Today, more than 40 million Americans live in poverty. The problem has been addressed countless times since the nation’s founding, but it persists, and for the poorest among us, it gets worse. America has not been able to find its…
Is America a land of equal opportunity and upward mobility for all?
We ex;pre how our understanding of poverty is shaped, not by facts, but by private presumptions, media narratives, and the tales of the American Dream.
When reporting on poverty, the media fall into familiar traps and pundits make prescriptions that disregard the facts.
We examine the strengths and shortcomings of our nation's safety net.
We trace the history of welfare in America, from aid to widows after the Civil War to Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty to Bill Clinton's pledge to "end welfare as we know it."
We examine how the story of poverty gets told -- and whether media attention makes any difference.