If one were reading a real newspaper, it would be a shock to see a
letter like Richard Hicks' of Oklahoma City. He writes:
Regarding 'Hungry for an oasis: Several pockets of metro area fit federal definition of food desert' (News, June 9): Once upon a time my wife and I lived in Clayton, Kan., which is a food desert. It was a 30-minute drive to the nearest grocery store. We made the decision that Clayton wasn’t the place for us. And, like the Joad family, we moved to where we could find work, food and opportunity. If you’re living in a food desert, move!
As noted in his letter (and kudos to the paper's editors for actually running a letter on a timely topics!!), he's talking about
a recent article regarding the city's problem in some areas of access to food. This isn't a new issue, but we should be happy that the paper is covering an actual problem.
Of course, the editors actually hate talking about problems that plague the poor, since in their Puritanical view, the poor are only poor because they deserve it. Hence, it must have been refreshing for them to read Mr Hicks' letter. After all, that's exactly the stance he takes-- Hey, poor person,
just move! It's so easy!!!
But only a true idiot-- or, someone sadly and woefully out of touch with a) the plight of the poor, and b) the cost and effort involved in moving-- would think that such things are so simple.
Let's imagine a simple scenario of one person wanting to move from one apartment to the other. For the sake of discussion, we will posit that this is a move from one part of the metro area to another. What sort of things would be involved for this to take place? Well...
A) First off, the person in question would, presumably, spend time scouting potential apartments. Much of this could be done on-line, but at some point, a person is going to have to schedule an appointment to meet with someone to actually view the apartment. Sometimes this is possible on a Saturday, sometimes not. But there is a good chance that someone is going to have to miss work to spend time driving around to view 3-4 (or more) places. We are also assuming that this person has ready access to a car-- not always a given among the poor.
B) A lease application will probably need to be filled out. This often costs money, usually ca. $20-30. Sometimes more.
C) Assuming the person is approved, she or he will have to fork over at least a deposit (often an entire month's rent), and upon move-in, the person will have to pay first month's rent, too. This is a problem for people who have limited savings, as they are already sinking a good deal of money into their present place. Sometimes it's hard to come up with essentially two months' worth of rent (your current place, and the security deposit on your new place) when you're living paycheck to paycheck.
D) Moving isn't cheap. If you want to rent a truck, that costs money-- even driving around in-city can be expensive for someone on a limited budget. And, of course, if you don't have a driver's license, then a truck rental is out of the question. Nevertheless, you're going to have to find a way to move all of your belongings from one place to the next. This can take some time, can even eat into work hours.
E) Transferring utilities should be easy, but it's not free. Utilities often tack on "transfer fees" when you move from one place to the next. This can add up to considerable sums-- sometimes $40 or more per utility. That doesn't sound like much, but for those who are really living paycheck to paycheck, switching over 2 or 3 utilities can eat up quite a bit of one's disposable income.
Let's look at what might be a typical person living in Valley Brook-- the subject of the Oklahoman's
recent story. According to basic
demographics, this person would be a young woman making ca. $17,500 a year. Let's make it $20,000 just to make it easy. Of course,
after taxes, this will look more like $17,400 a year, or about $1,450 a month. That's not a lot to work with!
Now, the average rent in Valley Brook is ca. $625 a month. That may include larger apartments, so let's assume that a one bedroom goes for $550. So, after rent, our made-up person is now down to $900 left. It's hard to calculate utilities, but
assume ca. $50 a month for gas and electric. We also need to consider things like cable, wifi, and phone. One of the memes of the right wing war on the poor is that if you're poor, you shouldn't have things like that-- you should just live like it's 1980. (And just get a good-paying job, duh!!) But let's be kind and assume that our person here doesn't have cable or wifi, but does have a smart phone which runs ca. $50 a month. Now we're down to $800 left for expenses.
Let's assume this person owns a car-- and older car, perhaps from a grandparent-- so there is no car payment. but gas and insurance aren't free. Combined, let's put those at $150 a month. (If the average person drives 1,000 miles a month, and if the average car gets (generously)
25 miles per gallon, that's 40 gallons a month, or $136 at $3.40 a gallon, and we will (also generously) round up to $150 for insurance). So now this person is down to $650.
What about food? Estimates vary, but it would be
charitable to peg that number at $300 a month (remember-- this person lives in a food desert, so access to inexpensive food is difficult). So we are down to $350. Already, basic expenses have made it quite difficult for a person to get another apartment-- the costs of a security deposit and credit check, etc., easily go beyond $500, and our fictional person has just $350 a month left.
Worse, this $350 doesn't include incidentals-- doing laundry at the coin-op a few times a month could run $20. Going out to dinner with a friend just once might be $20. Then we have other things that crop up-- what about unexpected car repairs? You are probably buying gifts a few times a year for birthdays and holidays.
And we haven't even talked about health insurance of potential doctor bills.
Either way, it's easy to see how this person is truly living paycheck to paycheck, and taking time off from work and putting down huge expenses up front for moving expenses is fairly unrealistic. Of course, our hypothetical person would likely end each month with perhaps $100 left over, and if she planned well, she could, after 7 or 8 months have enough set aside to actually move (assuming no disastrous expenses like needing a root canal, or new tires for the car, or whatever). But remember: this is a young single person. What if you add in a child? Or two? (And let's not forget that we've given this person a free car and ignored the question of health insurance-- add those in and this person is probably not even breaking even!)
It's easy to say "just move!" but as we've shown, it's not
actually so easy to do if you're poor.
Tellingly, Mr Hicks continues:
I feel no guilt for the inconveniences of the choices others have made.
Hahahahaha! THIS is the true right wing mentality: IF YOU ARE POOR, IT IS YOUR OWN FAULT! It's easy to imagine a hundred scenarios why someone might live in a less-than-desirable location, and not all of them are just the poor choices and whims of fancy. The lack of empathy here is both stunning and entirely unsurprising.
And finally, Mr Hicks concludes:
By the way, rice (brown and wild), dry beans and canned greens (such as collards, spinach, kraut) are always in season!
WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?!? Oh-- right, if you're poor you should just eat rice and dried canned goods and not have access to inexpensive fresh fruits and vegetables? Mr Hicks is a dickhead and this paper is pathetic for running letters expressing dickheaded, myopic, views like his.
