Thinking Big on Poverty (Katrina vanden Heuvel - The Nation)

[OneGrassRoot]

I adore Katrina vanden Heuvel :)


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The new report offers a comprehensive look at a record 46.2 million people living in poverty in the nation today, and lays out the key indicators within four categories that Half in Ten will track to measure progress towards its goal: overall poverty in the United States, more good jobs, strengthening families and communities and family economic security.

It ranks states according to each of the indicators, and an interactive website emphasizes the state’s bottom-ranking data to focus attention on the areas that need the most work. The report also includes a call to action which outlines a set of policies that would make a real difference in people’s lives right now.

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But there was also a sense of hope among the speakers that there is increasingly a recognition of a common struggle in our inequitable economy—whether one is a homeless parent, a college graduate with huge debt, or a 50-year-old who was laid off and sees few if any prospects for a decent job. In fact, as the report points out, more than one in three Americans now lives on less than $44,700 annually for a family of four. That makes it pretty tough—sometimes impossible—to afford the basics like housing, healthcare, food and education.That’s why more and more people are turning to the safety net who never imagined they would need to.

“For so long poverty has been isolated as a problem of someone else—it’s the people who don’t work hard, or make bad lifestyle decisions, or something,” said Ehrenreich. “You can’t do that anymore at this moment. So we have to talk about how to seize this moment.”


FULL ARTICLE: http://www.thenation.com/blog/164287/thinking-big-poverty?rel=emailNation