The Earned Income Tax Credit and the Lottery

I don't enjoy gambling. I live in a town with several casinos and don't really have any interest in using them for gambling. I've never even bought a lottery ticket before. Maybe a scratch game once or twice, but never a lottery ticket.  Until this week.

It started as a joke. The odds are incredible, but for 48 million dollars, I thought, "why not this once" I've read about how for some people in poverty, playing the lottery is a type of remittance. While it is a small amount to pay out regularly, the sudden infusion of cash ($50-$200) is how they pay for those things they need irregularlly - like new clothes, technology upgrades, and stocking up on personal items or entertainment devices.

Buying the lottery ticket didn't start as a savings plan; it was entertainment. I was surprised by the amount of entertainment that it gave me. It was a tangible thing , this piece of paper, that induced dreams. [The only other piece of paper that inspires such dreams is my voting ballot.] What would I do with 48 million dollars? Daring to dream that big is a place far from the economic reality of my life, and of anybody's life. I spent time dreaming aloud, something that doesn't get to happen often for people trapped in the tyranny of the moment that is poverty.

Then today, I was reading up on current US policies related to asset building and it reminded me about the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

"Despite the curtailed policy agenda, the Fiscal Year 2012 budget includes a set of policies and proposals that allocate $519 billion in resources to asset-building activities. An additional $65 billion in funding for the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, while not explicitly asset building programs, presents resources that individuals and families can devote to saving."


There is this continuing question in the EITC funders world [and middle-class sensibilities] of why people don't always use their EITC for its intended purpose of family asset building. There is evidence many many families use it to pay off debts - something which is responsible, but that still isn't asset building for the future. Then it dawned on me.  To people living on under $12,000 a year, their tax return is like winning the lottery.

When you think about what you are going to do with your tax return, you dream. You dream of the things which you know are out of reach on a regular basis. You plan on buying cars, televisions, movies, entertainment, restaurant food, vacations, ect. ect. Five-thousand dollars in one lump sum might as well be a million dollars. People in poverty often get unfairly judged for this behavior and called "irresponsible spenders."

While I could imagination how to split up my $48 million dollars so I could live modestly for a lifetime, I still dreamed of what $$ could do that I can't do now. It was a lot of fun.

Take that fun away by talking about asset building won't persuade people to change their behavior. What we need to do is develop a positive dream of the possibility of a secure life. We as a society, and as social service agencies, don't always give people a goal of what to be, only of what NOT to be.

With a new American Dream, maybe then tax returns won't be treated like we won the lottery.

My Oath of Service

I've gotten lots of questions from people about what I am doing in Iowa. I ask myself this as well. After moving in to my new house, I spent the last few days at a pre-service orientation (PSO) with the Americorps (Volunteers in Service to America) VISTA program. It was in Lombard, IL. I enjoyed the training, but would have enjoyed it more if I weren't fighting a cold the whole time. The PSO was an introduction to the VISTA program.

The VISTA mission is to "build capacity in non-profit organizations and communities to help bring individuals and communities out of poverty." It was started in 1964 modeled on the Peace Corps success overseas. We are the domestic equivalent to the Peace Corps.

At the training we spent a lot of time understanding poverty. This means identifying the assumptions about people in poverty, getting facts, and overcoming stereotypes. Poverty is something people live in, not an inherent nature of any person. It is because someone lacks resources; it can be a lack of financial resources, emotional resources, mental resources, social capital, or role models. We can relieve poverty by supplying the resources and making sure they are being delivered to those who need them.

One of the most interesting things I learned was how the U.S. measures poverty. They use a system called the Orshansky's Poverty Threshold. This number is caculated by multiplying the cheapest USDA food plan for a year for a family of 4 by the 1950s estimate that 1/3rd of income should be spent on food. If a person makes less than what is needed to supply food for 1 year, they are considered in poverty.

But using a 1950s model is quite antiquated. For one, it doesn't consider local costs of food. It doesn't take into account adequate housing costs, which have come to consume more and more of family budgets. It doesn't take into account health care, another cost that is consuming family budgets increasingly. It doesn't take into account child-care, another huge cost to most working families.

