Mountain Views News          Saturday, May 15, 2010

10 

OPINION

 Mountain Views News Saturday, May 15, 2010


HAIL Hamilton 


STUART TOLCHIN 

THIRTY YEARS A CANYONITE

Mountain Views

News

Publisher/ Editor

Susan Henderson

City Editor

Dean Lee 

Sales

Patricia Colonello

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Allison Kirkham

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Richard Garcia

Photography

Jacqueline Truong

Lina Johnson

Contributors

Teresa Baxter

Pat Birdsall

Bob Eklund

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Stuart Tolchin

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Hail Hamilton 

Rich Johnson

Chris Bertrand

Mary Carney

La Quetta Shamblee

Glenn Lambdin

Greg Wellborn

Ralph McKnight

Trish Collins

Pat Ostrye

Editorial Cartoonist

Ann Cleaves

Webmaster

John Avery 

Is America Is 
Becoming a 
Third World 
Country?

 In response to my last article discussing connections, my newly- arrived 
neighbor across the street requested that I share my experience of living in 
the canyon for the last thirty years. In an e-mail he explained that perhaps 
this information would assist him and his wife to move a step closer to 
becoming full-fledged canyonites. That night around midnight, my dog 
started barking wildly. I awoke and looked out my window and there was 
my neighbor standing with a flashlight, allowing his dog to relieve himself while waking 
up half the neighborhood. Yes, my neighbor was becoming a true canyonite in that he was 
managing to disturb his neighbors without even realizing it.

 Perhaps this irritation at neighbors’ inconsiderate behavior is the inevitable result of being 
jammed together in a small area while having the unrealistic expectation of continuously 
enjoying the peace and quiet of our hillside sanctuary. I remember thirty-two years ago 
when I first discovered the canyon and decided I had to live here. This discovery occurred 
one weekday afternoon when I left my El Monte office and decided to go hunting for the 
lost city of Sierra Madre. It was 1979 as I drove up Santa Anita Ave. (Double-double Drive 
to the natives) and saw the sign pointing to Sierra Madre. I drove along the Boulevard and 
turned on Mountain Trail and encountered the serenity and beauty of the City. Thirty plus 
years later I still experience this feeling as I drive up the hill and view the mountain and the 
lovely foliage, especially on those days when the magical purple jacaranda leaves appear. 

 Even without the jacaranda, every day driving up the hill is beautiful and I can feel the 
relaxing of tensions that have accumulated during the day. I will forever remember that 
first day of discovery. I followed a car as it turned right on Sturtevant and then drove along 
Woodland, finding myself within the wondrous canyon. On Woodland I chanced upon a 
stone house (now long-since destroyed by earthquake) and saw a group of five or six people 
partying in front of the house. I got out of my car and joined the party and after a short 
time realized that the party-goers were going somewhere to receive their food stamps I 
didn’t need the food stamps but I was in great need of relaxation and decided this was the 
place for me. 

 Within a very short time I purchased a house for $60, 000 from a man amazed that I was 
willing to pay so much for a 650 foot cabin, notwithstanding it’s unique spectacular view 
which I enjoy to this day. I moved in during a very hot summer on July 3. The next morning 
I followed people walking down the hill and discovered the surprising and raucous Sierra 
Madre Fourth of July parade. The parade displayed marchers from Fort Sierra Madre, the 
Sierra Madre surfing society and concluded with a spectacular water dowsing from the 
fire-trucks. What a wonderful city! Unfortunately, it turned out that in these pre- central 
air-conditioning days, my flat-roofed cabin was made uninhabitable because of the heat. 
I did a lot of walking around in those days and observed that all the houses were very 
modest and looked much like they looked in the 1920’s when most of the houses, or cabins, 
were constructed. A good percentage of the homes were inhabited by renters who made 
few improvements to the property. Large packs of unleashed dogs roamed the canyon at 
will and their messes were everywhere. Over the years, many things changed. As loans 
became available, homeowners made improvements and began bothering each other with 
the sounds of electric saws and construction. Different kinds of people moved in and the 
block-parties ended; so did the ubiquitous 99-cent week-end breakfasts. Dogs no longer 
roam unleashed and people clean up after their pets. Home owners began suing each other 
over sight-lines and other kinds of disputes. Homes are continually enlarged and then left 
almost empty as marriages break up.

