I came to the conclusion this year that I’m a member of the working poor. Sadly, I’m not alone and, because of that, I’m surely becoming an antipoverty activist.
Many will argue poverty doesn’t exist in the western world and that we have to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and find work. Well, there’s a sobering reality out there that most postsecondary students know all too well.
The US Department of Labor suggests that in 1978 a college student could work a minimum wage job all summer long to pay for the next year’s tuition and fees, plus 50 percent of that year’s rent. By today’s standards, you would have to continue working another 4.5 months more just to cover tuition and fees.
While colleges have managed to find clever ways to raise tuition in response to declining government subsidies, they don’t address the growing social inequality that most political pundits would have us ignore.
The prevalence of a part-time, lower-paid workforce is even more distressing for those on razor-edge budgets.
Far too many friends of mine have suffered years of indignity due to precarious employment or unemployment, income or social assistance, mental illness or disability, high student-loan debt coupled with consumer debt, and so forth.
Trickle-down economics really isn’t what we need. Fairer distribution of wealth ensures society’s continued success.