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Poverty is Not a Necessary Evil

Today the United States has the worst inequality since data has been collected on the subject in 1928, an AP Report based on Census Bureau Data. But, apparently, we’ve been in an economic growth period for the last decade. Many hardworking Americans have not had felt the return. Almost all of the new income, the product of all of our hard labor, goes to the top 1%. Many people feel like we’re in a recession, because we’re squeezed out of every dollar we earn, at every turn. 

Inequality results from our government’s policy failures. And income inequality is a threat to our democracy, because it translates to power inequality. Billionaires can purchase power by funding political campaigns, and those campaigns return the favor by either  “doing nothing” or, even worse, awarding pork contracts to their donors. That’s why it’s important to get big money out of politics. 
Republicans have demonized poor people for decades since Reagan, arguing it’s a problem of character: laziness,  “inner city culture”, etc. trump has targeted social services that seek to provide a dignified life for the working Poor. The trump admin has come up with a cruel way to persecute the homeless. They have repeatedly cut food stamps, cut aid to school lunches that nourish learning children, with blatant disregard for the quality of life of those affected.
The idea that poor people are “immoral” has also been repeated by the media and government. Cities criminalize poverty and dehumanize the poor. The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty found that most cities do not provide shelter for the homeless, that 53% criminalize lying down in public places with “homeless spikes,” 43% ban sleeping in a vehicle, and 9% even make it a crime to provide food for homeless people
These laws are cruel and senseless. Criminalizing poverty actually costs the government more than it would cost to house the homeless. Yet, many cities, red and blue alike, seek to criminalize poverty instead of fixing the root causes. That’s why we have a plan to build affordable housing, through the Green New Deal, which will build community owned public housing available to those who need it.
The question we should ask ourselves ultimately is, why does society allow millions of its members live in poverty? 42.5 Million people live in poverty today. If there’s so much wealth and resources in this country, if we have more homes than there are homeless, why would anyone allow homelessness to be a real thing? One reason - the poor exists as a threat to those of us with good jobs, a constant reminder that if we lose our jobs, we could be homeless in a matter of months.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. As a nation, we can be stronger, safer, and reduce crime, by making poverty a thing of the past. No one should live in needless suffering. 
This excellent TED Talk explains that poor people are poor because they lack cash. A survey of farmers, who make their money in harvest season and are flush with cash, but relatively poor for the rest of the year, found that poverty affects IQ levels. Believe it or not, the same farmers scored higher on IQ tests during harvest season, and lower during the rest of the year when they were living in poverty! It’s because a lack of cash eliminates our capacity for critical thinking. If we don’t know where our next meal will come from, there’s no way we could think about where we will be in the next month. 
One thing I’ve learned over the course of this campaign is that it’s absolutely LIBERATING and JOYFUL to serve others who need it most. If you want to experience true, unfiltered, JOY, it comes when you stand up for others who aren’t as well off as we are. It is our duty, as citizens, to defend each other and speak out against class warfare. We must fight for those less privileged than us, no matter the personal risk. That is how we build community strength. We are all in this together.
90,000 people, more than 10%, make minimum wage in the district I seek to represent. That’s why I’ve committed to fighting for a living wage of $20 an hour indexed to inflation. One job should be enough to support a family. Here’s a great calculator from MIT if you’re interested in what the living wage should be in your area.
Switching to Medicare for All will actually reduce poverty in this nation by nearly 20%. Not only will 95% of Americans save money on health insurance, but eliminating “out of pocket” health insurance expenses, like co-pays, deductibles, would give families a chance at a dignified life. 45,000 people in my district cannot afford health insurance. I’m fighting for them, too.
I’ve pledged to support a federal jobs guarantee, which will put millions of people to work, in good paying jobs, rebuilding our communities nationwide. These jobs will be federally funded but locally implemented, creating jobs in our communities. Importantly, it will provide on the job learning of real world skills, so anyone, including homeless people, will learn real skills that prepare them for entering the job market. It is a great equalizer and a guarantee of a basic standard of living. It will also be permanent, so that we are constantly training people for the work that has to be done in this country, and we will be upgrading our skill sets for the work we need. It will end unemployment and on our way towards ending poverty. This is what Democracy was supposed to be about - our communities coming together and deciding on what we need
It will take guts, leadership, and an army of representatives that truly care about the People who are struggling in this country. It will take You, and me, all of us together, to fight for the least well off in our communities. They need us, they have been discarded by society, and it is our role to recognize their humanity and fight, for them.
The only explanation for income inequality and poverty, is that it has been planned to be this way. After years of pro-private politics, tax cuts for billionaires and multinational corporations, we now know full well that tax cuts for billionaires never magically trickle down to the rest of us, by some sort of invisible hand. We must bend the arc of justice and equality ourselves.
Sincerenly,

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Russ Circincione

Candidate for Congress
6th District
New Jersey

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