 All true canyonites, after enlarging and improving their own properties, oppose any 
further development within the city. Except when driving fast ourselves, we warn other 
drivers to drive more carefully. In most ways, even though everything has changed, nothing 
has changed. We all still get on each other’s nerves and probably yearn for a simpler life. 
But we have to live somewhere and this surprising, secret place containing deer, bears, 
coyotes, raccoons, parrots, squirrels, and occasional owls is probably preferable to just 
about anywhere else; or, at least seems to be in the minds of all true canyonites. That’s our 
town, neighbor, and I hope you and your wife enjoy it! 

 A recent study entitled The Measure of America, produced 
by the American Human Development Project, provides a 
wealth of data demonstrating the profound and deepening 
social decay of the United States. The result is a portrait 
of America that shows much of the country’s population 
living in conditions that are closer to the Third World than 
to the American Dream.

 Some startling facts about recent developments in the 
quality of life in the U.S. include:

• Our healthcare system is not in the top five 
countries with high quality care for its citizens 

• We are the only developed country that does not have 
paid childcare following birth

• Nearly 47 million of us (20 percent of the population) 
still have no health insurance; 25 million of us are 
underinsured (despite the new health reform legislation)

• We now have 664,000 people who are homeless and 
another 1.6 million people who use some type of shelter 
or housing program at least once during the year

• The infant mortality rate in the United States remains 
higher than that of other developed countries

• We have more per capita debt than any other 
developed country

• Of the 30 wealthiest nations, we have the highest 
proportion of children living in poverty

 

 Furthermore, United States has the highest disparity of 
income in the developed world, and has become the most 
unequal society of all industrialized nations. The gap 
between rich and poor has widened more rapidly than in 
most other countries over the past 20 years. 

 Something economists call the Gini index indicates how 
much the income distribution differs from a proportionate 
distribution (one where everyone would have the same 
income; for example, 20 percent of the population would 
hold 20 percent of the income, 40 percent of the population 
would hold 40 percent of the income, etc.). The Gini index 
varies from 0 to 1, where 0 indicates perfect equality (a 
proportional distribution of income), and 1 indicates 
perfect inequality (where one person has all the income and 
no one else has any).

 So the higher the number, the more wealth inequality 
there is. For most advanced industrial economies, the 
Gini number is pretty low. According the the CIA World 
Factbook, the lowest Gini score in the world is Sweden’s, 
at .23, followed by Denmark and Slovenia at .24. The next 
20 countries are all in either Western Europe or the former 
Communist bloc of Eastern Europe. 

 The EU as a whole is at .307. Russia has the highest number 
in Europe (.41); Portugal is the highest in Western Europe 
(.38). Japan is at .381; Australia is .352; Canada is .321. 
And then there is the United States, sandwiched between 
Cote d’Ivoire and Uruguay at .450. Not counting Hong 
Kong (.523), the US is a complete loner among developed 
countries.

 Obviously, the US is far wealthier than any of the countries 
to which it is being compared; but it’s striking to see the 
US fit a pattern which, outside of the US, is exclusively a 
phenomenon of the underdeveloped world. 

 But does this mean America is becoming a third world 
country? Well, not necessarily--not yet, at least. But it 
should give some context to comparisons of wealth between 
societies. For instance, the GDP per capita in the US is 
one of the highest in the world. But more of that wealth is 
concentrated in the hands of relatively few people, meaning 
fewer people (relative to that high per capita GDP) are 
well-off. In other words, the country has become wealthier 
because rich people are getting richer while everyone else 
treads water. 

 That’s what’s been going on in the US for the last couple 
decades. It’s a sign of decline, but not an irreversible one; 
the US doesn’t have to become a third world country. The 
current economic crisis, in large part brought about by 
wealthy elites mishandling their economic power, might be 
just the thing to start turning the trend around. 

Mountain Views News 
has been adjudicated as 
a newspaper of General 
Circulation for the 
County of Los Angeles 
in Court Case number 
GS004724: for the City 
of Sierra Madre; in Court 
Case GS005940 and for 
the City of Monrovia in 
Court Case No. GS006989 
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Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com