Socialist Progressives
Related: About this forumNew Research Reveals Hidden Growth of Extreme Poverty in America
In $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, Edin and Shaefer trace this disturbing trend to the 1996 welfare law, which has gradually but inexorably gutted the cash assistance safety net for families with children. Attention to this often neglected side of our nations extreme economic inequality is especially timely as policymakers from both parties consider reauthorizing the 1996 welfare law. As the book vividly shows, we are long overdue to take a different path one that upholds our nations values, including our responsibility to protect and empower the most vulnerable by eliminating extreme poverty.
Living on less than $2.00 per person per day is the World Banks standard for measuring poverty in developing countries. Through rigorous data analysis and in-depth interviews, Shaefer and Edin document the dramatic rise in extreme poverty since the 1996 welfare law. Similarly, research by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities confirms a rise in deep poverty income below half the poverty line, or below roughly $10 per person per day for a typical family and shows that Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), created in 1996, reduces deep poverty far less than its predecessor, Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Research shows that early childhood poverty causes short- and long-term harm, in turn posing enormous costs to our economy.
To be sure, many experience $2.00-a-day poverty for months, not years. But trying to make ends meet with such minimal cash resources can be devastating even for the shortest periods. For many families, perilous work, unpredictable work schedules, and housing instability add up to much longer periods of destitution. Through story after story, Shaefer and Edin show how the inability to afford basics like personal hygiene items and transportation, combined with insufficient work and meager public benefits, can drive people towards abusive relationships, precarious housing, mistreatment by employers, and impossible choices between breaking the law and feeding a child.
How did we get here, and how do we get out?
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Phlem
(6,323 posts)Where does the money come from that the rich are swimming in? eesh.
Maybe because of decades of Neo-Liberal policies intertwined with Republican policies?
Check who donates to which politician. It's enlightening.
ion_theory
(235 posts)Look at the people actually writing the laws...We used to live in a country that had the government write the laws, but now we just outsource legislation to be written by private interests. Sometimes written by the company who's schemes created the need for the law in the first place. Game is rigged from the bottom up anymore.
TBF
(34,162 posts)I saw this myself when I worked in law firms in Washington DC (and that was back in the 90s - this is nothing new). The lobbying firms write legislation with help from private law firms and then it is delivered to Capital Hill. Drafts go back and forth. Then you see some of it actually passed as laws. It's something else. Whenever Congressional hearings are held (at least about high profile topics) the aides from lobbying and or law firms are there picking up hand outs and attorneys are there making comments. It is all very intertwined and attorneys go back and forth between private and public sector all the time.
ion_theory
(235 posts)legislation by corporation, and the 1%. It drives me absolutely bat shit crazy when people can't make this simple connection.
ion_theory
(235 posts)Either they are horribly 'un' and misinformed so cannot understand it or they just don't want to believe it. Take my father for example. Hardcore right-wing capitalist. Took me years to start to convince him what is really going on and it wasn't actually until I talked to him about Bernie in April and he has watched this movement unfold that he connected the dots. Unfortunately, we don't all have the time to do that with everyone so just gotta do it with who we can.