Of Quiet Desperation

         The statistics and quotes speak for themselves.  No pontificating nor moralizing will follow.......

                    

• Years by which the average lifespan of a homeless person is shorter than the overall average: 30 ( Harpers, March/2012)

         Total taxable wages paid by Mitt Romney to four household helpers in 2010: $20,603 (IRS forms, released 1/24/12)  Annual Salary range for Boston-based domestic help, including two weeks paid vacation: $40,000-$50,000 (Boston-based domestic staffing agencies, as reported to MSNBC 1/24/12)

         "I'm not concerned about the very poor."  Mitt Romney (2/1/2012)

• Date on which Florida began requiring potential welfare recipients to pass a drug test before receiving benefits: 7/1/2011.  Percentage who have failed the test: 2.5.  Estimated amount this will save the state over the next year in denied benefits: $98,000 (Harpers-November/2011)

       Total of fines levied against Bank of America for violations of the Fair Housing Act, including practices of discrimination against qualified African-American and Latino borrowers on home loans: $335,000,000 (Associated Press 12/11/2011)

       "When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads." Congressman Ron Paul (March 14, 2007)

         "Tell you what, Rick, $10,000 bucks? ........ A ten thousand dollar bet?" Mitt Romney challenge to Governor Rick Perry during a televised debate. (December 10, 2011)

         Percentage of  Americans who say their households couldn't come up with $2,000 in thirty days: 47 (Harpers-September/2011)

         December 2011 national home foreclosures: 1,344,296
Average foreclosure resale price: $177,575   (Realty Trac)

        Factor by which a person experiencing long-term unemployment is more likely to report a first instance of mental illness: 3  (Harpers -January/2012) 

         To Occupiers: "Go home, take a bath, get a job."  Candidate Newt Gingrich (November 19, 2011)  

         Ratio of job applicants to newly available payroll positions: 5:1 (Economic Policy Institute- December/2011)

        Rank and percentage of unemployed by state: 1) North Dakota, 3.4  2) Nebraska, 4.1  37) Tie: New Jersey and Oregon, 9.1, 50) California, 11.3  51) Nevada, 13.0 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 2011)

        "If you don't have a job, and you're not rich, blame yourself."  Erstwhile presidential candidate Herman Caine (October 5, 2011)

        "I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money.  I want to give them the opportunity to go out, and earn the money."  Former senator Rick Santorum (January 2, 2012)

          Number of jobs lost by African American women during the recession: 233,000.  During the first two years of recovery: 258,000 (Harpers-Feb. 2012)

           Estimated total number of homeless in Multnomah County, including four categories of residents with no permanent home address: 15,563.  Percentage of change in the past two years: +8 (Research compiled by the city of Portland and Multnomah County)

"All of the Occupy Wall Street movements start with the premise that we owe them everything.  They take over a public park they didn't pay for, to go nearby to public bathrooms they didn't pay for, to beg for food in public places they do not want to pay for, to instruct those who go to work to pay for the taxes to sustain the bathrooms, and to sustain the park, so that they can self-righteously proclaim that they are the paradigms of virtue for which we owe everything." Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich (November 19, 2011)

                 Percentage of Chinese and Americans, respectively who struggled to pay for food in 2008: 16, 9.  In 2011: 6, 19.  (Harpers- January 2012)

                  "Being poor is no disgrace.  It's just damned inconvenient"  Safeway Stores, Inc. co-worker (June 1964)

(Ed. Note: Top Photo by Alex Barth, "From Reel to Real".  Bottom photo, courtesy "The Romney Propoganda File".  "Harpers Index" in Harpers Monthly provided data)