I moved this website over to http://triangularschism.tumblr.com/
When future archivists discover Triangular Schism and use it as a key primary source document to demonstrate 21st Century progressive ideals and social justice values, let them also recognize that, as of 1/31/13, "Blogger" is stodgy and outdated while Tumblr is vibrant and hip.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
The land time forgot
The purification and commercialization of New York City incites two strong reactions from long-time New Yorkers. On the one side, we have those who credit Rudy Guiliani for "cleaning up" New York City (establishing anti-bum barriers around tourist sites, sweeping hookers out of Times Square, fortuitously presiding over the end of the Crack Era) and making the city a "safer place" (unless you are poor or of color and your neighborhood has yet to fully gentrify). Others bemoan the city's lost character and singularity.
Check out the comments under this Gothamist photo flashback for a demonstration on the disparate opinions.
Regardless of one's take, New York City, especially Manhattan below 125th St., has homogenized. Yet, Penn Station remains a homeless shelter with Duane Reades.
I went to the bathroom at the NJ Transit terminal and saw a giant with six bloated shopping bags shaving at the sink. He snarled at me while I stood at the urinal.
"All these little white faggots coming into these bathrooms trying to suck n - - - - 's dicks. City's not like it used to be."
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Getting real about health and nutrition
Poor people do not age well. Almost all of my clients are way too fat and have developed some combination of diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, heart disease, joint problems, asthma and gout. I know a few who have every single one of those maladies and still, amazingly, get out of bed, run errands and find stuff to be happy about.
Not-fat people often scoff at fat people. These not-fat people are jerks, of course. But beyond the basic sensitivity issue, anyone who scoffs at someone (especially someone poor) who is heavy and unhealthy demonstrates that they are also unthinking, closed-minded jerks who are unable to identify or grasp nuisances and circumstances in life.
Read carefully, jerks:
Unhealthy people know they are unhealthy. They recognize their girth.
Unhealthy people also know they want to be healthy. They recognize their goal.
What poor, unhealthy people often do not recognize are affective strategies for reaching that goal.
Consider my client stuck in this sad cycle: She has severe leg pain and is very fat. Her bulk strains her legs when she walks and confines her to a motorized wheel chair. The more she sits, the more she expands. The more she expands, the more her legs hurt when she tries to walk and exercise. So she walk less, sits more, gains weight and gets depressed thinking about the whole shitty situation.
So how the hell do you transform yourself from fat to fit?
Once a week, I run a healthy living group, which I tentatively call the Michelle Obama Health Club since Michelle is ripped and pretty popular in Harlem. Before the first group, I knew I'd contend with huge gaps in their nutritional knowledge and decision-making abilities. Yet, I was stunned by their basic nutrition and health ignorance. They simply never learned about healthy living at school or at home.
Last week, for example, I asked members to guess the salt contents of various super-salty foods. I wasn't getting technical, just looking for basic "there's a lot" or "whoa. tons." Unfortunately, most members didn't even know that ketchup has salt. For decades, they've hit up McDonald's where they order potato salt-sticks, shake table salt on the salt-sticks then dip the salted salt sticks in red salt gel. They're ignorant to the volume of kidney-blasting white crystals they were pouring into their blood streams.
One guy didn't realize there was sodium in soy sauce -- known from here on as brown salty death water (BSDW). When I told him he that he consumes at least half his suggested daily intake of sodium from a few squirts of soy sauce, he looked at me blankly, told me he didn't know what that meant and said he had never learned any healthy eating habits before.
"The doctor told me I have high blood pressure, gave me a list of foods and told me not to eat salt," added another member who is illiterate and thus unable to read a stark list of prohibited food some busy doctor handed him once when he was 45-years-old.
That seems common. Poor, unhealthy people may have received health information, but they received it in a vacuum without any support, background or context. It would be like giving the original Castilian text of Don Quixote to an adult who took Spanish in middle school then asking the clueless adult to write an essay about it. How do you even begin?
I think that's the core of the Poor Health Problem -- by which I mean, "bad health" in general and "health of the poor" specifically. Let's tackle this total lack of information and learn to recognize strategies for gradual weight loss and prolonged healthy living!
My mission: To promote realistic lifestyle adjustments that lead to gradual, lasting health results.
At the beginning of each meeting, I give members a weekly healthy living calendar so they can track their good choices and healthy behaviors. For instance, one man takes the stairs to his apartment on the third floor at least once-a-day rather than ride the elevator every single trip. Another woman with hypertension began buying no-sodium frozen vegetables (10 for $10!) instead of high-sodium canned veggies. Small but vital lifetsyle adjustments! That's what we're all about. Another guy did 10 squats during commercial breaks. Most members have walked to the subway one stop away from their usual station then stood on the train.
