We're living through an era of higher income inequality than the country has experienced since before the Great Depression. Meanwhile, most people are running in place, and those in the bottom quintile of the economy are being swept backward year… — Sasha Abramsky Copy Share Image
One of the most durable successes of the war on poverty was to dramatically reduce the number of elderly poor in America. That's still true today. But, by contrast, child poverty has shot up over the last few years: A decade ago, about 16 percent of children in America were poor - which is a shockingly high percentage. But it's… — Sasha Abramsky Copy Share
The reliance on stereotypes is in part the result of a structural problem within the media. Most newspapers have a business beat, with a number of highly trained journalists who know how to cover companies, trading, the markets and so on. But almost none have labor reporters anymore, and to my knowledge, none have full-time poverty-beat correspondents. And all of… — Sasha Abramsky Copy Share
To really tackle poverty, politicians, activists, academics will all have to think outside their boxes, will have to start developing much more integrated approaches to these problems. And a large part of this will involve working out ways to push for living wages. Partly this will involve re-empowering the union movement, which has been massively weakened in recent decades. Partly… — Sasha Abramsky Copy Share
When I talk about an "empathy bank," I don't mean literally opening up a bank and putting in deposits. What I mean is that… — Sasha Abramsky Copy Share Image
As a country, Americans have to find a way to keep our cities solvent. If large numbers of cities no longer have the necessary… — Sasha Abramsky Copy Share Image
It seems to me that large numbers of people are now paying attention to poverty and that large numbers now understand that blaming the… — Sasha Abramsky Copy Share Image
“Like a man who pinches himself to make sure he still has feeling, Chimen read to reassure himself that he was still alive.” — Sasha Abramsky Copy Share Image
Too often the media assumes that "poverty" is an African American or a Latino issue. Of course, that's nonsense. While a higher percentage of the African American and Latino population does live in poverty as compared to the white population, when overall numbers are looked at, it is clear that people of all races, ethnicities, and colors, are represented amongst… — Sasha Abramsky Copy Share
Despite all of the civil rights gains of the past several decades, when it comes to economic opportunity, African Americans and Latinos still experience far more unemployment than do whites and Asians, average wages are lower, and household wealth is lower. A smaller percentage of African Americans and Latinos attend, and complete, college, than is the case with whites and… — Sasha Abramsky Copy Share
Big cities like New York are thriving, economically, culturally, in terms of real estate values, and by a slew of other measures. Yet, at the same time, much of the country has been utterly hollowed out. In California, where I live, affluent coastal cities such as San Francisco and the Silicon Valley hubs have lower than national average unemployment, higher… — Sasha Abramsky Copy Share
Today there are a huge number of think tanks working on poverty-related issues; there are books written on the topic; and university centers being… — Sasha Abramsky Copy Share Image
I recognize that individuals and organizations with tremendous financial clout and open access to the political system in the post-Citizens United era, are going… — Sasha Abramsky Copy Share Image
