Po' Folks

The question of the hour right after Katrina hit was, “Why didn’t they (po’ folks) just leave?” The silly people, a.k.a. conservative commentators, said it was because they’ve been all welfared out and just expect the govt to take care of them. Makes sense. Why ask local, state and federal disaster officials to have a good plan and put it into action when needed? I guess if we do that, then the terrorists win. I dunno.

Anyway, it’s not as easy for poor folks to jump up and leave as it is for the more bourgeois among us. For one, they have no money.

Not just from being poor. From living in a cash economy. Most of the folks who read blogs on the Internet have debit and credit cards in their pockets. They can pick up, go a hundred miles and have the same access to cash and credit as if they were down at the local strip mall. Poorer folks don’t have that luxury. There are precious few banks on the other side of the tracks. From my experience working in the East Oakland ‘hood for a time, whole generations come and go with only the thinnest idea of what a checking and savings account are, and offer. Paychecks are cashed at local stores or check chasing outlets, where one can usually pay utilities too. The rest goes in the pocket to pay for groceries and household needs.

There is also a huge underground cash economy, from casual labor to hair care to babysitting. Leave and you potentially leave this behind.

So the choice is: leave, and find yourself in a strange place without dime one, or, stay, and run the risk of damage and injury but at stay close to the resource base you know. Being reasonable people, many chose the latter. Is it surprising?