My Neighbors

In lieu of hearing my opinions, read this (Too Poor to Make the News), or even just part of it. If you're too lazy, it's a New York Times guest piece written about how invisible the poorest Americans have become.

The media is flushed with stories of rich and middle class people who have fallen from grace, but the working poor are losing their jobs and homes in disproportionately greater numbers as they crowd into trailers and tiny apartments and sleep on the streets. They're hard to count, hard to see, and are becoming invisible, but there's almost 40 million of them, more than 1 out of every 10 Americans, and when designing policy or making donations or arguing around the watercooler, it's important not to forget them. The gap between the middle class and the uber-rich may be shrinking a bit, but the gap between the middle class and the poorest certainly isn't as their standard of living falls to third-world levels. Unharnessed economic potential and millions of families hang in the balance as we argue about Main Street and Wall Street...but the streets aren't just places of business. They're homes and beds to far too many.

[Incidentally, this kind of makes me mad at John Edwards...he was in a prime position to help these people and do something about it--more than just handouts and stopgaps--and he had great ideas and energy, and then he screwed it all up...it's not just his own life and marriage on his shoulders. Am I crazy, or do others feel like he let a lot of people down too?]