US: Nation of Powerful and Weak

Just as I produced my TV package on homelessness in the United States, I came across an article in The Washington Post about a homeless Harvard Law School graduate, arrested for sleeping outside an office building in downtown D.C.  In one of my earlier blogs I mentioned two of my friends with Harvard degrees who have difficulty finding stable employment. Are these people exceptions or part of a phenomenon that is called America?

Skid Row is a 50-block section of downtown Los Angeles, known as the "homeless capital of the United States." Several thousand people live there under tents or tarps, some temporarily, others chronically. The shanty town has been around for more than one century, and it has grown over the years. The city has tried different solutions - most recently it pledged $100 million to help Skid Row denizens - but no one believes this will make a difference.

"From what I see, it can't be solved," said a longtime Skid Row resident Walter Sanders. "Not unless they drop an atom bomb on this place and blow everybody up. That would solve it."

 Homeless woman in Los Angeles

Homelessness in Los Angeles has spread far beyond Skid Row. The number of people living in the streets has risen 12 percent in the past two years. And now some parts of the city are struggling to manage big homeless populations they've never seen before. LA is by no means the only U.S. city with this problem. New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and many others are not far behind. In fact, New York seems to have a higher rate of homelessness per total population. So many people sleep in the streets and parks that pedestrians don't even notice them any more. The image sparks in my mind the memory of elementary school lessons in which we were told that "in America, a person can be dying on the sidewalk and no one would stop to help." I can't remember if I believed the "communist propaganda" at that tender age, but it clearly left an impression. 

Reverend Andy Bales, an executive at LA's Union Rescue Mission, called homelessness "the worst man-made disaster in the United States." He told Sky News in a recent interview that people living in the street are increasingly victims of chaos and violence. And he said money is only part of the solution. "Most of all we need a change of heart about these precious people who are dying on our streets," he said.

In response to my recent TV report (see below) on U.S. homelessness, a viewer commented:

"For all the good that Franklin D. Roosevelt did in his 11 years as President, he made one fundamental mistake; he signed into the law Social Security. It was the front door to more welfare legislation that quickly turned Americans from being self sufficient and community conscious to dependent on Government and self entitled. Instead of a community looking out for each other and lending a helping hand to those in need, now people look to the government with an outstretched hand looking for a handout. And people will lie and distort truths to get government assistance, just to avoid having to work."

This is a belief shared by many Americans - that those who want to work can get a job and afford a home. So if you don't have a home, it means you don't want to work. There are currently more than 500,000 homeless people in the United States, about 65,000 fewer than in 2008, during the height of the global financial crisis.  Since then, more than 30 states reported a decline in homelessness.  But other 17 reported an increase in the past few years, in some cases significant. American cities including Portland, Denver, Seattle, and the entire state of Hawaii, are among those worst hit by the problem and have asked for emergency funds to cope with it.  

The economy has recovered in recent years, the unemployment rates have declined, and since President Obama took office, the economy reportedly has added 8.7 million jobs. So why are half a million Americans living in shelters and shanty towns? Could it be that they all prefer to live without regular meals, showers, clean clothes and something meaningful to do?

Postell at his Harvard graduation

That does not seem to be the case with Alfred Postell who recently appeared at D.C. District Court to answer charges of sleeping outside a downtown office. It turned out that Postell studied law at Harvard alongside with Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, former Wisconsin senator Russ Feingold and Judge Thomas Motley, who presided over Postell's hearing at the D.C. court in June. Postell was described as a motivated and disciplined student who had a well-paid job after graduating. Until he was struck by schizophrenia and everything went downhill from there.

To be sure, very few homeless Americans have college degrees, but many of them have at least once in heir lifetime been gainfully employed, married or settled in some other way.  I knew one of them, a member of the VOA Serbian Service addicted to books and alcohol, who was persuaded to resign after his alcoholism became uncontrollable following his mother's death. 

Postell homeless in Washington D.C.

More than 50-thousand people lacking permanent shelter are war veterans, who believed serving in the military would make it easier for them to find a job afterwards. A quarter of all the homeless are children, some of them without parents.

Advocates say most people become homeless as a result of a tragic event in their life: loss of job or bread-winning spouse; onset of a mental disease, drug addiction or alcoholism; post-traumatic stress disorder, especially in the case of war veterans; and other tragedies some people find hard to cope with. But many Americans have lost homes, or are on the verge of losing them, due to the increasingly high cost of housing against shrinking income, especially in cities like Los Angeles and New York.

