Re: "poverty pimps" & the equity question: who gets wealth & power?

P. Myers (mpwr@u.washington.edu)
Sun, 18 Jan 1998 21:04:24 -0800 (PST) 

On Sun, 18 Jan 1998, Tom Boland wrote:

> Pat wrote on 1-18-97 in "Re: Nonprofit helps the poor find their voice":
> >Another concern I have is that poverty pimps may be "enriched" at the
> >expense of those whom they believe they "help" by more than money.
> 
> Most poor and homeless people I know need money much more than we need
> caretakers.  Yet those who help us meet our aims merit at least enough pay
> to survive.

guess I didn't say this very well, Tom...I was trying to suggest that
there were pitfalls with voluntarism, and that peer advocacy *ought to be
remunerated!  (need to think before I type, I guess!)
 
> It's not unfair to get paid to help others, but too often social programs
> do too little to end or even reduce poverty and homelessness.  Homeless
> people need the power to decide which efforts to help us are worth funding.

exactly. and those who have shared their experiences will naturally be
more trustworthy, and more competent at helpgiving; resource offering,
etc.  As well as being more naturally respectful for the stresses that go
with homelessness/poverty/marginalization/illiteracy, etc.

> >....We *can help ourselves, and we *can be advocates without poverty pimping
> >(let's find a way to -- albeit long and drawn-out  --  say what that is
> >every time, ok?)...
> 
> "Poverty pimp" is a label used to discredit those who speak and do "for"
> the poor.  I too detest the better-than-thou mindset among those who speak
> and do "for" us.  But lest we become biased, we need a fair standard for
> who is a poverty pimp and who isn't.  People who make professional pay but
> do little to help their "charges" would merit the label of "poverty pimp",
> I think.
> 
yes.  And not everyone who is paid does this "little to help" or has the
mindset of "charges" or some vertical idea of power and authority or
ability in their heads.

> *Any ideas, anyone, on what shows for sure that a person is a "poverty pimp"?
> 
> >This is an issue I've been wrestling with for a long time...advocacy.
> >I was a single parent with two young children...no help but Welfare and
> >school...then worked my way through several years of school...I'd been
> >homeless, actually, more than once in my life (and dread the possibility
> >of another such experience!)...am I not a fair advocate for all the groups
> >mentioned above?  Is accepting recompense (monetary) for what I might
> >do...is *that poverty pimping?  Hell, I'm *still poor!
> 
> Those of us on the list, who live poor ourselves and help our peers, are
> not poverty pimps.  Maybe the core question comes down to whether a few
> deserve much, much more than others, when many have too little to even get
> by.
> 
agreed.  But those who help without denigrating those for whom they
advocate, deserve a living wage, and recognition of their efforts to help
without oppressing or exploiting...and they are out there...in here...

> *What's constitutes "equity", in the sense of a fair distribution of wealth
> and power?  Any philosophers out there to shed light on such a big
> question?--Tom
> 
> me too.  PatM
> 
> 

************************************
"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to 
and you have found out the exact measure of 
injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them...
Frederick Douglass