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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 17, 2003)
Page A 4 D ecem ber 17. 2 0 0 3 O pinion ^ 'P o r t la n d O b s e r v e r USPS 9 5 9 -6 8 0 Established 1970 4 7 4 7 NE M a rtin L u th e r King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 9 7 2 1 1 Opinion articles do not necessarily reflect or represent the views of The Portland Observer C I l IT S T A F F ] Churles H. Washington E d it o * O I H D I K e Paul Neufeldt m e t Michael Leighton SI 4 *1 A Mark Washington Ü IS T K IB U T IO M C T O K M 4 N 4 G K * Kathy Linder G f. H R e r o K T t K J ay mee R. Cuti P ostuastcr : Send address changes to Portland Observer P0 Box 3137 , Portland, OR 97208 _________ Periodical Postage paid In Portland, OR i Subscriptions are $6 0 .0 0 peryear 5 0 3 -2 8 8 0 0 3 3 • FAX5 0 3 -2 8 8 0 0 1 5 • EMAIL: news@Dortlandobserver.com subscriDtion@Dortlandobserver.com ads@portlandi BOSS HOGG Christinas Tree Lot Any Tree On Lot The Portland Observer-Oregon’s Oldest Multicultural Publication-is a member of the National Newspaper Association-Founded in 1885, and The National Advertising Repre sentative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New Y ork, NY, and The West Coast Black Publishers Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver. Our Economic Pain is Spreading C en su s fig u res show p o v e rty ’s en o rm o u s size C h r is tm a s T rees The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be relumed if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property of the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent of the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition of such ad. © 1996 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER AI.L RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. by M arc H. M orial W hat would be the national reaction if suddenly the in com es o f al 1 the households in cities of from roughly 570,000 to 690,000 people-dropped below the federal governm ent's pov erty line o f $18,244 for a family of four? W ould there be a declaration o f a national em ergency, followed by urgent calls and swift action to bring the people o f the stricken city out o f poverty? W ell, a new federal report shows that poverty across the United States has increased to such an extent that it matches the population of an entire city the size o f a W ashington, Bos ton or Baltimore. In short, the eco nomic pain that has gripped millions o f A m ericans is deepening. A ccording to the Census Bureau, poverty increased and median house hold income fell in 2002 for the Unfortunately, as one might expect, African Americans and Latino Americans are disproportionately enduring the hardship o f poverty. second consecutive year. The num ber o f A m ericans in poverty jum ped by 1.7 m illion to 34.6 million. The poverty rate itself rose from 11.7 percent to 12.1 percent; and median household income fell by $500. This deepening o f poverty in A m erica is rooted in the econom ic dow nturn that has sharply increased u n em ploym ent. T he n um ber o f A m ericans out o f work six months or longer has soared from 650,000 a month in 2000, to nearly 1.9 million a month thus far this year. U nfortunately, as one might ex pect, African A m ericans and Latino A m ericans are disproportionately enduring the hardship o f poverty. Blacks as a group suffered the C alifornia initiative would have re quired. The econom ic advances African Americans recorded during the boom years o f the 1990s bear w itness to the com bined pow er o f a grow ing econom y and vigorous efforts to expand educational and econom ic opportunity. The most impressive achievement o f the rosy years o f the 1990s was the decline o f the black unem ploy ment rate to 7.2 percent, a record low, in m id -1999. That was in large m easure due to poor African A m eri cans with low skills rushing to fill the low -w age service-sector jobs the boom ing econom y had, finally, opened up to them. Despite all the gloom y statistics to be found in the latest Census B u reau report on poverty, we should regard that 7.2 percent figure o f 1999 as a beacon for the A m erican econom y to strive for, so that the econom ic pain millions are now ex periencing can becom e a thing o f the past. greatest increase in the poverty rate at 24 percent in 2002, up from 22.7 percent in 2001. The poverty rate for Latinos was 21.8 percent. A fric a n A m e r ic a n s ’ m ed ian h o u seh o ld in co m e su ffe re d the sharpest decline o f all groups, falling by as much as 3 percent, while that o f Latinos fell by 2.9 percent. Some groups o f A sian A m ericans also suffered sharp declines in median household income. O ne thing these latter statistics underscore is how foolish, cruel, and dangerous it would be to bar govern ments from identifying the differ ences that exist am ong Americans Marc H. Morial is president o f different racial and ethnic back and chief executive officer o f the grounds, as Proposition 54, the failed National Urban League. $20.00 427 NE Cook Street @ The comer of MLK & Cook Portland, OR 97212 Workers Will Add to Their Coal Collection by J eff T hompson the recession. America has lost 2.2 mil Unemployed Oregonians don't need lion jobs since 2000, with Oregon ac to peek at their Christmas present from counting for 53,000 of those lost jobs. Congress and the Bush Administration. In recent weeks the job hemorrhage They already know what they are get appears to have stopped, with the U.S. ting this year - coal. economy adding 82,(XX) jobs per month Bush Administration boosters cel over the last four months. But this low ebrate increased productivity (more level of growth won’t put Americans output with fewer workers) and rapid back to work. GDP growth (all of that mortgage refi The U.S. needs to add 150,000 jobs nancing), but most people judge the per month just to keep up with workforce success of the economy by jobs. growth, let alone absorb the millions And in Oregon and in the rest of the who lost their jobs. To overcome the country, jobs have not recovered from damage done by the 2 0 0 1 recession, the U.S. needs tocreate nearly 7 million jobs. And it’s a similar story in Oregon. With 50,000 jobs lost and workforce growth of 70,000, Oregon still has to create 120,000 jobs to overcome the recession's damage. The upshot of mammoth job loss followed by meager job growth is that there remain millions of long-term unem ployed across the country, many of them in Oregon. Despite this. Congress and the Bush Administration decided to pull the plug on the key federal extended unemploy Ashley Farms Smoked Ham ment benefits program. Heartfelt pleas from some in Oregon's delegation had little impact. Possibly Congress thinks that the unemployed will be overjoyed that the richest one percent of Oregonians, with average incomes of $710,000, will re ceive $41,000 in federal tax cuts in 2004. If unemployed workers’ hearts aren't warmed by tax cuts for affluent house holds they can always bum the coal. Jeff Thompson is a policy analyst and economist with the Oregon Center fo r Public Policy. Fresh Whole Cooked Dungeness Crab Bone-in. Whole or Shank Half. Rump Half Ham, $1.09 lb. Subiect to weather conditions. SAVE up to $1.41 lb. SAVE up to $3.00 lb. $ lb Safeway Club Price Safew ay Brown 'n Serve Rolls 5-lb. Box Satsuma Mandarins 12-ct. Selected varieties Conveniently packaged. Card pnee >3.00 ea. SAVE up to 71 ( SAVE up to $4.99 on 2 88* 26 Safeway Club Price Now the savings are in the Card! i Safeway Club Price Safeway Club Price AU. LIMITS ARE PER HOUSEHOLD PER DAY!
