REPORT: Poor people pretty much screwed

Report: Poor People Pretty Much Screwed*
October 23, 2010

SASKATOON—According to results of repeated and costly consultations and intensive studies, Saskatoonians living below the poverty line are "pretty much screwed," Saskatoon Community Media has announced Saturday.

Although poor people have never had it particularly sweet, Saskatoon is now considered the land of opportunity, where upward class mobility is hard work's reward. However, studies show that limited access to quality education, healthcare, public transportation and shortage of employment opportunities in depressed areas all but ensure that, once screwed, an individual tends to stay screwed.

According to Statistics Canada 34.600 Saskatoon residents were living below the poverty line in 2009.

Not only are the down-and-out screwed, but the number of those down-and-out and screwed is growing. Conditions of disadvantage are often passed from one generation to the next, making it especially difficult for young people to emerge from the cycle of poverty.
"Man, my heart goes out to those poor suckers," one unidentified Saskatoon resident is quoted as saying.

After analyzing the economic performance of Saskatoon households over the past several decades, it has been repeatedly concluded that class mobility, while steady in the '70s and '80s, declined in the '90s about 40 percent of families ended the decade in the same economic strata in which they began it. That's up from about 35 percent in the '80s. That's good news for those sitting pretty, but even in more recent prosperous times it spells 'screw you' to the poor. There are more poor people today, and those poor people are much more screwed than poor people were a decade or two ago.

As the split between the upper and lower classes grows, and the middle class continues to shrink, we're moving closer and closer to what can only be called a 'no way out, dude. Sorry, you're screwed'-type situation. Not only are the poor screwed at the moment, but any chance they once had of changing their miserable lives is pretty much gone, too. Essentially, they're screwed for all time.

Studies have identified four major poverty groups within Saskatoon. The first two groups—one composed of disenfranchised minimum wage workers, the other made up of members of poor aboriginal populations—have been adversely affected by the city’s gradual shift to a technology-based, global economy. Researchers have repeatedly dubbed disenfranchised low wage workers the "Working Screwed", while members of poor aboriginal populations are called the "Indigenous Screwed". Individuals in these two groups are now classed universally as "screwed from the get-go."

The other two rapidly expanding groups of deprived are the "Suburban Screwed", whose members can't afford the rising cost of such basic necessities as a home, and the urban underclass whose members are found in the inner city. Researchers term these groups the "Recently Screwed" and the "Utterly Screwed", respectively.

Economists often are quoted as saying there's little reason for sympathy stating that in a healthy capitalist economy, some people are going to be out-competed. Some of those screw-ups have screwed themselves; not condoning an anarchic 'screw or be screwed' ethos, but many find it hard to get behind a welfare state that punishes the unscrewed by screwing all equally. While expressing concern for the city’s poor, most believe increased funding for social programs isn't the answer.

But what about all the people in this great nation who are not screwed? If the financial resources of the economically stable are diverted—through some well-intentioned but fiscally irresponsible social program—to the people who are screwed, where does that leave those who were sailin' along fine? Well - screwed, that’s where.

As a final thought:

An under-employed, single father who made $21,000 last year, and has been unable to find affordable housing for himself and his children said he was not surprised by the reports. "They say I'm screwed? "Shit, man, tell me something I don't know."

*adapted for discussion purposes only