We meet for about 90 minutes to review the healthy choices we made during the past week, learn simple at-home exercises and focus on various health obstacles like processed foods, added sugar and high sodium content. Since this one-hour meeting is the most nutrition education they have ever received, they typically ask questions about specific food.
"Is oatmeal healthy?" someone asked. We then discussed the benefits of high-fiber whole grains before considering all the other crap that gets added to instant oatmeal -- sugar, corn syrup, salt, oil -- not to mention all the butter, jelly, milk and sugar people add themselves.
After talking. stretching and exercising, we take walking field trips.
My second mission: To demonstrate Healthy Living on a budget. It's possible!
All of the group members are on fixed-incomes like pensions, veterans' benefits, SSI and disability insurance. On the slim positive side, they can't afford to get duped into any BS short-term fad diets (How did these super expensive, high-sugar, low-fiber, low-protein Juice Diets gain traction?). On the realistic negative side, it also means they continue to buy "food" that they know is cheap and that they have eaten for decades -- tubs of cooking oil, canned corn, various chicken parts, bread crumbs, mayo.
Last week, I handed out supermarket circulars to four members and we searched for savings together. We found great stuff like 2 cans of solid white tuna in water for $3 (gotta wash the salt off, one woman reminded us) and $2 bags of spinach. Next, I gave each member $8 and walked to the store where we combed the aisles, compared Chobani plain Greek yogurt to Yoplait sugarberry yogurt and discussed the merits of No Salt Added Goya beans (only ten cents more per can!).
Finally, everyone checked out and I was impressed by their thrift and ingenuity. Each member stuck close to the $8 guide and told me they were surprised by how many tasty items they bought. Here are a few sample baskets:
And lastly, an amazing $7.99 -- one-cent below budget! -- for six bananas, two cans of tuna and a big bag of spinach. Excellent salad right there.
Not-fat people often scoff at fat people. These not-fat people are jerks, of course. But beyond the basic sensitivity issue, anyone who scoffs at someone (especially someone poor) who is heavy and unhealthy demonstrates that they are also unthinking, closed-minded jerks who are unable to identify or grasp nuisances and circumstances in life.
Read carefully, jerks:
Unhealthy people know they are unhealthy. They recognize their girth.
Unhealthy people also know they want to be healthy. They recognize their goal.
What poor, unhealthy people often do not recognize are affective strategies for reaching that goal.
Consider my client stuck in this sad cycle: She has severe leg pain and is very fat. Her bulk strains her legs when she walks and confines her to a motorized wheel chair. The more she sits, the more she expands. The more she expands, the more her legs hurt when she tries to walk and exercise. So she walk less, sits more, gains weight and gets depressed thinking about the whole shitty situation.
So how the hell do you transform yourself from fat to fit?
Once a week, I run a healthy living group, which I tentatively call the Michelle Obama Health Club since Michelle is ripped and pretty popular in Harlem. Before the first group, I knew I'd contend with huge gaps in their nutritional knowledge and decision-making abilities. Yet, I was stunned by their basic nutrition and health ignorance. They simply never learned about healthy living at school or at home.
Last week, for example, I asked members to guess the salt contents of various super-salty foods. I wasn't getting technical, just looking for basic "there's a lot" or "whoa. tons." Unfortunately, most members didn't even know that ketchup has salt. For decades, they've hit up McDonald's where they order potato salt-sticks, shake table salt on the salt-sticks then dip the salted salt sticks in red salt gel. They're ignorant to the volume of kidney-blasting white crystals they were pouring into their blood streams.
One guy didn't realize there was sodium in soy sauce -- known from here on as brown salty death water (BSDW). When I told him he that he consumes at least half his suggested daily intake of sodium from a few squirts of soy sauce, he looked at me blankly, told me he didn't know what that meant and said he had never learned any healthy eating habits before.
"The doctor told me I have high blood pressure, gave me a list of foods and told me not to eat salt," added another member who is illiterate and thus unable to read a stark list of prohibited food some busy doctor handed him once when he was 45-years-old.
That seems common. Poor, unhealthy people may have received health information, but they received it in a vacuum without any support, background or context. It would be like giving the original Castilian text of Don Quixote to an adult who took Spanish in middle school then asking the clueless adult to write an essay about it. How do you even begin?
I think that's the core of the Poor Health Problem -- by which I mean, "bad health" in general and "health of the poor" specifically. Let's tackle this total lack of information and learn to recognize strategies for gradual weight loss and prolonged healthy living!
My mission: To promote realistic lifestyle adjustments that lead to gradual, lasting health results.
