Bookmarks: Disgusting smells provoke conservatism • Race and upward mobility • Affordable housing issues in Baltimore
———— ♦ ————
Tags: Science, Conservatism
Research subjects exposed to the smell of vomit displayed a pronounced shift of attitudes toward the right.
The Improbable Research article over-emphasizes the Biblical inerrancy question. Researchers surveyed participants on a wide range of liberal-vs.-conservative issues, and the two on which results were most outstanding were Biblical inerrancy and gay marriage.
Question: Do you, yourself, notice an odor of vomit, as you read this?
———— ♦ ————
Tags: Race, Self-esteem, Self-love, Upward mobility, Wealth creation, White privilege
The author charts differences in upward mobility between blacks and whites.
The evidence challenges what I said in “My Homeless self: White ‘resentment’ and black power:”
The gist of the educational sociology course I took in 1976 was that upward mobility fundamentally does not happen. For anyone. The schools are a vast sorting machine that functions to assure each child stays in the same socio-economic status (“S.E.S.”) as its parents.
It also challenges this remark in the same post:
I observe no difference between poor blacks and poor whites — not in circumstances, nor attitudes, nor behavior patterns, nor obstacles to prosperity.
The difference may lie in the oxymoronic effect of belief in “white privilege,” which blacks may internalize as self-loathing; with disastrous effects.
Related: Chaos overwhelms the poor Related: Courage to walk unarmed Related: Jamarion Lawhorn update
If I understand the charts correctly, there is an alarming incidence of downward mobility: only 32% of whites born into the top 20% remain there at age 40, whereas 10% of those whites born there will have fallen to the bottom 20%.
It would seem to me that more study is needed as to what factors enable anyone to become adept at wealth creation. The author does conclude, “Upward mobility is a much harder climb than it would seem.”
———— ♦ ————
Tags: Affordable housing, Dual diagnosis, Homelessness
This is another issue I wish I could devote more time to.
The headline misleads: it’s not just the homeless who are in question, and they may not be the best residents for those homes anyway. There are thousands of non-homeless families in Baltimore in dire need of affordable housing. They may be “doubled-up” with other families, often in violation of the host’s lease; or being evicted from one residence after another because the rent is more than they can actually afford.
Putting homeless folk into those homes offhand seems a no-brainer, but I don’t think it’s that simple. Who’s going to pay the rent and utilities? Don’t these people need incomes as well?
(There is currently a program being pushed among homeless folk that will get you a place for rent 30% of your income. Fine. My current income is zero.)
The two policy approaches I would prefer are (1) creation of living-wage jobs and (2) finding ways to make the affordable-housing market profitable. The latter depends heavily on not just the elimination of blight, but of the people who create it.
Related: Danny keeps breaking up his phones.
Back to the article:
We start at the church where the group meets before it begins its surveys, and walk down an alley where vacant homes have been turned into a community garden.
I am well acquainted with that church — and that garden.
Related: A real church in a real ‘hood Related: Nemesis of the morning glories
Even in the gutted streets of McElderry Park, where drug dealers still sell on some corners, Simmons and others have noticed green signs posted on the buildings lately. “For Sale: Finished, The Homes at Griffon Station,” they say, even though they are posted on plywood-covered doors and burnt out houses. Simmons says he suspects the signs are related to nearby John Hopkins University, which is constantly expanding its footprint in the city.
The reference is actually not to Johns Hopkins University, but Johns Hopkins Hospital. I don’t know where those green signs come from, or whether their posting on such houses is lawful. But Griffon Station isn’t hard to find: The Homes at Griffon Station. This is a project of HEBCAC, which name puts a knot in my stomach as HEBCAC has most often seemed to conduct itself as an agent of JHH in matters of highly controversial approaches to land use and housing.
Oh, brother: http://homesatgriffonstation.com/?page_id=36
(Reblogged 2020-05-07.)
Comments