“As poverty and low-wage work become more and more widespread – with much recent labor force growth occurring in poorly paying, dead-end jobs – it is striking how little is being said about the poor and those on the edge of poverty,” writes Dan Glickman, former USDA Secretary and board chair of the Food Research and Action Center. Coverage of poverty in 52 major mainstream news outlets amounted to less than 1% of available news space, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. At the same time, Congress has held few hearings on hunger, bad housing, homelessness and other indicators of poverty and its consequences. Glickman outlines solutions to the poverty gripping the U.S. – increasing the minimum wage, strengthening work supports and the earned income tax credit, the child tax credit, Medicaid and SNAP. These programs “have succeeded in keeping millions of Americans healthier, out of poverty and free of hunger.”
Source: US News and World Report, 5/1/13, Poverty
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