Blog #5 Working Poor

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 has done little in helping families below the poverty line. Chaudry states that “we are asking the least fortunate to strive and work harder, we are deeply discounting our public responsibility for the children born into poor families and disadvantaged communities” (p. 14). I think that what she means is that by having women, and men, strive to meet specific work requirements in order to receive family assistance, they are actually putting their family in distress. Women are working so hard that they have no other choice but to leave their young children in an environment that they know little about or that is damaging to their mental, and their physical wellbeing, like Annette with her son Aaron (Chaudry, 2004). Annette had no idea what her son was doing while she was away at work. Then, she was so busy that she did not even have time to talk with her son or the childcare provider about it. When families actually start to get ahead and make more money, their assistance goes down, housing goes up, and they just go around in circles. It is like the “Living with a Hole in your Pocket” video stated, “it’s a vicious cycle” living payday to payday trying to make ends meet.

One of the main things that I really liked about the videos for this assignment was that the people being interviewed did not blame other people for the troubles. When asked what solutions the people would implement to help the working poor, the answers did not resolve around “they need to work harder” or “they are not trying hard enough to find work”. The interviewee’s responses were about political changes. Some suggested taxing rich people, to not outsource jobs, to make health care universal, and to raise minimum wage. I tend to agree with the gentleman in the “Working Poor” video. Raising minimum wage rates would just result in the costs of everything else being raised. It is obvious to me that something needs to be done to help not only the people living under the poverty line, but also the working poor who have to make the choices of what to pay for this month and what they can do without (Poverty in America), I just don’t know what to do.

Professor Newman touches on four important aspects to the working poor that need to be addressed. These issues are debt, education, childcare, and healthcare. The working poor know how important education is, but they do not have all the resources to help them. Many kids are left alone for hours and hours while parents are working. And even if parents are working they cannot afford healthcare or their employers do not offer it. I found it really interesting that she looked at the working poor as being success stories. Most of these people came from below the poverty line and are succeeding (on some level) now. I can understand where she is coming from, but I wonder how many of these people feel like they are succeeding while they are trying to make ends meet.