What is Classroom to Capitol?
A resource for social workers, instructors, and students in the areas of community organizing, policy analysis and advocacy, and organizational development--a tool in your quest for social justiceFollow Classroom to Capitol
Search This Site
SUBSCRIBE
@melindaklewis on Twitter
- I'm particularly excited about #4! brookings.edu/blog/up-front/… 2 years ago
- We need all of these policies--for the middle-class, for redeeming the American Dream, and for our shared future. brookings.edu/blog/up-front/… 2 years ago
- Looking forward to talking about these ideas in Orlando with @OxUniPress this week! twitter.com/OUPEconomics/s… 2 years ago
- Talking about the book with college students is a particular joy! kansan.com/arts_and_cultu… 2 years ago
- RT @OUPPsychology: Currently in America there is a more than 30% gap in college graduation rates by family income. Find out more. #educatio… 2 years ago
Melinda Lewis
social policy, social work, advocacy, and community organizing analysis and commentary
USE AGREEMENT
All materials on this site, except those explicitly credited to other sources, are the creation and property of Melinda K. Lewis. Visitors to this site are encouraged to use these materials for their advocacy and their own learning, and may share these materials as desired to further the pursuit of social justice. The author only requests that all materials obtained from this site, including presentations, documents, and images, be credited to Melinda K. Lewis, and that others be directed to this site for additional information. No material from this site may be sold or used for any commercial purposes without the express written permission of Melinda K. Lewis.Disclaimer
Melinda Lewis takes full responsibility for the content featured directly on this blog. This site is in no way affiliated with the University of Kansas or its School of Social Welfare. The opinions and commentary contained here are those of the author alone, who makes no claim to speak on behalf of other students, faculty, or administration at the School.networked blogs
The Poor Will Always Be With Us
This might not be an April Fool’s Day post like I’ve done some years, but there’s definitely a trick.
Because, really?
Are we going to allow ourselves to believe that ‘nothing works’ in combating poverty, and, so, resign ourselves to a large population of those without, when there is evidence all around us that policy makes a huge difference in the lives of vulnerable people?
We must not.
When I talk in class about how reductions in poverty among older adults serve as evidence that policy can fight poverty, and, then, that it’s our failure to invest similarly in other populations, not lack of any ideas about what might help, that explains the perpetuation of poverty among, say, single-female headed households, I can almost see the lightbulbs going off.
Similarly, the economic expansion of the late 1990s, fueled in part by deliberate policy changes, showed that even child poverty is amenable to targeted intervention. Improving the Earned Income Tax Credit (lowering the eligibility age, providing a more adequate benefit to childless workers) would reduce poverty among working Americans whose economic instability has significant ripples in our social conditions.
SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits lifted 4 million Americans out of poverty in 2012; cuts to eligibility in many states will have a direct effect on poverty rates.
Social Security keeps more than 12 million Americans out of poverty each year, and there’s no reason we can’t see similar outcomes from investing in a concerted anti-poverty approach for younger Americans, too.
This is an adaptive problem, not a technical one.
We need political will far more than new ideas.
And we need to stop ignoring problems and then concluding–when we turn around to see the mess we’ve created–that these problems are intractable, instead of very definitely human-made.
If we don’t, we’re being made fools of.
And not just today.
Share this:
Like this:
Related