At The Mobility Agenda, we track media coverage of poverty
proposals. We thought you would be interested in these new links to
articles representing a classic example of what happens when poverty is
invoked to support policy proposals.
This Manhattan Institute article, Getting Poverty Wrong, and the media followup is a good reminder that we will not achieve the policy results we seek (note the list of Obama proposals attacked in the article) with a conversation that makes people think about poverty.
When we use this frame, we inevitably get a response from our
opponents that goes straight to the place Bill Cunningham does in this interview: “…they’re poor because
they lack values, morals, and ethics.” At another spot in the interview he argues that “…unlike
many countries in the world, Steve, we have fat poor people. We don’t
have skinny poor people. Ours are fat and flatulent.”
Lowlight:
“CUNNINGHAM: Steve Malanga — the article is
”Obama’s counterproductive war on poverty.“ The war on poverty was declared in the 1960s. It was lost
in the 1970s. The funding continued for poverty. You know, people are poor in America, Steve, not because they
lack money; they’re poor because
they lack values, morals, and ethics. And if government can’t teach and
instill that, we’re wasting our time simply giving poor people money.”
For much more, including suggestions for alternative approaches – check out our page on reframing poverty:
http://www.mobilityagenda.org/reframingthepovertydebate
Click here for another interview online. In this one, Malanga implicity
attacks attacks Community Action Agencies and other nonprofits, making
an all too familiar “poverty pimps” argument.