| Number 48 | October 1, 1999 |
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This Week:
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Greetings, Just three pieces this week, but one is a theoretical thing that’s kind of lengthy. (And it’s only Part I.) Sometimes I write down the things I think about. Other times I try to write down how I think about them. People seem to like the latter quite a bit. So I’m doing it again this week. As usual, I actually wrote twice as much as you are receiving herein, but I threw the rest out. You only get the good stuff. Maybe some week when I am really tired or something I will publish all those little rejects. Maybe they would be entertaining; who knows? As you might imagine, I never have any problem coming up with things to write about. The problem I have is figuring out how to choose among the various and sundry things that pop into my head during the week. In that spirit, I would like to invite readers to toss me some suggestions for things to write about. Readers have occasionally in the past suggested subjects on which they would like me to comment, and I usually have obliged them. So, feel free. Two heads are better than one, after all. Gotta go arrange some furniture. See ya next week, Nygaard |
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“The sad truth is that more and more people working at low-wage jobs, as well as older Americans living on fixed incomes, are being priced out of the housing market as rents rise.” U.S. Housing Secretary Andrew M. Cuomo in the New York Times of September 24. |
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On September 23rd, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released a report called “The Widening Gap: New Findings on Housing Affordability in America.” The report documents a perfectly predictable result of an increasingly market- driven economy: More poor people and fewer places for them to live. This week’s Quote of the Week is taken from what should have been a front page story on that report, but was found instead on the bottom of page 14 in the New York Times (NYT) of the following day. This important article, entitled “Odds Worsen in Hunt for Low-Income Rentals,” describes what reporter David Stout calls “a negative side effect of the robust economy.” The phenomenon of housing inflation putting into jeopardy the shelter needs of poor people is not really a “side effect.” It’s built into the economic system we have, and here’s how it works. In a “booming” economy, there are more people with bucks, and landlords know it. So they jack up rents to match “the market.” The people without bucks, who can’t afford the higher rents, don’t register in “the market,” so they go homeless. It’s entirely predictable according to market theory. Although their interpretation of the report is a bit skewed, give the Times some credit for reporting on it. The Star Tribune (Newspaper of the Twin Cities!) didn’t have a word to say about it. The actual study focuses mostly on renters, but the problem is bigger than that. Over ten years ago I was having a conversation with some native Hawaiian people who live in the mountains above the tourist-crazed Kona coast on the Big Island of Hawaii. Although the family had lived on the island for generations, and had in fact been living at the exact same place for who-knows-how- long, they were angry because they were finding it difficult to afford the property taxes on the land on which they lived, forcing them to think about leaving their ancestral homeland. Since property taxes are based on the “market value” of a property (that is, the price for which it can be sold), and since the market value of Hawaiian land at that time was skyrocketing due to excess money in the hands of Japanese land speculators, these Native people were facing a housing crisis. The fact that they had no interest in, nor control over, the market value of their home was irrelevant. What we call “living,” as in a house or apartment, has no meaning to the market. The newspapers inadvertently make this clear all the time, although they can only see it as a “negative side effect.” That’s what the HUD report is about. Here are the four main points from that report, in the words of Secretary Cuomo:
As I said earlier, the New York Times printed this important story on the bottom of page A14. For the record, that day’s front page included stories on Ross Perot’s possible endorsement of Pat Buchanan for President and three photos noting the death of actor George C. Scott. For those who wish to look at it, the full HUD report can be found at: http://www.hud.gov/pressrel/afford/afford.html. |
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There are 100 godzillion magazines out there. Some of them are useful to a citizen who is seeking to be informed about the world. And some of them...are not. How does one tell the difference? This week I present the first of a two-part series on How To Judge a Magazine. I look at a lot of them, as you might imagine, and I have developed a fairly straightforward method of separating the wheat from the chaff, as they say. Like a lot of things, the written explanation of how to do this analysis might seem a bit lengthy. (Those of you who have attempted to figure out a computer program by using the manual will know what I am talking about.) Once you know how to do it, however, the actual analysis can be done in, literally, about one minute. I am presenting this piece in two parts. This week I will present the theory. Maybe it’s clear; maybe it’s not. In case it’s not, next week I’ll do a few little case studies which will hopefully de-mystify the theory. Also, since I haven’t even picked out the magazines for the case study yet, I’m not even sure that the theory holds up. So I will be testing this theory right in front of your eyes. Boy, ya can’t lose with that formula: either it passes the test, in which case it will be useful information, or else it doesn’t pass the test, in which case you get to see how one goes about destroying one’s own half- baked theory. Plus you get to laugh at me. OK, on with the show. Here is: “Analyzing A Magazine in Six Easy Steps”
Think about this one in two ways. First, is it supported primarily by advertising? If it is, who is doing the advertising? Ralph Lauren and Ford Motor? Or Welna Hardware and Handi Medical Supply? Huge multinationals, or small business? This is not a knee-jerk question. In ways subtle and not-so-subtle, the desire (or need) for the advertising dollars that these companies have can influence the overall tone and focus of a magazine, even though 90% of all the editors I’ve ever heard will deny this. Magazines are sometimes supported primarily by subscribers/members, or by foundation support, or by the parent organization. It isn’t always easy to know who these people are, but sometimes this also is printed near the table of contents. Again, do you know who they are and what they are about? That’s it. I said that this whole process can be completed in one minute. Is that true? Let’s check:
See, there you go: One minute. Alright, maybe it’ll take a little longer until you get used to doing it. And, to be honest, there is some self–knowledge assumed here that can take some time to acquire. For example, have you done the work necessary to be clear on your values and beliefs? Also, are you clear on your social class, your ethnic identity, your sexual politics, and so on and so forth? Knowing yourself and your place in the larger social, economic, and political context will help enormously when you are trying to place something outside of yourself in that context. Hopefully this process will help in both of those endeavors. Next week: I test the theory. |