While those living in poverty with medical needs have risen throughout 2004, a federal funding freeze for those living in extreme poverty went into effect July 1 of last year. At the time of the freeze, state aid was budgeted for 63,000 people. The numbers now exceed 89,000, leaving the state’s various charities scrambling to meet the medical needs of the poor. Many, no doubt, are left in crisis situations when considering cancer and AIDS patients.

Diana Stubbs, director of one of Muskegon’s aid agencies, said that they remain “in dire need of donations if they are to continue.” Diabetes and heart disease, both of which require medication, are common among the poor being helped in Michigan. But the delays in the paperwork that the charities are forced to do under a capitalist health care system can be life threatening. Cheryl Schneider, of Muskegon Care, says, “Many are homeless, living friend to friend. Thirty dollars for a prescription may not seem like much, but when you have no income it may as well be $300.”

The poorest of the poor, some seriously ill, also often homeless, living through the winter months in Michigan, are in urgent need of a common sense, humane solution to their problems.

Brian McAfee
Muskegon Heights, Michigan
 
 
Real wages
A recent Militant editorial (Dec. 28, 2004) stated that “Real wages have been on a downward curve for nearly three decades.” I have read something to this effect before in the Militant and repeated it often. The Jan. 1-7, 2005, issue of the Economist, however, claimed that “between 1979 and 2000 the real income of households in the lowest fifth (the bottom 20 percent of earners) grew by 6.4 percent.” I find this hard to believe, but I would appreciate a good article detailing what the development really has been over the last quarter century.

Robert Dees
Palo Alto, California  
 
 
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