Morton Marcus
Monroe, Delaware, Tippecanoe and Vigo! What do these four Indiana counties have in common? YES, you’re right! They all have big state college enrollments.
In fact, Monroe County has 41% of its population between the ages of 18 and 34. Delaware 36%, Tippecanoe 34% and Vigo 30%.
And what is true about college students and young adults hanging around college towns? They don’t have much in earnings. Some have minimum wage and part-time jobs. Many live off money sent from home, in housing owned by Mom and Dad. There’s no shame in this; it’s just a fact.
You know that, but national data massagers don’t know that. They end up identifying these four counties among the seven poorest counties in Indiana.
Where should we make our strongest efforts to fight poverty? It’s where poverty is strongest. If we eliminate the four college counties, what’s left?
In terms of only the highest percent of the population in poverty, we’d be looking at Switzerland, Crawford, Grant, Blackford and Fayette.
Many analysist and policy makers look to the percentage of children, those under age 18, to find the deepest poverty. In this view, five counties have 25% (one in four children) in poverty: Crawford, Switzerland, Grant, Miami and Vigo. If we lower that criterion to one in five children (20%), another 19 Indiana counties would qualify.
A different guideline emphasizes poverty among those 65 and older. Here, choosing a poverty level at 11%, yields six counties with urgent need: Starke, Scott, Parke, Marshall, Fountain and Crawford.
Thus, with three different way of looking at poverty, only Crawford is consistently seen as a high priority county.
What is the root cause of poverty? My money goes on the inability of the population age 35 to 64 to earn a sufficient income to rise above this economic affliction. This criterion emphasizes ending poverty with both the availability of higher paying jobs and increased training for such employment. The alternatives above mainly relieve poverty.
This policy from poverty to a payroll would be a priority in the seven Indiana counties with poverty above 15% among persons 35 to 64. They are Blackford, Crawford, Fayette, Switzerland, Scott, Starke and Grant.
One cannot deny the virtue of relieving poverty, of seeing to it that the nutrition, the housing, the health and the education of children are important aspects of a poverty reduction program. Certainly, poverty as an affliction of the aging deserves concurrent compassionate action.
But the foremost, beneficial and enduring policy is enabling persons in the prime of life to provide for themselves and their families in the present and the future. This means changing the economic development policies of Indiana. Stop talking about workforce development for business and get serious about economic enhancement for the poor where they live.
Mr. Marcus is an economist. Reach him at [email protected]. Follow him and John Guy on Who Gets What? wherever podcasts are available or at mortonjohn.libsyn.com.
