[Dialogue] Self-Sufficiency Standards

Fri Oct 24 05:52:34 EDT 2008

Several years ago Russell Ackoff (The Democratic Corporation, 1994) drew a clear distinction between standard of living and quality of life--the former having to do with the basic necessities to live life with relative dignity.  What he did not do was itemize what items go into which category.

Seems to me there has to be a national (maybe even global) definition of standard of living which identifies what items are necessities and therefore included in an adequate standard of living.  For example, one of the problems with the federal poverty guideline in the US is that it doesn't include, I am told, child care or transportation .  Once there is an acceptable, itemized definition of "standard of living" then it could be indexed, as George suggests, to the cost of living in states or even locales, which seems to be what Pearce has done.

As George mentioned, over 40% of those who fall below the federal poverty guideline have one or more full-time jobs, hence the need to focus on a "living" wage rather than a "minimum" wage.

I pulled up Pearce's Self-Sufficiency Standard for Texas.  It includes housing, child care, food, transportation, medical care, miscellaneous (10% of all other costs, for clothes, toiletries, personal hygiene, telephone, etc.) and taxes.  First time I've seen taxes included, but it makes sense..

Randy

--- On Thu, 10/23/08, mandmshaw at comcast.net <mandmshaw at comcast.net> wrote:

From: mandmshaw at comcast.net <mandmshaw at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Self-Sufficiency Standards
To: "Colleague Dialogue" <dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
Date: Thursday, October 23, 2008, 3:49 PM

#yiv2048859906 p {margin:0;}

Randy,

I haven't looked at Diana's work in detail, but my understanding is that she did not use state for federal poverty guidelines, but rather looked at what the actual costs were for rent, utilities, groceries, clothing, transportation, etc.  She may have even thrown in a movie.

It think the premise of her research was that the nobody can live at the poverty standard.  The 2 quotes below are from the introduction of one of her papers: The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Alabama

The Self-Sufficiency Standard measures how much income is needed for a family of a givencomposition in a given place to adequately meet their basic needs—without public or private assistance.

Measuring Income Adequacy: Problems with the Poverty Line
How much is enough for families to meet their needs on their own? Although we may have trouble coming up with an exact dollar figure, most of us know what adequacy looks like when we see it. 
   As one participant in a training program put it when asked to define her progress towards economic self-sufficiency: I wouldn’t say I’m economically selfsufficient yet. When it comes to a point where I don’t have to worry about the health care needs of my family, when I don’t have to worry about the light bill, when the light man isn’t knocking on the door saying “your bill is due.” Not that you have a lot of money, but you’re not worried about how your kid is going to get that next pair of shoes …. Just the simple things,
that may not be all that simple because we don’t have them yet.1

Peace,
Michael

----- Original Message -----
From: "R Williams" <rcwmbw at yahoo.com>
To: "Colleague Dialogue" <dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 7:35:49 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Self-Sufficiency Standards

Michael,

Almost everyone acknowledges that the current federal poverty guideline, which this year places the poverty level for a family of 4 at just over $20,000, is badly outdated.  Many have suggested that the real point at which a family of 4 does not have to decide between what necessities it will and will not pay in a given month is closer to $40,000.

To your knowledge is Diana Pearce's self-sufficiency standard a part of this conversation to redefine the poverty guideline for the country?

Randy

--- On Thu, 10/23/08, Michael & Molly Shaw <mandmshaw at comcast.net> wrote:

From: Michael & Molly Shaw <mandmshaw at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Self-Sufficiency Standards
To: "'Colleague Dialogue'" <dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
Date: Thursday, October 23, 2008, 1:52 AM

George,

Google Diana Pearce or "the self-sufficiency standard".  Diana is a
Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Washingon.  She
coined the phrase "the feminization of poverty" (may have written a
book by
same name).  She also created a calculator that is available on the web to
tell a person whether they are better off on different forms of public
assistance than to take that job that looks oh-so good at $9 an hour.

She has published The Self-Sufficiency Standard for (name your state).  It
looks like Texas was one of the oldest in 1997, but I saw one for Ohio in
2008.  She has done some amazing work.  Her work has been to define what a
what it costs to live for any size family group, in every state in the US.
She may have done it down to the census track level.  She has done a lot of
traveling to "roll out" her data in each state, but would not do the
roll
out until a state-wide agency stood next to her.

You probably met her when you passed through Seattle and stopped in at
University Temple UMC.  I believe she attends Wallingford UMC now. I am
pretty sure she would remember your name as being associated with Sharon Moe
at U-Temple when you were working in the Philipines.

She and her husband have also worked in Tashkent.  Her contact info at UW
is:

Diana M Pearce; 206 616-2850, 206 852-3759; Box 354900
Senior Lecturer & Director, Center for Women's Welfare, School of
Social
Work
4101 15th Ave NE
FAX: 206 543-1228
Vmail: 206 616-2850
pearce at u.washington.edu

If you decide to contact her, you can use my name or not.  We served on the
board of ROOTS (http://rootsinfo.org/) , a homeless shelter for 18-25 year
olds at University Temple UMC.

Peace,
Michael

  _____  

From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net
[mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of George Holcombe
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 8:19 AM
To: Colleague Dialogue
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Need a quote

Thanks a million.  It all comes back to me now.  I've not kept up with
OWOP,
though I get their emails and chime in from time to time. 

On your homeless work, is anyone around there pushing for the Living Wage,
where minimum wage would be indexed and be according to what it takes
locally to have housing, food, transport, health, etc.?  If that could ever
be a part of this mix a lot of homelessness could disappear.  We're finding
that over 40% of our homeless in Austin work full time, some 2 jobs.

George Holcombe
Asbury United Methodist Church
1605 38 1/2 St. 
Austin, TX 78722
Home: 512/252-2756
Church: 512/477-8122
Mobile 512/294-5952
geowanda at earthlink.net

On Oct 22, 2008, at 10:08 AM, Charles or Doris Hahn wrote:

Hi Georgee,
It is from Loren Eisley, The Immense Journey,  Chapter 1, the Slit,  page 5
in our edition.  Hope this helps.
Greetings to Wanda, the EI/OE Group, and the guys at OWOP(if you go to
that).  Keep up your good work.  We are enjoying Bloomington, and being
nearer the kids.  Working at the church,  for single payer health care, and
for the homeless. We are both in great health.
Grace and Peace,
Charles

----- Original Message ----
From: George Holcombe <geowanda at earthlink.net>
To: ICA LIST SERVE <dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 9:45:56 AM
Subject: [Dialogue] Need a quote

My mind is slipping, I can't find the quote or source for that reading in
CS-I that ends "and what will I never live to see." or something like
that.
Anyone have the quote, book, chapter, verse? 

George Holcombe
14900 Yellowleaf Tr.
Austin, TX 78728
Home: 512/252-2756
Mobile 512/294-5952
geowanda at earthlink.net

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