means of acquiring life's necessities. But the poor person does not qualify for low-cost loans, because most banks regard him as a bad risk. Credit may be readily available to the employed poor, but at high interest rates. His sources for installment purchase credit are local merchants whose charges usually run over 30% per year. Sharp practices like the usury days of yore, indeed. The typical installment seller quickly discounts the note to a finance company or bank. This means that under most State laws the buyer must continue to pay even if the merchandise is never delivered or does not live up to its warranty. In most cases, the poor's only recourse is to bring a suit against the seller, a remedy which for most poor people is no remedy at all. High cost credit is a serious drain on a limited income, frequently pushing the poor person to a point where he cannot meet his obligations and winds up with their wages garnished. When this happens they endanger their job and become candidates for welfare.

(3) Fraudulent and Deceptive Practices - Poor persons may not be more easily fooled by fast talking salesmen, fine print in contracts, flattery, bait-and-switch sales, misrepresentation or verbal contracts. However, the poor do not have access to and are often intimidated by the thought of legal assistance and legal proceedings. The peddlers of fraud and deception find the barrios, the ghettos, the reservations, and the poor White rural areas fertile grounds to ply their trade.

(4) Inadequate Housing - Housing in the barrios, ghettos, and wherever the poor live, is dilapidated and expensive. Absentee landlords generally do not keep housing in good repair and often fail to provide heat, hot water or custodial care. Public officials are often lax in enforcing health and building codes. In some states, there are legal provisions which require that tenant's rights be presented in Landlord and Tenant Court. Therefore, if a landlord brings an action, even if not supportable, they may win the case simply because the tenant fails to make an appearance. The average poor person has no rights at all and is subjected to illegal evictions.

(5) Lack of Information - The poor often lack information about the true cost of credit, the real burden of carrying charges, the actual values of articles for sale, and their legal rights to protection from unscrupulous businessmen. Some need help in budgeting family finances.

(6) Legal Exploitation - Linked to fraud and deceptive practices in every slum area are the mechanics of collecting debts. Although some communities have laws designed to protect the debtor from unfair practices by creditors, many of these laws must be enforced through legal process, which effectively deprive the poor consumer of any protection at all. In addition, may of these laws can be and are regularly circumvented by clever merchants and by sharp lending institutions. Established safeguards for the debtor in wage garnishment and repossession actions are sometimes violated even by local officials.

(7) Lack of Public and Social Services - Lacking political and economic power, barrio and ghetto residents usually receive poor service from their municipality, from public utilities and other civic and social agencies. Streets go unpaved or un repaired. Public transportation is inconvenient and expensive. Street lighting is frequently inadequate. Garbage and trash collections are haphazard. Utilities often provide poor service with long waiting periods for service and large deposits which may not be returned or applied to overdue bills to prevent cancellation of service. Schools may be run down and dilapidated, recreation facilities inadequate and not open when needed. Health services are often inferior, lacking inspection and enforcement. The poor generally depend more on these services in their daily lives and have fewer alternative resources to fall back on. And yet the taxes which apply for many of these services are usually paid by the poor at the same rates that are paid by the rich.

(8) Inadequate Transportation - Public transportation is often inadequate in the inner city; in rural areas, it frequently does not exist. Public transportation can be too expensive for the welfare recipient. Even if facilities are available so that the poor consumer can get to the better shopping areas, it is difficult to carry many bundles on a bus or subway. Even more difficult is the problem of handling both bundles and small children. Mothers on welfare cannot afford the luxury of baby sitters, and day care services may not exist or may be so distant as to be impractical. In addition, many of the poor would be reluctant to shop in the downtown stores for fear of being humiliated. Low-income consumers often are aware of better buys, better shopping areas, better quality. Through radio and TV, they are bombarded with enticing invitations to shop for bargains over a wide geographic area. But the odds are that for the poor person the savings realized in buying those bargains will be eaten up by the costs in time and money of making the trip to purchase them. For the poor person who wishes to own a car, additional problems exist. Not only is he faced with exorbitant credit costs and frequently shoddy merchandise; he has the added problems of inadequate or over-priced repair services and auto insurance premiums that are out of sight, if available to him at all.

These can be crippling handicaps to the poor person for whom getting and keeping a job requires dependable transportation.