At the beginning of each meeting, I give members a weekly healthy living calendar so they can track their good choices and healthy behaviors. For instance, one man takes the stairs to his apartment on the third floor at least once-a-day rather than ride the elevator every single trip. Another woman with hypertension began buying no-sodium frozen vegetables (10 for $10!) instead of high-sodium canned veggies. Small but vital lifetsyle adjustments! That's what we're all about. Another guy did 10 squats during commercial breaks. Most members have walked to the subway one stop away from their usual station then stood on the train.
We meet for about 90 minutes to review the healthy choices we made during the past week, learn simple at-home exercises and focus on various health obstacles like processed foods, added sugar and high sodium content. Since this one-hour meeting is the most nutrition education they have ever received, they typically ask questions about specific food.
"Is oatmeal healthy?" someone asked. We then discussed the benefits of high-fiber whole grains before considering all the other crap that gets added to instant oatmeal -- sugar, corn syrup, salt, oil -- not to mention all the butter, jelly, milk and sugar people add themselves.
After talking. stretching and exercising, we take walking field trips.
My second mission: To demonstrate Healthy Living on a budget. It's possible!
All of the group members are on fixed-incomes like pensions, veterans' benefits, SSI and disability insurance. On the slim positive side, they can't afford to get duped into any BS short-term fad diets (How did these super expensive, high-sugar, low-fiber, low-protein Juice Diets gain traction?). On the realistic negative side, it also means they continue to buy "food" that they know is cheap and that they have eaten for decades -- tubs of cooking oil, canned corn, various chicken parts, bread crumbs, mayo.
Last week, I handed out supermarket circulars to four members and we searched for savings together. We found great stuff like 2 cans of solid white tuna in water for $3 (gotta wash the salt off, one woman reminded us) and $2 bags of spinach. Next, I gave each member $8 and walked to the store where we combed the aisles, compared Chobani plain Greek yogurt to Yoplait sugarberry yogurt and discussed the merits of No Salt Added Goya beans (only ten cents more per can!).
Finally, everyone checked out and I was impressed by their thrift and ingenuity. Each member stuck close to the $8 guide and told me they were surprised by how many tasty items they bought. Here are a few sample baskets:
$8.81 for three apples, one avocado, one onion, romaine lettuce, two cans of tuna and one can of no salt added kidney beans. Perfect ingredients for a chili and side salad.
$8.82 for five bananas, a bag of baby carrots, one green pepper, one tub of non-fat cottage cheese and two cans of tuna. Delicious cottage cheese with banana breakfast idea.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Our commitment to equality
This morning, Barack Obama began his second term as president. His inauguration was an incredible celebration of United States culture that should reinvigorate Americans' commitment to equality and diversity. Indeed, diversity was the true theme of the event.
Myrlie Evers-Williams, an African-American civil rights activist and Medgar Evers' widow, gave the invocation. Richard Blanco, a Cuban-American who was born in Madrid, grew up in Miami and is gay read the Inaugural Poem. Another Cuban-American, Rev. Luis León, delivered the benediction. Sen. Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish, emceed the event. Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice, administered the Oath of Office to Joe Biden, who is white and Catholic. The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, whose members seemed to represent every ethnic group in America, sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic. And, oh yeah, our president is African American.
During his powerful speech, the president immediately affirmed our nation's founding principle of equality:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Today we continue a never-ending journey to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time. For history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they've never been self-executing; that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth."He also embraced the social safety net and our moral obligation to help our fellow citizens:
"Together, we resolved that a great nation must care for the vulnerable, and protect its people from life's worst hazards and misfortune."
We do not believe that in this country freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us at any time may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, these things do not sap our initiative, they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.
Americans often pay lip service to equality and experience inauthentic attempts to promote social justice. Our cynicism is justifiable. There are severe schisms between white Americans and everyone else in education, employment, housing, wealth, opportunity, health, legal protection and safety, but achieving full diversity and equality in America is the goal we should never forget and never stop working for.
Unfortunately, many disparage or disregard those who believe in "political correctness." The term "politically correct" has been corrupted the way Reaganites stigmatized "Liberal." As if those who work to achieve equality are naive dreamers or out-of-touch Pollyannas or pie-in-the-sky idealists.
That is bullshit. Let's call political correctness what it is without using the tired buzzword: It's actively seeking equal treatment, opportunities and rights for all Americans because, like the president said, "these truths may be self-evident, they've never been self-executing." The "idealists" are the ones pulling society along the arc of the moral universe toward justice.
