Milking the Poor: One Family's Fall Into Homelessness

The descent into homelessness can be equated to falling off a cliff. Wealth buys passage on toll roads a safe distance from the edge, but poverty's foot path runs along the craggy and unstable lip of a gaping precipice. Emma and her family hit a few ledges on the way down, blown by winds of misfortune every time they began to regain stable footing. As Emma describes their story: "It's too much bad luck for anyone to believe."

At the moment, Emma's fiance, Wilkins, sits in a windowless cell of the Lynnwood City Holding Facility serving a 30-day sentence for driving with a suspended license--the result of an unpaid ticket for driving without insurance. Though the term 'debtor's prison' evokes Dickensian inequalities of a past era, I find it difficult to characterize Wilkins's incarceration as anything more just.

"If you don't have money for insurance, and you get pulled over, then you'll never have money again," Emma explains, summarizing the painful lesson realized through her entanglement with Washington law. "Fines rack up every time they make a judgment against you. If you don't respond, if you don't get the notice, then it goes to collections, additional penalties are levied. It just gets worse and worse. And that's how our hole got deeper and deeper."

If Emma had to pinpoint the moment their life began to lose footing on solid ground, it would go back to the ticket she received for driving without insurance in February 2008--the fourth month of her pregnancy with daughter Elizabeth.


Full article here:

http://correspondents.theatlantic.com/christina_davidson/2009/10/milking_the_poor.php

Reading this broke my heart ...

I'm betting if the insurance companies get their way it will be.

Not much more to say.

for working people to get caught in. when you're living on the margins anyway, the niggling extortion by the government and insurance companies adds up when chains of circumstances are set into motion. this article captures precisely the predicament so many people are in. we're talking about small amounts of money too, but when you don't have it, you just don't have it.

I share a home with two of my sons now my husband has died. My sons moved in to help me out.
They would not have had to help me except after my husband died, the government said I can collect either the military retirement or social security but not both..even though both my husband and I worked many years outside the military. They say you can only collect one or the other but not both.
But now my youngest has been laid off and although we are making it...it is by the skin of our teeth.
My youngest will lose his drivers license soon if he cannot find work because he has to pay child support..which he doesn't have now.
He paid on time for many years..for a child he was only told about after she was 8 years old..and has only seen a couple of times as her mom moved them so far away.
If you don't pay your child support..they take your driver's license away..which makes NO sense because how will he find work or get to work if he cannot drive?
He looks for work every single day but around here..there are no jobs available.
He is worried he will go to prison if he cannot pay his support soon.
My oldest son makes good money and pays his credit cards on time. However he is also hurting payday to payday because his credit card company is charging him mega interest rates and he will never be able to pay off the debt..he will be paying several times over what he borrowed at these rates. Already he has paid back the original amount several times over.
Our system is broke and it is our own government that broke it.

Problem solved.

so. They have to drive to get to work, buy groceries, etc. because this country is not arranged for good public transit. They are trapped and gaffed--not everyone has friends or family who can or will help out. I hope you are grateful not to live in a situation like this, where one unexpected $500 expense can put you on the streets.

This is as elementary as not driving without a license. If you do it and you get caught, there are consequences.

it is an inalienable right.

Nice platitude, though. Typed with all the authority of a college kid wearing a Che sweatshirt drinking a latte from starbucks.

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I just pointed out where you said something moronic is all.

Deal with it.

The state granteth the privilege to drive on its roads, and the State taketh away. Regardless of how keyboard activists feel about it. Don't like it? Maybe you can amend the Constitution to make driving one of those "Congress shall make no law" activities. :eyes:

Then following WWII, auto makers and gas companies began buying up transit systems, thereby forcing Americans into cars and on the roads. Then "suburbia" hit and we all needed a car to pick up eggs, milk, and bread.

Now, while I agree with you that one shouldn't drive without insurance, I have to wonder if the influx of corporate communism into our lifestyles have made it a requirement for us to have the "privilege" to drive.

I wouldn't have a car but the bus system here in KC is terrible.

Coincidentally where auto insurance is usually cheapest. Yes, lack of public transit might have played a role in the story contained in the OP (may have - I don't know if s/he drove past the bus stop on the way to getting cited). But the bottom line is that the driver chose to drive without mandatory insurance. Had s/he killed or maimed someone in the process I don't think the sentiment here would be so lopsidedly "oh, that poor maltreated illegal driver!"

Wow. :crazy:

I've come to the point where I hope they live through it themselves,,, that is the only thing which willl soften their hard hearts.

Sad......

n/t

and you know what they say about paybacks...

...just as much as a poor man.

