A SOBERING AND HEARTBREAKING SURPRISE
Back in the late 60s, I left the Philippines with much apprehension, as I was embarking into the unknown, full of dreams but bereft of worldly knowledge. My parochial thinking limited me to my own Philippine experience and I was not cognizant of the big world that awaited me. Only then did I realize that Manila is not the glittering city as I thought it was!
During that time, the Ford Mustang was the "must have" car in the Philippines, affordable to only the super rich. Imagine my surprise when, in the late August afternoon, Dr. Ernie Villanueva, my cousin, Lydia Mercado Villanueva's husband, picked me up at Philadelphia International Airport in an almost new Mustang! I was salivating at such a prized possession.
In a few days, I realized that that car I so looked at as the epitome of having arrived, turned out to be a pretty common car. And the longer I lived in the United States the more I found out that cars were quite commonplace. Some homes would have four people living in it, and they would have five or more cars in the household. This reinforced my thinking that indeed, America was the land of plenty.
As an immigrant, working hard and aspiring to do well is a common trait. In my late twenties, I decided to get married to my best friend, Nora Vergara and we have enjoyed more than forty years of wedded bliss. With the arrival of two children, we opted to live our life with her staying home and us surviving on a single income. This was difficult, but we have no regrets as we would not have raised our children in any other way.
We were very involved in our church. We were Eucharistic Ministers, went to a Marriage Encounter weekend in July, 1980, became a team couple, giving weekends in several states. I served on the Pastoral Council and was a president of our Filipino American Association. We were also the first Filipino couple to receive the Pro Deo et Patria award given by St. Matthias Church in Somerset, NJ.
One of the measures of income inequality is the Gini coefficient. This, on a scale of 1 to 100, determines how equal income is distributed among the different sectors of a nation's population. A coefficient of 1 means income equality is accomplished and a coefficient of 100 means total inequality. Sadly, in the United States, as in the Philippines, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The Gini coefficient has been increasing and is now at about 60. The middle class is slowly disappearing.
Our involvement in the St. Vincent de Paul Society has opened up my eyes to a distressing reality. Founded by Frederic Ozanam, the society hopes to help the downtrodden by interviewing those who are in need and helping with material and financial resources. Being from a third world country, I am probably more used to poverty and would be more nonchalant in witnessing it in poorer countries. But never in my life did I expect that in the United States there are people who eke out an existence and barely could make ends meet. Other people tell me that the poverty I see is not as bad as the conditions in Appalachia and some other southern states like Mississippi and Alabama. Thus, the title to my article.
I will now cite some samples of the many incidents the society has helped during our involvement, as follows:
1. A widow in her late fifties, on disability benefits from Social Security was receiving a total of $800 a month. She lived in a house owned by her son, who resided in another house several miles away. The son charged the mother $500 a month rent and required her to pay for her own gas and electric, which amounted to almost $100 a month. The woman survived on $200 a month, had no car, no TV and a cellular phone.
2. An elderly couple, who, during times of prosperity, lived the good life and did not save enough for their retirement. Now retired, and in failing health, their house is being foreclosed by the bank, and they will be forced to go back to living in an apartment. The bad part is their Social Security benefits will be just enough for their living expenses, so they are forced to suffer the indignity of going to the food bank to get free groceries.
3. A single mother, left to fend for herself because the husband abandoned her for another woman. One of the children is autistic, and needs more care than other children, so she is struggling to make ends meet. The cost of child care for the autistic child is high so she gets welfare to augment her resources. She is behind on gas bill and electric bill, and the utility companies are issuing shutoff notices for non-payment.
4. A never married woman in her late 50s who worked for the same company for more than twenty years. She got paid a little more than the minimum wage, was laid off and is struggling to survive. She is too young to collect Social Security and may be too old to be hired somewhere else. With her medical coverage gone, the ability to survive may be in jeopardy and she could conceivably become homeless.
5. A sixty something man who is quite handy, and has worked under the table all his working life. Yes, there are places where this happens, but quite rare. Now that he is older, he is faced with mounting medical bills. The most frightening aspect is that because he has no earnings record with Social Security, when he reaches retirement age of 66, he will not receive anything from Social Security. And with no 401K or other retirement account, his future is quite dire indeed.
I could go on and on in relating many, many more cases of fiscal irresponsibility and lack of financial resources. It is appalling to me that a son could charge his widowed mom rent that was more than half her income. The many opportunities for work in this country are, unfortunately, not taken advantage of by some people. So, sad to say, even in the most affluent countries in the world, homelessness, poverty and dependence on welfare and food stamps arise.
That is the reason why, in the United States, I find it incredible that some people could live the way they do.
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