I was also reminded of our commitment to equality on Friday when my friend and I visited the 9/11 Memorial. The footprint of each tower features a waterfall framed by a railing with the victim's names carved into it. I was struck by the incredible variety of those names. In the cluster above, I read Zuhtu Ibis, Martin Lizzul, Alok Agarwal, Abdul K. Chowdhury and Michael L. Collins. Five Americans from five distinct backgrounds who all perished at a place they shared. The terrorists targeted two monoliths that they believed embodied America, but America is not monolithic.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Nutrition education to alleviate the obesity epidemic
Carlisle has severe type II diabetes. He has high blood pressure, high cholesterol and asthma. His gut is huge and his scrotum is swollen with fluid. The two bloated masses have engulfed his penis, but he can't have surgery to repair his genitals because he weighs too much.
Yet, he spends every waking minute in a chair or electric scooter. Even after the boils on his backside burst from too much pressure, he continues to sit. He's making some terrible choices, but I imagine it's hard to change your bad habits when there are so many to change.
It's unfortunate he did not learn healthy habits earlier in life. I am positive Carlisle never received nutritional counseling as a kid. In school, he likely ate corn syrupy, processed cafeteria lunches. The canned vegetables alone would have provided a mountain of salt. Then consider the cafeteria burgers: Ground up, salted beef parts topped with a few squirts of tomato-flavored sodium gel all stuffed between two slabs of Wonderstarch. For dessert, a stick of frozen, flavored corn syrup.
Like so many other poor people, Carlisle uses his food stamps to buy cola, potato chips, canned corn, Vienna sausages, pork and beans, frying oil, hot dog buns and that silent urban killer, $5 Chinese lunch specials.
When he finally suffered his inevitable health catastrophes, doctors informed him that he must completely change the way he has eaten, drank and moved for the last forty years. Oh yeah? Great idea. But how?
He had no prior nutritional knowledge. He is on a fixed income so he has learned exactly how much he can spend on food while still paying his rent each month. He doesn't have any financial wiggle room to test out new healthy foods.
So kale is $.99/lb? Enticing. Just a few questions: WTF is kale? What does it taste like? Is it filling? How the hell do you cook it? Why would one ever eat this bitter green crap?
I get why poor people are so often fat. They eat like crap because they lack the necessary nutritional knowledge.
Food stamps are an excellent way to help people live healthier, more comfortable lives. But the government is so lazy when it comes to food stamps! They just give the benefits away without providing any education about eating and living healthily.
Consider these ideas:
- Send every food stamp recipient a book of tasty, nutritional recipes then start an ad campaign that encourages families to cook the recipes together. The recipes could be seasonal or themed. For example: Low-cost, home-made guacamole with carrots and celery for dipping at the Super Bowl!
- Add healthy-living home ec-style courses to the curriculum at low-income schools. Kids would learn how to shop for and prepare healthy meals on a budget. Teachers would offer tips on how to substitute awful, yet familiar, foods with healthier, delicious choices.
- Offer incentives, like tax breaks or lower interest rates on start-up loans, to stores that promote or lower the cost of healthy items.
- Offer incentives to people who use their food stamps to purchase healthy items! Help shoppers to stretch their money by buy five crowns of broccoli and get the sixth free, for example.
So succumb to the Mountain Dew ads. Use those stamps to buy chicken gizzards. Bread 'em and fry 'em in palm oil. Eat 'em all! It's cool. In a few years, Medicaid will pay for your ultra-sturdy electric scooter, insulin shots, EMS response, FDNY support, ambulance ride and emergency room care.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Here's how you become homeless:
1. You have a mental illness that you do not manage with consistent psychiatric care, effective medication and healthy habits and you have no family or support system to help you and encourage you to manage the illness.
2. You get addicted to a drug and your life is quickly consumed by that drug. You are motivated by the allure of that drug. That drug is your new life's purpose. Everything you do, you do to acquire or maximize the effects of that drug.
2a. Your family members have exhausted too many resources trying to help you.
2b. Your family members have given up. There is, of course, a limit to what one can withstand before his or her quality of life deteriorates to an unacceptable, unsustainable level.
3. You get addicted to alcohol. (see above 2, 2a, 2b).
4. Ditto gambling.
4a. Pay your landlord or pay your loan shark? Your landlord will put you on the street. Your loan shark will put you in the hospital.
5. You are poor, unskilled and undereducated. You live with your mom, but you are not on her lease. Your mom dies. You are evicted.
5b. Numbers 2 and/or 3 occur.
6. You are gay. Your dad doesn't want a gay son.
7. You are an undereducated undocumented immigrant with no clue how to maneuver in American society.
8. You work a job that pays less than a living wage, but you split the rent with your girlfriend. Your girlfriend dumps you.
8a. Ditto boyfriend.
1a. Your family members have exhausted too many resources trying to help you.
