How San Antonio Can Beat Poverty (El Paso, Laredo: day care, unemployment rate, buying)

[elnina]

San Antonio has earned the dubious recognition of being the #1, the poorest US metro among the Top 25 most populous metropolitan areas, according to the 2018 American Community Survey. The Alamo City beat Detroit for the top spot of percentage of people living in poverty for 2018.
It was debated last week.

San Antonio was ranked second in 2017 - now
15.4% of greater area live in poverty and 30% of local residents ages 18 and under live in poverty.

We’ve heard a lot in the past years about the Texas Miracle, about Texas faring better from the recession than others and having relatively low unemployment rates, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that all Texans are benefiting equally from that economic prosperity

Ignorance and prejudice played unfortunate roles in the development of San Antonio from a frontier town to a modern city. Better public education opportunities for all the city’s children and youth can help rectify generations of inequity. One day, then, individuals like Martinez, Saldaña, and Pulliam will no longer stand out as exceptions.

https://therivardreport.com/in-poore...-beat-poverty/

What you think could and should be done to improve the current situation?

[Zone Read]

You can pump all the money you want into schools, pre-K programs, and everything else for kids, but until parents take an active role in their kid's education, it's just BS used by politicians to further their political careers. Buying votes with subsidized day care. Not sure what the solution is but just throwing money at a problem isn't it. We need to discourage people that don't want to help their kids succeed from having children.

[yukon]

Better zoning laws. I really like San Antonio, but like ABQ, it's a somewhat ugly, drab city on first impression. Impressions count when trying to attract new companies and jobs, which is also needed to reduce or eliminate poverty.

[elnina]

Originally Posted by Zone Read

You can pump all the money you want into schools, pre-K programs, and everything else for kids, but until parents take an active role in their kid's education, it's just BS used by politicians to further their political careers. Buying votes with subsidized day care. Not sure what the solution is but just throwing money at a problem isn't it. We need to discourage people that don't want to help their kids succeed from having children.

It's hard to be great parents when you have 2 jobs and struggle to make ends meet. Lots of those parents lack a proper education too. Many still don't speak proper English, lack resources and time to get help. It's a vicious circle.
Perhaps improving family laws would be more helpful?

Originally Posted by yukon

Better zoning laws. I really like San Antonio, but like ABQ, it's a somewhat ugly, drab city on first impression. Impressions count when trying to attract new companies and jobs, which is also needed to reduce or eliminate poverty.

Zoning will only lead to greater divides - racial and economic segregation. And could enable the wealthy to wall themselves off from other groups. The wealthy, generally, colonize the most central, economically functional, and desirable locations - in turn, shunting the poor, less educated, and service and working classes.
How is that going to beat poverty?

[Zone Read]

Originally Posted by elnina

It's hard to be great parents when you have 2 jobs and struggle to make ends meet. Lots of those parents lack a proper education too. Many still don't speak proper English, lack resources and time to get help. It's a vicious circle.
Perhaps improving family laws would be more helpful?

If you need to work 2 jobs and struggle, maybe you shouldn't have kids? Why would you bring kids into this world when you can't provide for them? How is that fair to those kids and the rest of the population that has to support them with inefficient social programs? What laws could you possibly enact that would help people get educations and be better parents?

[01Snake]

Originally Posted by Zone Read

If you need to work 2 jobs and struggle, maybe you shouldn't have kids? Why would you bring kids into this world when you can't provide for them? How is that fair to those kids and the rest of the population that has to support them with inefficient social programs? What laws could you possibly enact that would help people get educations and be better parents?

Exactly. Enacting laws, programs, etc isn't going to do squat to fix the problem. It's really a problem with no solution.

[Azure110]

Originally Posted by 01Snake

Exactly. Enacting laws, programs, etc isn't going to do squat to fix the problem. It's really a problem with no solution.

At least the recent "public charge" ruling from the Supreme Court is a step in the right direction but probably too late.

[txbullsfan]

Yes, San Antonio got the wonderful honor/award of being the poorest City.

Poverty brings many sufferings in multiple areas. It detrimentally affects those who are in poverty directly as well as the society around them. Poverty detrimentally effects society as a whole here locally and everywhere. Some of us can continue to bury our heads in the sand about this, wishing and waiting for the problem to go away. Doing so will not change or improve anything. Working on getting out of this problem will not happen by doing just one thing. It will be a multiple pronged approach. Very possible to get out of but it will take work.

Unfortunately, many people do not care about this issue (poverty) as long as they are financially comfortable. Like many people on this forum for instance. People in general only really care about things that either benefit them directly or that will detrimentally hurt them. If something is neither, then in general they will not care. They will "click" next, go on to the next article, not respond etc. and go on about there life. The thing is, local poverty absolutely does affect them, even if it is indirectly. Many people do not know this or even consider this.

Also, in my experience from what I often hear, the "survival of the fittest" and "get your hands (and government) off my money" crowd will often say it is not a problem at all. Or they will often victim blame. Just "work harder", "stop buying expensive phones", "get learned" etc. Or "I was poor and came from poverty and I now make great money so every single other human being can own a business / make good money and do what I did" etc. That is very myopic thinking. It is unfortunate but blame those who are poor for being poor is often said. Sure their are abusers and free loaders who are poor but these types of people exist in every income bracket. Every. I can say that as someone who has worked at many income brackets (from peon to owner of my own company and many brackets in between). I can also tell you that as someone who worked with the poverty population of people as one of my jobs, most are not lazy. Most are incredibly hard workers. Incredibly. Unfortunately, they are working against the system (with rules and laws and "ways of doing things") that is not designed to benefit them. Because of this they will have a difficult road. It does not have to be this way though. In fact, it should not be like this.

Generally, the survival of the fittest crowd does not want to hear or invest in programs / laws that cost money to the taxpayer or the corporation making exorbitant profit. I often hear them say "it (laws and investments to combat detrimental income inequality / poverty) will not work", "its pointless" so no point in even trying, and "our system is the best system in the world" so we should not try and "get your hands off my money!" etc. The very Capitalistic, "get your hands off my money" and "low / no tax" crowd often contributes to economies and environments like this (high division, detrimental income inequality, segregation, poverty etc.) and it causes a lot of suffering to a lot of people. We are seeing firsthand what this type of mentality does to our local population.

There are ways to help address this but a good amount of people do not want to hear or implement things if it impacts their wallet somehow. This is unfortunate because our goal as a human race should be to end suffering in all areas as much as reasonably possible, not hoarding money and tying to make more money then I can even use and leaving breadcrumbs to the majority / the rest. Unfortunately, it is in our nature as humans to hoard more then we need. It goes back to our hunter/gatherer days. That is why we need to ethically combat this through various means. Trust me when I say poverty in San Antonio is causing a lot of suffering and detrimental effects to a large portion of people, both directly and indirectly.

We can get out of this. The question is, will we even try?

[TexasRedneck]

You want to "fix" poverty? Invest in Trades Education, and encourage manufacturing jobs here in SA. Tourism pays VERY poorly.

[aab7855]

Originally Posted by Azure110

At least the recent "public charge" ruling from the Supreme Court is a step in the right direction but probably too late.

I´m not seeing that connection, honestly. San Antonio actually has a low foreign-born population, compared to other Hispanic majority cities like El Paso, Laredo and McAllen for example. A lot of monied Mexicans create businesses and thereby get permanent residency in places like the RGV, they certainly don´t need any economic help. Now is there a reliance on welfare, food stamps and other assistance among US Citizen Mexican-Americans in San Antonio? Perhaps. But that public charge idea won´t do a damn thing to change that culture, we´re not even talking about the same demographic.