by Professor Dennis Shaughnessy
An important new book has been published called “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America”. The authors Kathryn Edin and H. Luke Shaefer explore the long underpublicized and now shocking story of extreme poverty right here in the US. More than 1.5 million families, including three million children, live on less than $2.00 a day per person (Rosen, 2015). Many would call this “third world poverty”, yet its right here in this country, from the Mississippi Delta to the South Side of Chicago.
That fact that millions of American live in extreme poverty simply flies in the face of the bedrock belief that we as Americans care for the least among us.
While many are familiar with the statistic that there are 45 million people living in poverty in the United State (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014), this “ultra-poverty” segment has largely been ignored in the ongoing inequality debate. It is nearly impossible to believe that millions of American survive on almost nothing, living on the fringe of society with no resources, little support and few advocates.
While the roots of this tragedy lies in the phasing-out of so-called “welfare” in 1996 for a temporary alternative available to few, the solutions are not so clear. Of course, the best anti-poverty tool is a job, combined with the education and training necessary to work productively. But in a period of declining workforce participation and a slowing in the rate of job creation, the challenge has never been greater to create sustainable jobs at living wages for those with the least education and the most daily life challenges.
This book is a must read for people who believe that each of us has a moral obligation to help create opportunity for others while insuring that children are given the chance to live a decent life. Understanding the problem in the full light of day is the first step.
References:
Rosen, R.J. (2015). A Study of the 1.5 Million American Households With Practically No Income At All. The Atlantic.
United States Census Bureau (2014). Poverty: 2014 Highlights. Web: https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/about/overview/.