No compassion for those struggling to get by? No understanding of grinding poverty? Just "I got mine." You may find some other message boards more hospitable.

..isn't it?

In spite of your smug overlook, YOU are probably one catastrophic illness, retirement plan theft, or natural disaster away from this situation.

it's dismaying how someone on a Democratic board cannot empathize with extreme situations that force people to choose one necessity over another

early 50s or older that always had car insurance, but due to being unemployed from jobs for roughly 2 years, underwater and being threatened regarding their homes, and simply can no longer afford to pay insurance for a car, or their home, and now feel foolish they even tried to pay for their Cobra insurance as long as they did (which would have paid their auto/home insurance for months). . . anyway, our community is sprawling and has no reasonable public transport...

How are they to find jobs, or even show up at the jobs with no vehicle? I get your point, but they have a point too, they can't solve the problem of no insurance without a car to get a job. God awful cath-22.

as one of the comments in the OP reads:

It's hard to find anyone opposed to making auto insurance mandatory, for obvious reasons.

Now we're looking to do the same with Health Insurance. Unlike Auto Insurance, there is no "bus" for health insurance. There is no low-cost, inconvenient but effective alternative.

How will this affect families like this? How is this an improvement over where they are now?


*

within 10 miles of downtown, which most people don't or they work in neighboring towns that have no public transport system. We have a city bus system, and they do mean city, but the metro area consists of no less than 9 cities.

If I screwed up and forgot to pay my insurance and got a ticket I would feel an "ouchie" but I wouldn't be totally fucked like these poor people. And that is not justice. The fine should sting. It shouldn't incapacitate.

This is starkly simple - driving is a privilege restricted by the State. If the State requires auto insurance, don't drive without it. Gonna drive anyway? Choices have consequences.

This thread would have a whole different tone if, instead of being pulled over and ticketed for driving without insurance, the person in the OP had gotten in an accident and maimed someone while driving without insurance.

There are a few fines that turn out to be hundreds of thousands of dollars.

and three hours each way. Grow up, the whole world is not doable, unless you are well, and not on the edge.

It's the fine-free way to go.

If you read the whole article and all that you get from it is that it's their own damn faults for driving without insurance, read it again.

n/t

choice but to drive it home, it being uninsured, cuz you couldnt afford to drive it. And YOU DID move the motherefucker every 72 hours.

My wife wants to ride the bus, but it takes something like 1 1/2 to two hours to get to work!

KC bus system is terrible!!!

I played a nice joke on my college roommate though. He left to goto work and I hopped on my bicycle and biked the two miles to his workplace and then went past it to the bus stop and was waiting for the bus when he got there. This was in the Twin Cities, near the U. I am pretty sure I wouldn't want to bike in KC.

I am kinda surprised at how lame the busses are here. It seems to me that metro busses should come up to where I live, but they don't. We don't even have Greyhound service in this town that I know of, and trains run through here every half an hour, but almost none of them carry passengers and there is no train station anyway.

I had been riding the bus since December. If you miss the "Express" (two in the morning), then you had to take the "local" which came by once an hour. With the change, though, now they come more infrequently! A real pain. In order for me to get to my job in downtown KC, and eight-mile trip, by 12:30 in the afternoon (I work evenings), I had to leave the house at 11:10 in the morning.

My wife has to ride to downtown Kansas City, Missouri, then switch buses to take her out to Kansas City, Kansas.

Needless to say, when a colleague offered a 1995 Saturn for sale, I jumped at the chance. I now enjoy the benefits of Tennessee craftsmanship! :D

Are you a KC resident? :hi:

:( I take it the driver was never found?

Take care...

Got CMS to operate on my shoulder. He liked the challenge of the op. Otherwise, I wouldnt have found ANY surgeon. Sued, got enough to pay the lawyer, and to offer less than, to my creditors. They didnt accept. So, FUCK THEM. Prolly get a summons someday.

Got CMS to operate on my shoulder. He liked the challenge of the op. Otherwise, I wouldnt have found ANY surgeon. Sued, got enough to pay the lawyer, and to offer less than, to my creditors. They didnt accept. So, FUCK THEM. Prolly get a summons someday.

Are you sure you're posting in the right forum?

Look, the person in the OP knowingly broke the law, then failed to pay the fine meted out as punishment for the offense. I'm not sure why people seem to insist that this is some revolutionary struggle for justice. Driving without insurance in states where insurance is mandatory will earn one a fine. This is a *good thing* - uninsured motorists are a bad problem.

Being forced into homeless is a good thing?

Being tossed over the cliff is a good thing?

Are you the sanctimonious one? I would say yes.

