Poverty is all around us.  And, sadly, the numbers struggling with poverty are growing.

In spite of “paying attention,” and planning, and successful programs, we have taken a step “back” in seeking to alleviate poverty and its consequences.  It will require an “all hands on deck” approach, one that we may not have the political cooperation, collaboration, or consensus to tackle.

That is my one paragraph summary of the message of the book So Rich, So Poor:  Why It’s So Hard to End Poverty in America by Peter Edelman.  I presented my synopsis of this book yesterday at the Urban Engagement Book Club for CitySquare.  Froswa Booker-Drew of World Vision shared her insight, and led our community conversation after my synopsis.  It was great to here from her.

The author, Peter Edelman – has focused on/worked on poverty since the 1960s:

(from Wikipedia):  a lawyer, policy maker, and law professor at Georgetown University Law Center, specializing in the fields of poverty, welfare, juvenile justice, and constitutional law. He worked for Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and for the Clinton Administration, where he resigned to protest Clinton’s signing the welfare reform legislation.

(from Wikipedia’s article on his wife, Marin Wright Edelman):  During a tour by Robert Kennedy and Joseph Clark of Mississippi’s poverty-ridden Delta slums in 1967, she met Peter Edelman, an assistant to Kennedy. They married on July 14, 1968.

One of my favorite quotes is the one by Friedrich Nietzsche,  “The essential thing ‘in heaven and earth’ is that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living.”  Peter Edelman has cared about, and focused on, issues of the poor for a lifetime.  So, agree, disagree, but listen.  The man has spent a lifetime paying close attention to a very large problem.

The book makes the case that we made great progress for a few decades, beginning in the 1960s, and now there has been a reversal, a loss, of that progress.  Here’s one excerpt of many from the book to put the numbers in harsh perspective:

…the poverty rate actually dropped spectacularly in the 1960s, going from 22.4 percent in 1959—the first year for which we have poverty statistics—to the 11.1 percent of 1973.

The number living below the poverty line has climbed way back up since the early 1970s.

Here are some of the key points, and my observations and takeaways, from my synopsis:

• The problem: 
•  We have to understand why, despite the achievements of the New Deal, the Great Society, and since, we still have so much poverty.
• Most important of those is the fundamental change that occurred in the American economy. Good-paying low-skill jobs went overseas and gave way to automation, and low-wage work became ubiquitous.
• Second is the substantial increase in the number of families headed by a single parent, usually a woman.
• Third is the fact that race and gender still matter a great deal as to who is poor and who is not.

• The three big priorities:
#1 —  jobs that yield a decent income,
#2 — a reliable safety net, and
#3 — an educational system that delivers for every child.

• Observations and takeaways:

1)    A lot of folks help/get engaged only when it is in their self-interest.
2)    A big! part of today’s problem is the disappearance of low-wage jobs.
3)    Systemically, we have “removed” way too many black males from “society” due to too-high incarceration rates.  (A man in prison does not contribute to the economy, and cannot build a family).
4)    If it does not get talked about, it probably will not be acted upon (hardly anyone uses the word “poverty” in public discourse).
5)    Sometimes, you have to change the vocabulary, and take what you can get.  (e.g., talk about “nutrition needs,” not “poverty”).

If you want to read a really good “overview” of the struggle against poverty over the last half-century, and our current challenges in this struggle, this is the book to read.