There is some positive change in calculating what poverty looks like in some local settings, but this US standard of calculation has not been challenged yet. Some local mayors have begun some research into the issue, like Mayor Bloomberg in NYC. He even secured private money to research the issue. It is almost frustrating that we don't have a real measure for what my work is trying to relieve. This will stick with me.

The other part that really struck me was the Oath of Service that I swore to.
The Oath is as follows :

"I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; That I take this obligation freely, without mental reservation or purpose of evasion; And that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter."

While the swearing in ceremony was very unceremonious, I personally deeply reflect upon this charge. Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction. I didn't take a job, I have a sworn commitment to fight in a war against poverty issued by the Commander-In-Chief of this country 45 years ago. It is the longest American war on native soil. I do feel like a solider. I do feel compelled to do a good job for those who have no voice but my own.

My biggest critique of the PSO was that they didn't adopt enough military style language and circumstance. I wish they had trained us more like soldiers. The training was taught in a social-science exploratory learning way that I think in necessary, but some of the events outside of the classroom felt like they should be a more ritualistic. Rituals are a way to create community and put people into a similar mode. They also can achieve an air of reverence that I think others would have benefited from.

I say this because there were 2 types of people I met at the training. There were those people there who saw this VISTA program as a job attached to a paycheck, and there were those who saw the VISTA program as calling. These are not mutually exclusive categories, but a spectrum. I could tell the trainers were on the extreme side of it being a mission/calling. They were all a pleasure to work with and really had a commitment to ending poverty in their lifetime. Their respect and reverence of us as soldiers going to war was evident. I think my physical illness at the time of training kept me in reality and I never achieved that spiritual high I often get when thinking about the big goals that my little job are helping to achieve. I totally get an endorphin rush, similar to that of being in love with a person, when I find myself swept away by the romanticism of service. Isn't service just like love? To be completely consumed by another.

Love can be defined a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. In religious context, love is not just a virtue, but the basis for all being. Service is my religion, and service is my passion. I think this is why I loved my last job. I felt in service to the state of Minnesota. I was even a little heartbroken when it ended. I was not only fighting poverty by using electoral politics, but I was also organizing people to build capacity for the future. Organizing seniors to help the senior caucus of the Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party means they are better represented. Inviting new people to volunteer, even in some limited capacity provided by the campaign, builds the local parties and identifies new leaders. While it isn't the only thing I ever want to do if I am going to help win the war on poverty, it was one method. I was lucky to have the opportunity.

In the future, I still have some other capacities I think I would like to try. I haven't lost sight of my goal of getting my masters in social work and public policy. All this organizing is useless unless we have good policies to enact with our elected officials. I see my goal right now as to learn from the roots the policy problems while continuing to identify new leaders within the communities who need the help. People who actually represent those who need help, not just good citizens who want to help. We always need to be developing new leaders.

When it comes to the day-to-day, I look out my window at the Mississippi river, the city of Dubuque, and all 3 states I can see from my window, and I say, wtf am I doing in Dubuque, Iowa. I never thought my life would lead me here. But keeping my life goal in mind, I have the honor of serving the people who need me. They need me here in Iowa. I am going to make the most of this year of service to my country and serve where I have been given the opportunity. We will see what comes from here.

I'm already a little intimidated. I went to the office last Monday to check it out and the people there wore suits. It was in a fancy building, in a professional part of town. I was very nervous and sick. I have an office. I have a computer. I'm nervous because I guess I imagined the job more fieldwork, less office work. I have to work to get out of my desk in meaningful ways. A committed place to work, and the technology to succeed is necessary, but I have a personal fear of becoming a bureaucrat and not an anthropologist. My fears may be unfounded, but I'll find out more tomorrow.

The other part I am most concerned with is I haven't fully imagined my life here yet. Usually, I find some sort of template or expectation of myself to create a life I want to live. I haven't felt physically well enough, or informed enough yet, to imagine myself and set the small goals to accomplish this. I don't want to wait too long, or I will find myself being acted upon, rather than acting on my own life. After work tomorrow, and some coffee, I will commit time to deciding who I want to be and move forward.