1b. Your family members have given up. There is, of course, a limit to what one can withstand before his or her quality of life deteriorates to an unacceptable, unsustainable level.
2. You get addicted to a drug and your life is quickly consumed by that drug. You are motivated by the allure of that drug. That drug is your new life's purpose. Everything you do, you do to acquire or maximize the effects of that drug.
2a. Your family members have exhausted too many resources trying to help you.
2b. Your family members have given up. There is, of course, a limit to what one can withstand before his or her quality of life deteriorates to an unacceptable, unsustainable level.
3. You get addicted to alcohol. (see above 2, 2a, 2b).
4. Ditto gambling.
4a. Pay your landlord or pay your loan shark? Your landlord will put you on the street. Your loan shark will put you in the hospital.
5. You are poor, unskilled and undereducated. You live with your mom, but you are not on her lease. Your mom dies. You are evicted.
5b. Numbers 2 and/or 3 occur.
6. You are gay. Your dad doesn't want a gay son.
7. You are an undereducated undocumented immigrant with no clue how to maneuver in American society.
8. You work a job that pays less than a living wage, but you split the rent with your girlfriend. Your girlfriend dumps you.
8a. Ditto boyfriend.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
DIRTY, EVIL CHECK CASHING COMPANIES PREY ON THE POOR
That deli will close. The pizza place next door will close. And the shop crammed with ceramic saints and Our Lady of Guadalupes? It will definitely shutter its big window and stay empty until someone else tries and fails to hock novelty items in this neighborhood. Darwinism dominates the urban block and as in most unforgiving ecosystems the survivors are ugly, no-frills, hardy; they fill a crack in the cement and hunker down. They’re weeds.
The same weeds creep along El Barrio, Spanish Harlem, and seem to sprout from storefronts on every drab block:
Dandelion is to Tulip what Co_ner G_ocery is to Trader Joe’s
Companies hesitate to contend with high insurance rates and market their product to an under-educated, poor populace. Deliberate geographic barriers constructed by racist urban planners further prevent the appealing flowers from being planted in these low-income neighborhoods [1]. So the weeds fill the niches and provide the services.
Most of these weeds are ugly but useful. Others, however, thrive by inextricably coiling around useful plants. Imagine ragged ropes of poison ivy snaking up an apple tree. The apples are high up in the branches. You’re hungry and you need to get those apples, but you have to climb that toxic vine to reach them.
You get your apple but not without feeling some pain.
A check cashing office is an empty room with a counter on one side and a few, presumably, bulletproof windows on the other. A slim opening at the bottom of each pain of glass provides enough space to slide a paycheck or Benefits card in exchange for cash. Posters advertise – in English, Spanish, Korean and Mandarin! – all the fantastic ways Pay-O-Matic, Nexiscard, Green Dot and other cunning companies will screw you out of your money. You have to get that apple -- you need to get your cash -- but the poison ivy vine is the only route.
I work at a supportive residence for formerly homeless adults. The tenants are strong individuals who have survived the street, escaped the shelter system and earned secure, relatively comfortable permanent housing. Most make an earnest attempt to live successful, healthy lives, but there are still some problems. Money is the root of most.
One tenant recently complained to me about a loan shark in the building. He grumbled that the loan shark was charging too much interest. In his experience, the going rate of interest on a loan among New York City usurers is 30%.
New York State usury law limits the amount of interest on any loan at 16%. Anyone who has paid interest higher than that 16% can file a civil lawsuit to recoup the difference. Usury becomes a felony when the interest rate reaches 25%.[2] Most states have similar usury laws to prevent loan sharking among individuals.
Yet, hese laws do not apply to many businesses that deal primarily with poor people like my clients. In his 2005 book Shortchanged, author Howard Karger attacks the “fringe economy,” which he defines as “corporations and businesses that have a predatory relationship with the poor by charging excessive interest rates or fees, or exorbitant prices for goods or services.” He takes specific aim at check-cashing outlets and cites customers who pay $40 for a $200 payday loan – 20%! Well within civil usury territory.
The payday loan is a perfect example of how businesses prey on the poor. A payday loan is made after the borrower guarantees that within an established time period, he will pay the money back in full with an extra fee tacked on. The money borrowed is typically less than $500 and the borrower is supposed to pay it back as soon as he receives his next paycheck, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or other form of payment. Paying money to access money you’ll soon get anyway sounds silly, but consider a scenario. A guy living hand-to-mouth has to pay his $700 rent on the first of the month but faces an unexpected expense, like emergency car repair, and is left with only $300. His rent is due on May 1st, a Tuesday, but he doesn’t receive his paycheck until Friday, May 4th.