No one MAKES a city, county, or state levy a particular fine. THEY decide to do it, and damn the consequences to people.

They didn't have to throw this person into jail. No one was killed, no one was even hurt. There are lots of people out there WITH insurance, and lots of them have gotten into accidents. Falsely equating having insurance with being a good driver is a crap argument.

I think the real "bad problem" is people like you who can't see beyond their own freaking noses, and who care not one bit about those around them who may be struggling.

had the person in the OP killed or maimed someone while driving without insurance instead of just being pulled and cited. Uninsured drivers are enough of a problem that states have laws mandating insurance coverage for drivers. Yes, it is a good thing when people who operate as if they are above the law are disabused of that notion through application of the law they flaunt. The citation and fine are appropriate. Choices and consequences for the illegal driver.

Being insured DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MEAN YOU ARE A BETTER DRIVER. Pretty much anyone can get insurance, but if you have tickets, accidents, etc. you will have to pay more. AND, if your credit report isn't squeaky clean, you will have to pay more, which is fucked up so many ways I couldn't even count them all.

I am sick to fucking death of the false equation between a person's financial wealth and their value as a person, and whether they are responsible or not, and underneath it all, I think that's what you are saying -- the wealthy or well to do are better because they have fatter bank accounts. If someone is down and out, well, it must be their fault.

Thanks, but I really don't care for the dish of shit covered shaving cream you're trying to hand out here.

Care to point out where you found those words you're trying to put in my mouth?

Being insured automatically means you are a LEGAL driver in those states where insurance is required. Similarly, not being insured and driving automatically makes one an ILLEGAL driver in those states. There is no judgment of driving ability here.

"Uninsured drivers are enough of a problem that states have laws mandating insurance coverage for drivers."

What if the driver in the OP had gotten hit by another uninsured driver and ended up hospitalized? Who pays? The need for auto insurance has ZERO to do with whether anyone is a "good driver" or not.

it seems like they deliberately picked a story that is less than sympathetic, besides the fact that BOTH parents were happy to keep driving w.out insurance in an area where it turns out at the end of the story there WAS a bus, i can't even figure out the ethics of having a baby when you're that close to the edge

i was poor and w/out health insurance etc for many years, w/out a car for a few years

i didn't bring a baby into that

i think there are lots of "falling down" stories out there, not sure why this one is was chosen, everybody in jail for not paying traffic tickets feels sorry for themselves and has some reason why they shouldn't be there, trouble is, they just won't pay for the insurance/tickets etc. the rest of us have to pay so what is to be done to get them to follow the rules besides jail? anyone who drives can have an accident and hurt someone else, you MUST be able to provide for the person you hurt

lance may express himself harshly, but considering IN THIS STORY there WAS a bus i don't see how he's wrong

when she originally drove on a suspended license. She has moved.. I think 3 times, but at least 2 since then.

"I didn't bring a baby into that"... you know, birth control is expensive when you have no health insurance. And abortions are even more expensive. You have no idea the circumstances surrounding that baby's conception (beyond the obvious "there was a man and a woman present").

It's really easy to judge when you have no idea the circumstances someone is living in. I can't even tell you how many times someone was heard snickering in line behind me (as I counted out my food stamps) concerning my three daughters. I heard people mention how many fathers they thought the children had (one, but everyone usually assumed 3). I heard people say all kinds of bullshit things (whore..."OMG she bought a bag of chips with food stamps", whatever).

I was married when all my children were conceived and born. I then left him because he was abusive and he refused to pay child support since I was the one that left. All kinds of people like Lance thought they had some right to judge my life and my children and what I bought.

The poor are treated like non-humans in America. If you have been poor with no health insurance and no car, then you surely know that, which makes me wonder how you can even defend the crap Lance is saying.

You aren't taking into account that people need to get to work, if they are lucky enough to have a job. And don't start squawking about public transportation. I live in Seattle, just down the road from Lynnwood, and believe me, our transportation system is somewhat lacking.

You aren't taking into account that driving may be someone's only option, because they may not live anywhere near a bus line. They may have some kind of physical limitation that would make walking a long way to a bus stop, or biking, impossible.

I think the point that the article was making is that once you start to fall over that cliff, there seem to be forces that help push you over the edge, and will snatch almost any kind of hope out of your hands.

I also know that Washington state is horrible about any kind of traffic fines, parking tickets, driving without insurance tickets, etc. I got a parking ticket not long ago, and was not able to pay it by the 15 day deadline. Two FREAKING days after that, I get a notice from a fucking collection agency, tacking on an additional $35 to the ticket. Two FREAKING days! Shit, some corporations give you more of a grace time than that. In fact, most of them will send you a letter themselves without going straight to a collection agency.

