City Journal Autumn 2004 | The Myth of the Working Poor by Steven Malanga

City Journal Autumn 2004 | The Myth of the Working Poor by Steven Malanga:
"Forty years ago a young, radical journalist helped ignite the War on Poverty with his pioneering book The Other America. In its pages, Michael Harrington warned that the recently proclaimed age of affluence was a mirage, that beneath the surface of U.S. prosperity lay tens of millions of people stuck in hopeless poverty that only massive government intervention could help."

A good article reviewing several books by trendy lefties making the fraudulent case that America's economy creates poverty rather than the opportunity to escape it. Having done a tour of duty in the War on Poverty myself, I have some professional familiarity with this topic and Malanga hits all the right notes. Highly recommended article.

If you are interested in people pursuing better ideas for helping people to climb out of poverty, a good place to start is Bob Woodson and the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise - a nice guy, exceptionally bright and doing good work. I was introduced to Woodson by the man who had been my boss at the Office of Economic Opportunity.