A Picture of Poverty

A lot of what we think we know about poverty is wrong.

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We show that 60 percent of the population between 20 and 75 will experience one year below the official poverty line, which is very conservative. And three-quarters of Americans will experience either poverty or near poverty, just above the poverty line.

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What we basically say is, sure, to get ahead in life, hard work is important. Regardless of whether you’re poor, middle class or rich, you have to put in some effort to get ahead. But just working hard doesn’t mean that you’re going to get ahead. In other words: It’s generally a necessary but not sufficient condition. There are lots and lots of people that I’ve talked to and others have talked to in our research on this that are working really, really hard. But they’re not getting ahead. And the reason they’re not getting ahead is that there are so many jobs today that don’t pay a living wage. So you can be working at these jobs full-time, and you’re still going to be either in poverty or near poverty.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...f65_story.html

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