Your post smacks of the smugness of someone who has never been down and out, who has never been struggling to stay afloat, who has never had a bad patch in their lives. Now, that may not be true, but it definitely seems like that's where you're coming from.

I hope if you ever get into trouble, other people have more compassion for you, than you show for this couple.

:pals:

For Gods Sake, listen to yourself.

May it be that you walk in those shoes someday soon.

Buhbye now....

ZAP!

Or allow us affordable car insurance...?

Seems to me there's more to than merely one solution to any given problem. I realize ofttimes that a particular solution may be a bit more civil and polite than a specific political demographic (or poster) may like, but there it is. Problem solved.

Have you ever been so poor that you end up digging under the couch cushions in the desperate hope that you might come up with a nickel so that you'll have enough to pay for a quart of milk for your 2-year-old?

I have.

Have you ever been so poor that you dress your kids and yourself in winter coats and hats inside the house because you can't afford to turn on the heat?

I have.

Have you ever been so poor that you're trapped in a crummy apartment in a neighborhood with NO public transportation and the ONLY way you can get to your minimum wage job is by driving there in your crappy 12-year-old wreck of a car? The car that you can barely afford to buy gas for, the car that you just pray doesn't break down (again!), the car that if you spent money on insurance for would mean that you wouldn't have money for groceries for your kids -- have you ever been there?

I have.

Should I have gone homeless and let my kids go hungry so I could comply with a fucking law written to fatten the wallets of insurance companies?

You have no fucking idea of what it means to be poor in this fucking country.

sw

And it never leaves you. Being poor in this country scars you for the rest of your life.

No clue about what it's like to be completely boxed in with no way out.

When you're poor you can't move to a better place because you have no way to come up with all the deposits to start over -- deposits on rent (first and last month and damage deposits), deposits on electric service, deposits on phone service so you can call around for jobs. You can't afford a better car, you can't afford the gas to even search for a better situation.

There's no trap as insidious as the trap of poverty.

:hi: People who don't get it think they know so much about poverty. Makes me furious. :mad:

I pretty much lost everything I owned. I had some friends who took me in until I could reset my life. I was unusually lucky -- not many people are.

sw

You obviously are blissfully unaware of what it's like to not have the money to pay for insurance. Lucky you!

Oh wait, I know, luck had nothing to do with it. You pulled yourself up by your bootstraps, right? And this is America, where we all have the same opportunities to succeed in life, right?

Oy.

Julie

Have you tried the republican party? Looks like it would suit you better.

n/t

Nice.

I have never understood why there can't be sliding fees for motor vehicle type fines. It's not equal justice if one person can pay it and keep on with their life a little wiser and another can be financially devastated for years.

And as far as the damn insurance - I've often wondered why there can't be a simpler system that makes sure everyone has basic liability insurance. Like adding a few cents to the price of gas? If you buy gas - you're insured.

This poor family.

in my state and the stupid voters shot it down. It makes so much sense and would be much cheaper than individually buying insurance.

But the 'tax whiners' got their panties in a bunch and couldn't see the forest for the trees, as usual.

Then those drivers who drive more often, and therefore are a greater risk, will pay more for insurance.

Sounds logical...

That's probably why something like that wouldn't pass....it doesn't go six times around the block and sideways to get from Point A to Point B to qualify as a law. :)

:wtf:

For the sake of poor people everywhere, will you PLEEEZ look up "regressive taxes"???


Enough has been written about it here, but it seems that when it comes to poverty, people just aren't willing to LISTEN.

more of a risk, there are some people who are bad and careless drivers who constantly get into accidents who only drive a couple of miles at a time, then there are people who have 30 or 40 years with no accidents or tickets. Should both risks be treated the same, not at all..

Higher user taxes ONLY hurt poor folk.

WHEN are "progressives" going to learn something about REGRESSIVE TAXES?

Yeah, call me a "tax whiner".

Think before you speak. I'm sick of the thoughtless judgments.

Now, before you attack, go look up "Regressive taxes".

The gas tax for insurance would cover EVERYBODY, and be MUCH LESS EXPENSIVE than buying private insurance.

For poor people too.

For God's sake, what is there to get about this? And yes, you are a 'tax whiner'. No sense in trying to argue with a dining room table.

Buh-bye.

Why should I have to pay the same amount for insurance as someone who has multiple speeding tickets and numerous accidents?