To make his rent payment on time, the unlucky guy takes out a $400 payday loan at a check-cashing outlet — time to climb the poison ivy to reach the apple. The guy easily secures his $400 in cash. Since the company charges 20% interest on every two-week loan, the guy writes a $480 check that the company will promptly cash when the loan expires. If he doesn’t have sufficient funds in his account, too bad; the check cashing company will take him to court for bouncing the check.
When the guy gets paid on Friday the 4th, he has enough to pay back the $480 he owes. Unfortunately, before he does, his crappy refrigerator breaks. He buys a new fridge but no longer has enough money to make that $480 payment on time. So he extends the loan. Now he owes an additional 20% ($80) on top of the $400 loan, bringing the interest to $160. The two-week extension approaches, but June’s rent is due and he extends the loan again, accumulating another 20%. After just six weeks, he owes $240 in interest – a staggering 60% APR – on his $400 loan.
According to the Southwest Center for Economic Integrity, 60% of payday loan borrowers fail to pay their loan by the first two-week deadline. Thirty percent extend the loan for more than seven weeks.[3] Payday loan companies are the most toxic of the weeds; their tendrils slither into low-income urban blocks and slowly choke the residents. While twelve states, including New York, have sprayed their cities with herbicide and killed payday loans, there are no federal regulations against this legitimate loan-sharking except regarding loans to members of the military.
Although states have begun to crack down on such blatant rapaciousness, more subtle strategies persist. In 2010, AP reporter Candice Choi spent a month using New York City’s fringe economy services for all her financial needs. After paying to cash checks, send money orders and simply use her prepaid cash card, she spent $93. Multiply that by twelve months and it equals more than $1,110 without one single benefit or return. In 2012, people receiving SSI in NYC got $785/month (that amount increased to $797/month in 2013). That's just $9420/year. Holy shit. $1,110 is a lot of wasted money! [4]
Some tenants I work with use Nexiscard, the same prepaid cash card Choi bought, in place of a bank. They are misinformed or simply uninformed and feel they can control their money better if it is loaded on a card snug in their wallet. The first time I spoke with one woman about switching from the Nexiscard to a local credit union with real benefits and lower rates, she just laughed:
“You can’t keep everything,” she said. “They’re going to take something regardless.”
She is right, of course. Yet, while companies like Nexiscard and big banks charge low income-customers steep, exploitative fees, credit unions take the smallest bit of their customer’s money. If my jaded client opened a checking account at Union Settlement Federal Credit Union (USFCU) in Spanish Harlem, she would pay a $3 monthly maintenance fee any time the amount in her account dipped below $100.[5] In comparison, Bank of America, which has various checking account tiers and low-balance penalties, charges a $14 monthly maintenance fee on a regular checking account with a daily balance less than $1,500.[6]
USFCU has a $5 annual membership fee, but they offer three free ATM withdrawals a month and charge $0.75 for each subsequent withdrawal. This should go without saying, but USFCU does not charge you an additional fee when you use your debit card to make purchases. Nexiscard, on the other hand, charges a fee on every transaction! They charge $1 per purchase and $1.50 per purchase with a PIN number. The act of poking a few numbered rubber buttons costs $0.50. Customers pay another $1 to add money to their Nexiscard account and $2 to withdraw from an ATM. There is also a $4.95 inactivity fee initiated after 120 days.[7]
In March, the government will stop issuing paper Social Security checks. This has spurred a serious campaign by the prepaid-card companies to get welfare recipients to deposit their checks directly onto scam-cards. Recipients can also pay $20 or more to access their money three days early. That should be an illegal payday loan on a secure government check!
One of my clients has struggled with gambling addiction for years and spent much of last Spring trying to recoup the money he lost betting on the Patriots instead of the Giants. He chose to pay his bookies rather than his landlord. At the end of April, he got a three-day cash advance by paying a $28 fee. He then took a bus to Atlantic City, blew his money and fell deeper into rent arrears. After this debacle, he agreed to make my organization his representative payee. He rerouted his SSI check from his Nexiscard to a bank account our organization set up for him. Each month, the organization deducts the rent and gives him his remaining money. He's saving hundreds of dollars a year.
I soon found out that these lawful payday loans are common practice among my clients. Far too many people hand over a substantial chunk of their paltry benefit checks to diabolical corporations that grow more robust as they prey on society’s most vulnerable citizens. These are the under-educated, unwell, mentally ill, developmentally disabled. They are poor and their paltry resources are wrapped in poison. They endure significant financial pain to get that apple.
[1] ie: Numerous highways, such as the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago and Eight Mile Road in Detroit, split cities, corralled blacks and separated the middle- and upper-classes from the poor.
