Poverty in WNY - A partial picture

Charity Vogel wrote a decent article about poverty last week. (I'm still recovering from whatever I had. I'm catching up on life.)

She covered Erie County nicely. She needs to take the next step and go outside of Erie and go into the other 7 counties that make up Western NY. Granted, that would be a ton of work top do. Each month a different county. Give us the big picture of poverty in the region.

Several observations:

First: In urban areas, especially in Buffalo and Tonawanda, the poverty rate looks worse to me. (According to the map that is part of the article.) Not everyone is benefiting from the “Buffalo Billion.” Just selective areas.

Second: Rural areas, like Collins and Evans, had a spike in poverty. These are the farmers that provide food for our tables. (Or at least some of them.) Farmers are always on the brink of breaking their bank. There is no reporting on this. It's not like Buffalo and other urban areas are the only pieces of Erie County. This could deal with the drought that we are having. But then again, we'd have to look at man made climate change and no part of the capitalist press wants to touch that.

Third: The Cattaraugus Indian Reservation. No one will touch poverty in the First Nations areas. To show that they are struggling to get by would be a blotch on the record of the government that has rounded them up and tied them to the “Rez.” Then again, it would also show that the government has failed to abide by the various treaty obligations that it has. Ignore the treaties – break the law. Who should we have arrested for that?

Fourth: And no paper owned by Warren Buffet will be allowed to say this – Capitalism is not doing its job. It is not providing work for the people that want to work. And what of those that are working part time jobs? Or two or more jobs to make ends meet? Or beneath their ability? (Like the person with a Masters degree working as a food server? I know several.)

Fifth: At that, capitalism is selective in whom it will help, where, and when. The Buffalo Niagara Corridor? Yes. The Fruit Belt will see some benefit from this, like higher home costs, increased tax assessments, you know, things designed to drive the poor out of an area so that it can be converted to middle and upper class housing.

So we have a snapshot, a very selective one at that, of poverty in our area.

We need to dig more into the issue and expose how serious the problem is in our region.

And then work to develop real solutions to the problem.

And bribing capitalists to create jobs is not a solution in my book.