The Top 10 Solutions to Cut Poverty and Grow the Middle Class

[applegrove]

The Top 10 Solutions to Cut Poverty and Grow the Middle Class

By Rebecca Vallas and Melissa Boteach at Center For American Progress;p

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/poverty/news/2014/09/17/97287/the-top-10-solutions-to-cut-poverty-and-grow-the-middle-class/

"SNIP..........................


1. Create jobs

The best pathway out of poverty is a well-paying job. To get back to prerecession employment levels, we must create 5.6 million new jobs. At the current pace, however, we will not get there until July 2018. To kick-start job growth, the federal government should invest in job-creation strategies such as rebuilding our infrastructure; developing renewable energy sources; renovating abandoned housing; and making other common-sense investments that create jobs, revitalize neighborhoods, and boost our national economy. We should also build on proven models of subsidized employment to help the long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged workers re-enter the labor force.

In addition, the extension of federal unemployment insurance would have created 200,000 new jobs in 2014, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Indeed, every $1 in benefits that flows to jobless workers yields more than $1.50 in economic activity. Unfortunately, Congress failed to extend federal unemployment insurance at the end of 2013, leaving 1.3 million Americans and their families without this vital economic lifeline.

2. Raise the minimum wage

In the late 1960s, a full-time worker earning the minimum wage could lift a family of three out of poverty. Had the minimum wage back then been indexed to inflation, it would be $10.86 per hour today, compared to the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour and indexing it to inflation—as President Barack Obama and several members of Congress have called for—would lift more than 4 million Americans out of poverty. Nearly one in five children would see their parent get a raise. Recent action taken by cities and states—such as Seattle, Washington; California; Connecticut; and New Jersey—shows that boosting the minimum wage reduces poverty and increases wages.

3. Increase the Earned Income Tax Credit for childless workers

One of our nation’s most effective anti-poverty tools, the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC, helped more than 6.5 million Americans—including 3.3 million children—avoid poverty in 2012. It’s also an investment that pays long-term dividends. Children who receive the EITC are more likely to graduate high school and to have higher earnings in adulthood. Yet childless workers largely miss out on the benefit, as the maximum EITC for these workers is less than one-tenth that awarded to workers with two children.

President Obama and policymakers across the political spectrum have called for boosting the EITC in order to right this wrong. Importantly, this policy change should be combined with a hike in the minimum wage; one is not a substitute for the other.




..........................SNIP"

[Thinkingabout]

1. I know many who believes corporations are bad, but to give programs aimed at creating jobs would

result in a win-win situation both for paying extra income taxes and extra money in the pockets of middle class workers who in turn puts the money back to purchasing products, the economy grows, workers are happier employed, families gets a return and a happier world.

Bring back union jobs, better working conditions, better wages, better benefits and a group effort to make a better company, another win-win situation.

[BlindTiresias]

2. Ah yes

A laundry list of shit that will never happen, very good.

[lovemydog]

3. This stuff will happen. We will make it happen

via voting, optimism and good communication.

[Iliyah]

5. ditto

And thanks for the good vibes,

Vote

[lovemydog]

9. We need all the good vibes we can share Iliyah!

So, right back atcha.

I don't see the world through rose-colored glasses. I'm often bummed out about the state of things, and how much more needs improvement. It takes a toll, as it does for everyone.

But I refuse to fall prey to cynicism. I think at the very least we owe it to ourselves and to the people we admire who have accomplished great things to never give up.

I'm enormously influenced by labor leaders, musicians, artists & people who don't give up.

Most who read and post here are similar in that regard. That's why I enjoy reading and posting here.

'People have the power.' - Patti Smith

[indepat]

4. TPTB will never allow such pie-in-the-sky, yellow-livered, pie-in-the-sky, libral-wussie-fueled

malarkey to see the light of day in this burgeoning right-wing-fueled trickle-down society where almost all the wealth and power rests with a hand full of virulently right-wing plutocrats.

[cstanleytech]

6. If the president cant get congress to raise the minimum wage I wonder

if he could use the EBT program to alteast encourage the retail chains like Walmart to raise their wages atleast say by making a rule so that if a company has over a certain % of its employees being forced to go on welfare due to low pay and or a combination of low pay and them being to few hours that the companies are ineligible then to process and or participate in the EBT program?

[rhett o rick]

7. We well know what needs to be done. What we need are representatives that will work

on the solutions. The conservative wing of the Democratic Party is not interested in any of the solutions.

[Uncle Joe]

8. I believe that's a good list of much needed, common sense reforms.

Thanks for the thread, applegrove.

[lovemydog]

10. More from this article. This should be on the Democratic Party platform!

1. Create jobs
2. Raise the minimum wage
3. Increase the Earned Income Tax Credit for childless workers
4. Support pay equity
5. Provide paid leave and paid sick days
6. Establish work schedules that work
7. Invest in affordable, high-quality child care and early education
8. Expand Medicaid
9. Reform the criminal justice system and enact policies that support successful re-entry
10. Do no harm

Conclusion
It is possible for America to dramatically cut poverty. Between 1959 and 1973, a strong economy, investments in family economic security, and new civil rights protections helped cut the U.S. poverty rate in half. Investments in nutrition assistance have improved educational attainment, earnings, and income among the young girls who were some of the food stamp program’s first recipients. Expansions of public health insurance have lowered infant mortality rates and reduced the incidence of low birth rates. In more recent history, states that raised the minimum wage have illustrated the important role that policy plays in combating wage stagnation.

There is nothing inevitable about poverty. We just need to build the political will to enact the policies that will increase economic security, expand opportunities, and grow the middle class.

Rebecca Vallas is the Associate Director of the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress. Melissa Boteach is the Vice President of Half in Ten and the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center.

[Jamaal510]

11. So simple that even a caveman can do it.

Unfortunately, our elected Republican "friends" in Congress have proven themselves to be more inept than cavemen.

[lovemydog]

13. So true Jamal510. We've got to vote those mofos out.

Direct actions, demonstrations, strikes, dropping out of big banks and corporate jobs if at all possible. And vote vote vote!

[lovemydog]

12. People have the power.

[BrotherIvan]

14. 11. Single Payer

12. Free education through all levels
13. Improve mass transit & infrastructure in all areas
14. Stop spending all our money on war

[Scuba]

15. 15. Lower the Social Security retirement age while lifting the cap.

[BrotherIvan]

16. 16. Public Banking at the post office

17. Decriminalize all drugs
18. Reward companies with US workers, help to bring companies back
19. Encourage worker co-ops with the best tax rates and subsidies
20. Publicly funded elections

[pampango]

17. 21. Progressive taxes. 22. Repeal Taft-Hartley, empower unions. n/t

[BrotherIvan]

18. 23. Pass the ERA already

24. Trade school track of education for job training across all disciplines
25. Aggressively pursue alternative energy and climate change policy