[2] http://www.davidrichlaw.com/new-york-business-litigation-and-employment-attorneys-blog/2011/01/what-rate-of-interest-may-my-company-lawfully-charge-in-new-york/
[3] http://faculty.msb.edu/prog/CRC/pdf/Mono35.pdf
[4] http://articles.boston.com/2010-10-05/business/29292273_1_check-cashing-fee-money-orders-credit
[5] http://www.unionsettfcu.org/join.html
[6] https://www3.bankofamerica.com/efulfillment/documents/51-11-3000ED.20120227.htm
[7] http://wvgazette.com/ap/ApBusiness/201010030164
The same weeds creep along El Barrio, Spanish Harlem, and seem to sprout from storefronts on every drab block:
- The lonely, linoleum Laundromat survives by selling sample-sized soap and consuming quarters like a whale slurping plankton.
- The 99 Cent Store is missing the N and both Ts from its sign, but inside it's stuffed with the miscellany of apartment maintenance – toilet brush for the bathroom, spackle for the drywall, coasters for the coffee table.
- The bodega awning announces ATM, BEER, LOTTERY in bold, block type and there's a hand-written “We Take Food Stamps” sign taped to the door. Here you can buy coffeed-down water, King Cobra and a Megamillions ticket to paradise.
Dandelion is to Tulip what Co_ner G_ocery is to Trader Joe’s
Companies hesitate to contend with high insurance rates and market their product to an under-educated, poor populace. Deliberate geographic barriers constructed by racist urban planners further prevent the appealing flowers from being planted in these low-income neighborhoods [1]. So the weeds fill the niches and provide the services.
Most of these weeds are ugly but useful. Others, however, thrive by inextricably coiling around useful plants. Imagine ragged ropes of poison ivy snaking up an apple tree. The apples are high up in the branches. You’re hungry and you need to get those apples, but you have to climb that toxic vine to reach them.
You get your apple but not without feeling some pain.
* * *
A check cashing office is an empty room with a counter on one side and a few, presumably, bulletproof windows on the other. A slim opening at the bottom of each pain of glass provides enough space to slide a paycheck or Benefits card in exchange for cash. Posters advertise – in English, Spanish, Korean and Mandarin! – all the fantastic ways Pay-O-Matic, Nexiscard, Green Dot and other cunning companies will screw you out of your money. You have to get that apple -- you need to get your cash -- but the poison ivy vine is the only route.
I work at a supportive residence for formerly homeless adults. The tenants are strong individuals who have survived the street, escaped the shelter system and earned secure, relatively comfortable permanent housing. Most make an earnest attempt to live successful, healthy lives, but there are still some problems. Money is the root of most.
One tenant recently complained to me about a loan shark in the building. He grumbled that the loan shark was charging too much interest. In his experience, the going rate of interest on a loan among New York City usurers is 30%.
New York State usury law limits the amount of interest on any loan at 16%. Anyone who has paid interest higher than that 16% can file a civil lawsuit to recoup the difference. Usury becomes a felony when the interest rate reaches 25%.[2] Most states have similar usury laws to prevent loan sharking among individuals.
Yet, hese laws do not apply to many businesses that deal primarily with poor people like my clients. In his 2005 book Shortchanged, author Howard Karger attacks the “fringe economy,” which he defines as “corporations and businesses that have a predatory relationship with the poor by charging excessive interest rates or fees, or exorbitant prices for goods or services.” He takes specific aim at check-cashing outlets and cites customers who pay $40 for a $200 payday loan – 20%! Well within civil usury territory.
The payday loan is a perfect example of how businesses prey on the poor. A payday loan is made after the borrower guarantees that within an established time period, he will pay the money back in full with an extra fee tacked on. The money borrowed is typically less than $500 and the borrower is supposed to pay it back as soon as he receives his next paycheck, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or other form of payment. Paying money to access money you’ll soon get anyway sounds silly, but consider a scenario. A guy living hand-to-mouth has to pay his $700 rent on the first of the month but faces an unexpected expense, like emergency car repair, and is left with only $300. His rent is due on May 1st, a Tuesday, but he doesn’t receive his paycheck until Friday, May 4th.
To make his rent payment on time, the unlucky guy takes out a $400 payday loan at a check-cashing outlet — time to climb the poison ivy to reach the apple. The guy easily secures his $400 in cash. Since the company charges 20% interest on every two-week loan, the guy writes a $480 check that the company will promptly cash when the loan expires. If he doesn’t have sufficient funds in his account, too bad; the check cashing company will take him to court for bouncing the check.
