[wordup] The High Cost of Being Poor

[Adam Shand]

From: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/000675.html

Can Poor People in the Developed World "Leapfrog"?
By Alex Steffen
Money as a Tool - Finance, Venture Philanthropy, Trade and Economy

One of the surprising things about poverty, to those who've never 
experienced it, is how damn expensive it is. One of the advantages of 
being fairly prosperous and credit-worthy is that corporations compete 
to be able to sell you things, driving down prices and driving up 
quality, while the poor make do with whatever they can find.

Neal Pierce does a fine job of laying out this dilemma in The High Cost 
Of Being Poor: Fighting The "Land Sharks'':

> "Poverty is not just miserable, it's actually expensive, the Annie E. 
> Casey Foundation asserts in its "KidsCount" report. The foundation 
> documents how every outlay -- from food to rent to loans to health 
> coverage to check-cashing or a car for commuting -- is likely to cost 
> you an arm and a leg more if you're a low-income American.
>
> "Some of the conditions can't be fixed quickly -- food prices up to 
> double suburban rates in some inner cities that have been deserted by 
> supermarkets, for example. Or rents so high that more than 5 million 
> families are now obliged to spend over half their entire incomes for 
> shelter.
>
> "But there's a depressingly long list of predatory fiscal devices that 
> have ballooned in number since 1990. Collectively, they're ripping off 
> low-income America, trapping millions of poor Americans in permanent, 
> high-cost indebtedness."