This Week in Poverty: An Antipoverty Contract for 2013?

[xchrom]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/172287/week-poverty-antipoverty-contract-2013


Students line up for lunch in Waterbury, VT. (AP/Toby Talbot)


This past year I’ve had the opportunity to cover the antipoverty movement—and I do believe it’s a movement—it’s just a little too much of a well-kept secret right now.

But I think in 2013, the people and groups at the forefront of antipoverty thinking and action are poised to reach a much wider audience, and gain far greater popular support.

That’s in part because the movement is led by organizations and individuals who have been fighting poverty for decades, and they offer solutions that are grounded in empirical data and the everyday experiences of millions of working Americans and families.

In contrast, the opposition to antipoverty reform relies largely on tired stereotypes, myths and prejudices—that low-income people are lazy and don’t want to work; that they only want handouts, or to live off of welfare; that antipoverty policies have failed; and, most recently, that we can’t afford these investments.

But an economy that is short on opportunity and concentrates wealth in the hands of a few is coming into focus. The interests of low-income people and a shrinking middle class are converging—everyone wants fair pay, a shot at a good education and an economy defined by opportunity and upward mobility.

[In_The_Wind]

1. Poverty hurts.

Low income people work harder just to keep food on the table.

[Cobalt Violet]

2. I never hear them talk about raising the minimum wage.

3 time in 30 years is unacceptable. I don't see why this isn't more thought to be a more important issue than it is.

[MrYikes]

3. step one, equalize the income disparity

nothing else should be done until that is accomplished. We would lose focus if we tried anything else.

step two. mental health issues resolved. Nothing else to focus on until completed.

step three. when the first two are done, there will be no need for a step three.

[Demo_Chris]

4. Repost this with the word "guns" somewhere in the title

Twenty million hungry kids isn't really that important to most, sadly. It's not like THEY are hungry.

[Dragonfli]

5. I miss Bobbolink.......

..I consider her a friend, as well as a person that understands what we go through.

I was on my own and quite poor at 15, stayed that way and homeless until my early twenties, spent years among the working poor. Even after things improved and I had what most would consider a "normal life", I always remembered and I knew I could be just as cold and hungry again in this mostly sociopathic society.

Now I am poor again because I am no longer able to do the highly skilled labor required by the wealthier home owners that are privileged and clueless in there McMansions.
(physical reasons, illness)

I will be homeless soon, I am poor again, and this after thirty years of working harder than most and being among the most skilled among those in my trade. It is worse for many that have been unable in their area for many different reasons to work in skilled trades and must rely on service jobs, until they have worked with them and been one, people likely have no idea that these people are among the hardest workers in the world and are rewarded by a life in poverty, and when we are older and sick but not old enough to collect our SS, most end up like me, or dead.

I miss Bobbi, she understood and cared;

not to say that you don't Xchrom, your posts show your empathy, she had the empathy but also the perspective of one of us.