It’s truly shameful that a new report finds nearly 52 percent of us Arkansans live in a constant state of financial insecurity. That means more than half our residents have little, if any, savings in case of an emergency or to use toward building a better life.

Yeah, I know, reports and studies and percentages can prove mighty boring. But some also can provide a relevant snapshot of what we are-and aren’t-doing to collectively lift ourselves upward.

This same report by the Corporation for Enterprise Development contends that state policies do little to improve financial security for those in such dire financial conditions.

Wait, you mean to tell me that elected government in a private, free-enterprise economy doesn’t help improve our overall financial condition?

The study describes our many financially insecure as “liquid asset poor.” In English that means they don’t have enough savings to cover fundamental living expenses for up to three months should they endure a health problem or lose their job. The financially insecure are included in the large group of Arkansans who scratch out their existence beneath the official poverty line of $23,550 for a family of four.

On a ranking of the states in similar condition, ours falls near the bottom at number 43. At least that’s better than last year’s showing of 46th.

It’s also sad to realize that, according to these findings, nearly a third of Arkansas households that annually bring in between $43,000 and $76,000 have been unable to set back a three-month cushion for inevitable emergencies. In other words, there apparently are lots of citizens in our former Land of Opportunity obviously living on the edge in 2014.

Back on the highway

I return momentarily to that flap over our Highway Department’s narrowing of Interstate 540 from 12-foot to 11-foot-wide lanes to accommodate safety for the workers now widening the busiest highway in Northwest Arkansas. There have been plenty of motorist complaints about the resulting barriers that tightly confine motorists.

Following my Sunday column about such concrete claustrophobia, others wrote to question the logic of installing expensive safety-cable barriers along this interstate only to soon tear them out in widening the highway … then replace them when the work is completed this fall.

A Rogers reader named John explained the frustrations this way: “It truly bothers me the way money is wasted on this interstate. No wonder our country’s financial position is in a mess. How can anyone with an ounce of sense spend so much money on the cables, concrete and sod, then rip it all up in less than 2 years to install a drainage system so the road could be widened?

“Are you telling me no one in the state, county or city knew in advance of the widening project? I find that hard to believe. More taxpayers’ money wasted … Then, after 540 is widened, those cables, concrete and sod will be replaced. How utterly ridiculous.”

So I returned to my new email buddy, Randy Ort, who speaks for the department, for a response.

“To address your reader,” Ort said, “yes, we consciously decided to install the cable barriers knowing that, at some point in the coming years, most, if not all, the cable systems would be replaced. In some areas, the cable barriers are only remaining in place a little over one year, but in others they will be in place about six years. We believe using federal safety funds (which can only be used on specific projects that address specific safety issues, not normal road or bridge projects) on the cable-barrier systems along I-540 was a good use of taxpayer dollars, and we believe lives have been and will be saved because of the barriers.”

Well, Randy, I certainly agree these median safety cables can save lives. Installing them was a wise move. But that’s not the question.

Ort added: “We will never receive 100 percent acceptance on any project. So regardless of our explanations, some will agree and some will disagree. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to explain our reasoning.”

With the unfortunate level of public frustration and overall dissatisfaction that’s become obvious with controversial governmental decisions ranging from permitting a hog factory in our national river’s sacred watershed, to approving SWEPCO’s enormous 345-kilovolt transmission line through the pristine Ozarks, to this latest experience with interstate decisions, I can kinda, sorta understand why.

Listen for ‘meows’

Parents, take heed-if you hear your teenager talking about “meow meow,” chances are they aren’t imitating a cat. That’s the name for an amphetamine-type of stimulant drug with effects similar to those produced by cocaine when swallowed, sniffed or smoked. Police in the U.S. became familiar with meow meow several years back, although you don’t hear much about it. Also called MCAT, this garbage has been declared illegal in Europe and in the U.S. since 2011. Nonetheless, it’s become increasingly popular on the street.

Hate to be a tattle-tale, but as a parent and grandparent, I believed you should know.

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Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected]. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.

Editorial, Pages 15 on 02/04/2014