When the guy gets paid on Friday the 4th, he has enough to pay back the $480 he owes. Unfortunately, before he does, his crappy refrigerator breaks. He buys a new fridge but no longer has enough money to make that $480 payment on time. So he extends the loan. Now he owes an additional 20% ($80) on top of the $400 loan, bringing the interest to $160. The two-week extension approaches, but June’s rent is due and he extends the loan again, accumulating another 20%. After just six weeks, he owes $240 in interest – a staggering 60% APR – on his $400 loan.
According to the Southwest Center for Economic Integrity, 60% of payday loan borrowers fail to pay their loan by the first two-week deadline. Thirty percent extend the loan for more than seven weeks.[3] Payday loan companies are the most toxic of the weeds; their tendrils slither into low-income urban blocks and slowly choke the residents. While twelve states, including New York, have sprayed their cities with herbicide and killed payday loans, there are no federal regulations against this legitimate loan-sharking except regarding loans to members of the military.
Although states have begun to crack down on such blatant rapaciousness, more subtle strategies persist. In 2010, AP reporter Candice Choi spent a month using New York City’s fringe economy services for all her financial needs. After paying to cash checks, send money orders and simply use her prepaid cash card, she spent $93. Multiply that by twelve months and it equals more than $1,110 without one single benefit or return. In 2012, people receiving SSI in NYC got $785/month (that amount increased to $797/month in 2013). That's just $9420/year. Holy shit. $1,110 is a lot of wasted money! [4]
Some tenants I work with use Nexiscard, the same prepaid cash card Choi bought, in place of a bank. They are misinformed or simply uninformed and feel they can control their money better if it is loaded on a card snug in their wallet. The first time I spoke with one woman about switching from the Nexiscard to a local credit union with real benefits and lower rates, she just laughed:
“You can’t keep everything,” she said. “They’re going to take something regardless.”
She is right, of course. Yet, while companies like Nexiscard and big banks charge low income-customers steep, exploitative fees, credit unions take the smallest bit of their customer’s money. If my jaded client opened a checking account at Union Settlement Federal Credit Union (USFCU) in Spanish Harlem, she would pay a $3 monthly maintenance fee any time the amount in her account dipped below $100.[5] In comparison, Bank of America, which has various checking account tiers and low-balance penalties, charges a $14 monthly maintenance fee on a regular checking account with a daily balance less than $1,500.[6]
USFCU has a $5 annual membership fee, but they offer three free ATM withdrawals a month and charge $0.75 for each subsequent withdrawal. This should go without saying, but USFCU does not charge you an additional fee when you use your debit card to make purchases. Nexiscard, on the other hand, charges a fee on every transaction! They charge $1 per purchase and $1.50 per purchase with a PIN number. The act of poking a few numbered rubber buttons costs $0.50. Customers pay another $1 to add money to their Nexiscard account and $2 to withdraw from an ATM. There is also a $4.95 inactivity fee initiated after 120 days.[7]
In March, the government will stop issuing paper Social Security checks. This has spurred a serious campaign by the prepaid-card companies to get welfare recipients to deposit their checks directly onto scam-cards. Recipients can also pay $20 or more to access their money three days early. That should be an illegal payday loan on a secure government check!
One of my clients has struggled with gambling addiction for years and spent much of last Spring trying to recoup the money he lost betting on the Patriots instead of the Giants. He chose to pay his bookies rather than his landlord. At the end of April, he got a three-day cash advance by paying a $28 fee. He then took a bus to Atlantic City, blew his money and fell deeper into rent arrears. After this debacle, he agreed to make my organization his representative payee. He rerouted his SSI check from his Nexiscard to a bank account our organization set up for him. Each month, the organization deducts the rent and gives him his remaining money. He's saving hundreds of dollars a year.
I soon found out that these lawful payday loans are common practice among my clients. Far too many people hand over a substantial chunk of their paltry benefit checks to diabolical corporations that grow more robust as they prey on society’s most vulnerable citizens. These are the under-educated, unwell, mentally ill, developmentally disabled. They are poor and their paltry resources are wrapped in poison. They endure significant financial pain to get that apple.
[1] ie: Numerous highways, such as the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago and Eight Mile Road in Detroit, split cities, corralled blacks and separated the middle- and upper-classes from the poor.
[2] http://www.davidrichlaw.com/new-york-business-litigation-and-employment-attorneys-blog/2011/01/what-rate-of-interest-may-my-company-lawfully-charge-in-new-york/
[3] http://faculty.msb.edu/prog/CRC/pdf/Mono35.pdf
[4] http://articles.boston.com/2010-10-05/business/29292273_1_check-cashing-fee-money-orders-credit
[5] http://www.unionsettfcu.org/join.html
[6] https://www3.bankofamerica.com/efulfillment/documents/51-11-3000ED.20120227.htm
[7] http://wvgazette.com/ap/ApBusiness/201010030164
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