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Social crisis in Detroit: An investigative report
Part 1: The spiraling cost of food
Lawrence Porter and Naomi Spencer, World Socialist Web Site
Over the past month, the World Socialist Web Site has conducted an investigation into the impact of rising food and gasoline prices on working class families in the Detroit metropolitan area.
Detroit, historically known as the auto capital of the world, has been transformed into the biggest poor city in America, according to the US Census Bureau, with an official poverty rate of 31.4 percent. Detroit has earned this designation several times over the past 30 years as the auto industry destroyed tens of thousands of decent paying jobs.
This once booming city of 2 million has lost more than half of its population, now standing at 900,000, with the exodus accelerating yearly. In some areas only the poorest people remain and the tax and employment bases have collapsed. As a result of the decline, Detroit has the highest high school dropout rate of any big city in the country-over 50 percent. It also has one of the highest unemployment rates in the US and is listed among the top 10 cities in home foreclosures. The city also has recently been determined to have the highest rate of families needing food assistance.
(20 June 2008)
First of a three-part series. The report has the feeling of Great Depression journalism; sadly, I think this is only the beginning. Published by the left wing International Committe of the Fourth International (a Trotskyist branch Marxist-Leninism).
One Simple Question
Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation
It started with one simple question posed by Senator Bernie Sanders to his constituents in an invitation to a town meeting: what does the decline of the middle class mean to you personally?
Over 700 people replied.
A second question was asked in his e-newsletter, The Bernie Buzz: do you have a story to tell about how gas prices are affecting you?
Over 1200 responses.
“The volume of responses was stunning,” Sanders told me. “Most people in my state – especially in rural areas – do not feel comfortable telling people about their struggles. ‘He has it worse than I do, I’ll be fine. Thanks for asking.’ It’s just not a natural thing [to share these struggles]…. The other point that has to be underlined – this is not an interview at the homeless shelter. These are letters from working families, from middle class families… [and] people who’ve worked their whole lives who expected to have a minimal degree of economic security but are now finding themselves with nothing.”
Here are some excerpts from the letters:
A mother and father in rural Vermont: “Due to increasing fuel prices we have at times had to choose between baby food/diapers and heating fuel. We’ve run out of heating fuel three times…. The baby has ended up in the hospital with pneumonia two of the times.”
A man in north central Vermont: “As bad as our situation is, I know many in worse shape. We try to donate food when we do our weekly shopping but now we are not able to even afford to help our neighbors eat. What has this country come to?”
(13 June 2008)
Dubie’s declaration spurs action
Carl Etnier, Rutland Herald (Vermont)
On June 11, Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie held a press conference to declare an emergency in advance of this winter’s heating season. Dubie admits he has no explicit authority to declare such an emergency, but he thinks that just saying the word “emergency” can focus people’s attention and spur collaborative activity.
And boy, did a lot of announcements follow. The next day, Gov. James Douglas gave a speech to announce what he called the Vermont Fuel and Food Partnership and established a Cabinet-level task force (which he named Dubie to co-chair, along with incoming Administration Secretary Neale Lunderville) “to focus every effort and every resource Vermont can bring to bear to help manage the effects of higher energy costs on Vermont families.”
In addition, gubernatorial candidate and Speaker of the House Gaye Symington, D-Jericho, announced an emergency home heating meeting of the Joint Fiscal Committee on June 26, inviting the administration to the table. The following Tuesday, House Republicans announced an initiative to help install pellet stoves and chunk wood stoves in low-income and middle-income houses, as well as encouraging start-up wood pellet manufacturing businesses in Vermont.
…Dubie often works stories from his part-time job as an airline pilot into policy discussions, and so I drew on my puny flying experience to suggest a metaphor. (Decades ago, I flew an ultralight that I spent more time fixing after crashes than flying, but I read a lot of pilot wannabe books.)
I asked Dubie if the state is in a situation analogous to a pilot’s fuel emergency. When a pilot declares a fuel emergency, the plane receives priority in landing over all other aircraft. He said it’s more like a minimum fuel advisory, which means, according to the “Airmen’s Information Manual,” that “an emergency situation is possible should any undue delay occur.” Sounds about right to me.
Dubie’s initial emergency declaration focused on three things: ensuring that Meals on Wheels and other services to seniors could continue with high gas and diesel costs, updating the emergency operations plan to address a wider range of fuel emergencies, and addressing public safety hazards from faulty installation of wood, electric and other heat sources that people are installing to reduce their oil use. Douglas’ Fuel and Food Partnership added food to the mix, which makes sense given that high prices for food make it hard to pay for fuel and vice versa.
(22 June 2008)