Does elite education provide protection from failure? Does it guarantee success? Neither, it would seem. My two friends holding Harvard degrees in architecture and archeology respectively, have held only temporary jobs throughout their lives and Postell has been jailed for sleeping in a public space. Thousands of others, neither especially talented nor endowed are making millions: reality show stars, buffoons, peddlers of cheap goods, "celebrities". The old truth that anyone willing to work hard can make it in this country is beginning to shake. It looks more as if to make it in America you have to be clever enough to recognize opportunity, determined to pursue it, prepared to push rivals out of the way, ready to overcome obstacles, and be completely insensitive to insult, shame, rejection and setbacks. Weakness, disease, sensitivity, modesty and vulnerability are poor assets in Jungle America where fitness is essential for success if not survival.

Still, the majority of middle class Americans are doing well, or at least better than people in many other countries. And those fleeing poverty  and violence at home for the "pursuit of happiness" in America usually are better off than before. Statistics do not show any number of immigrants among the U.S. homeless.

Americans contribute more money to charitable organizations, and their free time to help the poor than any other people in the world.  Over the years I have known a number of friends to forgo holiday parties and family reunions to help serve food to the poor.  It is not clear what "change of heart" Reverend Bale is talking about. If he means that we need a complete overhaul of our goals as a society, I would agree. The culture promoting wealth, beauty and power as its core values instead of truth, knowledge, duty, honor, love and loyalty, and the society that places the rights of an individual over the rights of a community, are creating a nation of strong individuals and weak masses. Homelessness is just one symptom that no money and volunteer work will solve.

http://www.voanews.com/media/video/united-states-homelessness/3121080.html

Ivory Tower: A Worthy Documentary

Filmmaker Andrew Rossi examines sustainability of the soaring costs of higher education in the United States.

As a mother still paying off my son’s student loans, I was both curious and reluctant to see Rossi's new documentary.  Curious because I hoped to learn more about the system I never quite understood, and reluctant because I did not need another reminder of the pain that started from the preparation for my son’s college and extended beyond his graduation date.

Alma Mater by Lorado Taft, UI at Urbana-Champaign

Parental Management
Any thought on the subject inevitably brings to mind the dreadful term - FAFSA.  As Ivory Tower points out, in most cases parents become managers of their children’s college application process, which begins while kids are still at high school.  Despite faithful attendance to all parental sessions designed to throw some light on the murky complexities of college enrollment and financial aid application, I remain woefully ignorant on the subject to this day.

When someone puts any form or questionnaire in front of me, my mind goes blank. I pay hundreds of dollars to have my tax forms filed by professionals even though I am told that mine are so simple I should do them myself. So when an instructor at St. Anselm's Abbey School in Washington D.C. started explaining the FAFSA system and college application forms, my brain just switched off.  I had no choice but to become my son’s college manager, but it was the blind leading the blind. 

FAFSA Woes
After numerous attempts online, mounting frustration and much swearing, I had to send the FAFSA papers by mail because the online system eventually got tired of my failed attempts to file them and started rejecting me. In the end, at least for that first year, the aggravation paid off because it was determined that my contribution should be $5,000 - a reasonable sum, no?  My son went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was entitled to in-state tuition, which was average, but the overall cost still amounted to about $20,000 a year, and in reality more.  So, that's an aid of $15,000, right?  Well, not exactly.   My son joined the ROTC program that first year and his tuition was waved. Even with that waiver, the cost for me was much more than $5,000.  And as I would learn later - the real cost was multiple times $5,000.

The same treacherous FAFSA waters had to be navigated three more times, without me getting any better at the helm. As it turned out the effort was not worth the trouble. From the second year on, the FAFSA determined that I was responsible for the complete cost of my son's attendance at the UI.  And once he dropped out of ROTC, there was a drastic increase in the total annual cost. The phantom called FAFSA, also determined that the college and all the related costs will be paid via student loans.

As I understood it, the loans were not due for payoff until the graduation date. But even while my son was still in college, I kept receiving several monthly bills,  ranging from $150 to $200.  When I made a phone call to have those bills explained, I was told that I cannot get any information without my son’s written approval because he was the one taking out the loans. Really? I fill out the forms, I have to give out detailed information about my income and assets (not that there are any),  about my financial obligations, lifestyle (what did you have for dinner last night?); I am responsible for college tuition, associated fees and the cost of living, but I am not entitled to get an explanation, unless my son graciously permits it? Not to mention that I had no access to his grades at school. In other words, as a parent I had every obligation, but no rights. Does that happen anywhere else in the world? I don’t think so.  At any rate, it turned out that those monthly bills were the interest on the loan.  So, in fact, the financial burden struck immediately, not after the graduation as I was made to believe. 

