Stars, Wonks Focus on the Fact That One in Three Americans Lives at or Near Poverty

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http://billmoyers.com/2014/01/13/stars-wonks-to-focus-on-the-fact-that-one-in-three-women-lives-at-or-near-poverty/

Stars, Wonks Focus on the Fact That One in Three Americans Lives at or Near Poverty
January 13, 2014

Largely overlooked in the debate about poverty in America are the huge numbers of our fellow citizens who sit on the cusp of destitution – just a lost paycheck or unexpected medical bill away from joining the 46 million who struggled to get by beneath the poverty line last year. And despite claims that gender inequality is largely a thing of the past, working women and their children make up a disproportional share of those on the brink.

This week, researchers at the Center for American Progress (CAP) join forces with journalist Maria Shriver and big-name stars to shed light on this sorry reality. The Shriver Report — with chapters by CAP economist Heather Boushey, Barbara Ehrenreich and National Domestic Workers Alliance’s Ai-Jen Poo, along with Beyoncé, LeBron James and Eva Longoria — is titled, “A Woman’s Nation Pulls Back from the Brink,” and is being rolled out with much fanfare.

Maria Shriver writes:

The most common shared story in our country today is the financial insecurity of American families. Today, more than one in three Americans—more than 100 million people—live in poverty or on the edge of it. Half of all Americans will spend at least a few months churning into and out of poverty during their lifetimes. This economic immobility and inequality is a systemic and pervasive problem that President Barack Obama recently described as “the defining challenge of our time.”

The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink reveals this national crisis through the eyes of women. In an era when women have solidified their position as half of the U.S. workforce and a whopping two-thirds of the primary or co-breadwinners in American families, the reality is that a third of all American women are living at or near a space we call “the brink of poverty.” We define this as less than 200 percent of the federal poverty line, or about $47,000 per year for a family of four…