One might conclude that someone with "multiple speeding tickets and numerous accidents" drives more frequently and therefore should pay more in insurance...

they could simply drive more recklessly in the same amount of time. :shrug:

Now, try this.... you are living on $674 a month (and the next two years, our Dem majorityy has taken away COLA!). At the end of the month, you have nothing left for ANYTHING.....food, gas, medicine, emegencies. Do you remember Katrina at all? Do you remember WHY so many peo0ple couldn't get out of town?

BECAUSE IT WAS THE END OF THE MONTH, AND THEY HAD NOTHING LEFT.

Your sliding scale would just mean the end of the month comes earlier.

No food, no gas, no medicine, no emergency money.... etc.

Can you put yourself in those shoes?

I know it's hard.

Please try.

What's with the "Can you put yourself in those shoes? blah, blah, blah? WTF do you know about my shoes or where they've been?

Besides which - you're AGAINST sliding fee scale based on income for standard fines and you think you're advocating on the side of the poor? You think the person earning $6740 per month and the person struggling on $674 a month are equally impacted by a standard $200 fine or $75 restoration fee on the drivers licenses?

Wow...

for you to think about that you couldn't even be bothered to read it.

Do you remember ANYTHING about Katrina? Any lessons there at all?

You sound like a lot of doctors I've met....

It is that everyone insure their own car against loss or damages regardless of how they are incurred or who incurs them, then if someone doesn't carry insurance, they are the only ones that are affected.
That is how homeowners insurance and health insurance works why not the way auto insurance works?

I moved back to my hometown a little over a year ago and since that time I've been pulled over two times and each time my car was taken.

It's cost me a little over 4k all tolled. Now you might thing I'm a drunk driver, or one of those people who doesn't pay tickets. Nope. Not at all.

Both times it was a mistake, one concerning child support and one concerning tickets that were not mine in the first place. Both times the ticket, including the seat belt charge for the first time I was pulled over, and the speeding charge for the second time I was pulled over, we dismissed. No fines there.

The city got their money from impounding fees. Leans.. The local economy got a boost from the towing fees, the storage fees, and the car rental I needed until I could prove I didn't have tickets pending or a suspended licence. Good deal for everyone.

Look, I can weather 4k like water off a ducks back. Means crap to me, but it does piss me off. It's like losing your money in a game you know is crooked, but you still have to play the game.

There's a lot of people that can't weather this stuff, and I feel for them. What can you call this but a police state when just driving a car to work can land you in jail? Who are these laws for?

I've talked to people since then that have lost cars behind this stuff. I know people that won't drive because they can no longer afford to.

At the end of this, the funny thing is when you ask the judge what about all the other charges, she tells you to get a lawyer. How much do you think a lawyer would charge a person to get 4,000 dollars back?

This is one of the things today that is upside down and it's good to see someone draw some attention to it.

Still, I don't see why fines can't be assessed as a lien against future income.

"Anally raping the poor while gleefully laughing" is a closer representation.

At least the lower courts. Go in and listen some day, many petty offenses, almost all resulting in heavy fines. Cash cow city baby! No need to ever raise taxes, we can just keep heaping fines and fees on "criminals". Who's going to listen to their complaints?? That's right, nobody.

The justice system can be extraordinarily unjust. It's really horrible.

Julie

go watch a lower court and look at the hot check offenders getting tried in criminal court.
The majority are women who are single parents who are just struggling to get by floating checks so their kids can eat or so their lights can stay on a few more days--not people out there doing shopping sprees.
Conversely, people who run up credit card bills buying shit they don't need in the first place go to civil court where they might lose their credit score but that is about all--there is no jail time attached.
In both instances--they are spending money they don't have...even though sometimes it is for the exact same thing, just different financial vehicles.

if you cannot afford insurance, you probably cannot afford a car either...There are people whose lives are so precarious, that they cannot have a car.

Cars are the downfall of many young people just starting out.

either the big payments for new (newish) cars eat them alive, leaving little left for living expenses, or the maintenance costs of older cars do them in.

If you are indigent and contrite, there are few courts that will not "work" with you to make payments for the fine, but the problem is that people continue to drive and get more tickets, so pretty soon, the courts have to treat them like scofflaws.

My friend's son got into trouble the same way, and she just let the impound lot keep the car (no car payments involved) and he made a deal with the devil (his Dad) to pay off the fines & court costs.. he's now approaching 30 and is still car-less. He's made peace with the bus pass, and with mooching rides, but he's finally able to get from point A to point B without risking being arrested.

These "tug-at-your-heartstrings" stories are abundant these daysm but if you read between the lines, there's a lot more that's not being considered.

I am also sorry that there's a baby being dragged into this lifestyle too. It's not "luck", it's lack of attention to rules & regs & laws..and perhaps not being parented in a way that helped these two young people grow up to be adults.