Poverty has changed in America. Being poor doesn't mean you live in a shelter. $35,000 a year is not enough to raise a family. What do you think is enough to sustain a household? The article "Overwhelming Evidence that Half of America is in or Near Poverty" by Paul Buchheit, and published on Alternet gives some statistics on what modern poverty is in America. What are your thoughts?

Original photo: Housing is a Human Right March by Annette Dragon.

The Charles Koch Foundation recently released a commercial [3] that ranked [4] a near-poverty-level $34,000 family among the Top 1% of poor people in the world. Bud Konheim, CEO and co-founder of fashion company Nicole Miller, concurred [5]: "The guy that's making, oh my God, he's making $35,000 a year, why don't we try that out in India or some countries we can't even name. China, anyplace, the guy is wealthy."

Comments like these are condescending and self-righteous. They display an ignorance of the needs of lower-income and middle-income families in America. The costs of food and housing and education and health care and transportation and child care and taxes have been well-defined by organizations such as the Economic Policy Institute [6], which calculated that a U.S. family of three would require an average of about $48,000 a year to meet basic needs; and by the Working Poor Families Project [7], which estimates the income required for basic needs for a family of four at about $45,000. The median household income [8] is $51,000.

The following discussion pertains to the half of America that is in or near poverty, the people rarely seen by Congress.


Click after the flip for more.

Robert Reich connects the dots to show how a range of positions, on issues ranging from the minimum wage to unemployment insurance to food stamps, work together to keep poor and working families in desperate situations -- and calls on all of us to do something about it.

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So you think you've been getting raises at work every year for cost-of-living adjustments? This clip shows otherwise...

Clip from Inequality for all

INEQUALITY FOR ALL features Robert Reich—professor, best-selling author, and Clinton cabinet member—as he demonstrates how the widening income gap has a devastating impact on the American economy. The film is an intimate portrait of a man who's overcome a great deal of personal adversity and whose lifelong goal remains protecting those who are unable to protect themselves. Through his singular perspective, Reich explains how the massive consolidation of wealth by a precious few threatens the viability of the American workforce and the foundation of democracy itself.

Part of building any substantial movement for social change is collective learning. To be more effective, more thoughtful, and more inspired activists and organizers, we need to always challenge ourselves to learn more and discuss our thoughts with one another as they relate to our efforts for social justice. 

This Praxis article was submitted by Bill McCoy. 

Let's Get this Class War Started

Published on Monday, October 21, 2013 by TruthDig.com

by Chris Hedges

“The rich are different from us,” F. Scott Fitzgerald is said to have remarked to Ernest Hemingway, to which Hemingway allegedly replied, “Yes, they have more money.”(Image: internationaltimes.it)

The exchange, although it never actually took place, sums up a wisdom Fitzgerald had that eluded Hemingway. The rich are different. The cocoon of wealth and privilege permits the rich to turn those around them into compliant workers, hangers-on, servants, flatterers and sycophants. Wealth breeds, as Fitzgerald illustrated in “The Great Gatsby” and his short story “The Rich Boy,” a class of people for whom human beings are disposable commodities. Colleagues, associates, employees, kitchen staff, servants, gardeners, tutors, personal trainers, even friends and family, bend to the whims of the wealthy or disappear. Once oligarchs achieve unchecked economic and political power, as they have in the United States, the citizens too become disposable. [more after the jump]

Why unions need to join the climate fight

Today might have been the day for BBQs and parades but keep in mind the ongoing struggles of workers who are fighting for dignified employment and a living wage!

14 Worker Struggles To Pay Attention To This Labor Day

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