Higher Education Is Lucrative Business
When my son reached his fourth year at Urbana-Champaign, I felt like I could see some light at the end of the tunnel.  Then, about three weeks into the fall semester, he called me on the phone to plead: “Mom, I want to transfer.   I can’t stand it here any more.”   My heart went out to him, but I cajoled, I threatened and I explained in the strictest of terms that this was not a good idea.  After all, I pleaded , "it is almost the end of September.  In a few weeks you come home for Thanksgiving, then you get a month-long winter break, then you get a 3-week-long spring break and then - there's the graduation in mid-May.  All in all, 7-to-8 more months and you are free forever, with a diploma in your pocket.  

If you transfer now," I reasoned, "you will have to start almost from scratch because no school will recognize more than a few credits earned from the University of Illinois.   No school will give its diploma for the education received and paid for the most part at another institution.  In other words, years before seeing the Ivory Tower movie, I learned that college education in the United States is business, unlike in Europe, where in my time all I had to pay for were the textbooks and coffee.  At any rate, I must have scared my son enough to get him to survive that last year at UI and graduate.  

Soon after the graduation date, the huge bills from the student loan company started pouring in, too often it seemed to me, and (with my son’s kind permission) I inquired and learned that “he” had taken out more than one loan, each with a different interest rate: ranging from 7 percent to 8 percent.  And even though they were “his” loans, the bills were addressed to me and I was responsible for the loan repayment. To consolidate them into one loan, I would have to pay a hefty sum, which would only increase the debt.

Meanwhile, mortgage interest rates hit an all-time low following the 2008 global financial crisis, and everyone including me was re-financing.  During the re-fi process I learned that I can add other debts to the mortgage loan.  So I rolled in my son’s student loans.  Not only did that reduce the student loan interest rates by 4 to 5 points, it also gave me a complete managerial control over the debt, which was now de facto an de jure mine.   I remember asking myself what kind of society gives you a mortgage loan at 3.25 percent interest while slapping  7 or 8 percent on a student loan. My son's student loans are still being paid off as part of my mortgage, but no extra bills are poring in. And everything is simple and crystal clear.   If I have any questions, my mortgage company will happily answer them.

Filmmaker Andrew Rossi

Is Ivory Tower Crumbling?
The release of Rossi's documentary brought all these memories to mind. In the end, I decided to see it and I am glad I did. Yes, it was interesting to see inside the halls of such hallowed academic institutions as Harvard and Stanford, and, yes, it was sad to learn that the student loan debt has surpassed $1 trillion - more than the credit card debt. It was infuriating to see that most of that money goes on construction and luxuries and not on education, even though I had already known it. It was heartbreaking to watch the students of New York’s Cooper Union college losing the battle against the management that imposed fees on education in the historically tuition-free school. 

But it was also very inspiring to see how some Americans fight back. I had heard about the Uncollege movement a few years ago on NPR, but in the film, you could see how it actually works. I was especially impressed with the tuition-free Deep Springs College in Nevada's desert of Death Valley, where students are governing themselves. Instead of partying all night as many young people do in some expensive private colleges, Deep Springs students get up at sunrise to feed livestock and spend their free time cleaning the premises (including the toilets), repairing farm equipment, preparing their meals and doing other odd jobs. Plenty of exercise without state-of-the-art gym equipment and Olympic-size pools. And how nice to know that some educated young men will also be able to change a light bulb back home and perhaps fix a broken bicycle. It was also poignant to watch young black women still receiving life-changing education at Spelman College, Atlanta.

Ivory Tower makes you wonder whether it is worth accruing a lifelong debt for a Harvard

Harvard College

degree if it no longer secures a job that enables you to pay it off.  It is not a theoretical question – I have two friends with Harvard diplomas in their pockets who cannot find jobs. 

Andrew Rossi told PBS in an interview that "employability at a particular institution once someone graduates should be the priority in choosing a school, and not which university has the more popular football team, or the more lush student center." It would be well worth knowing how employable Deep Springs graduates are as well as those embracing the Uncollege education. Their success could ultimately foster a much needed drive in the United States toward a sustainable higher education model.

If you want a better explanation of the FAFSA system then my ranting here offers, you can also check it out on the Ivory Tower web page.   My uninformed advice is:  shop for a low-interest loan elsewhere.

http://www.takepart.com/ivorytower