Newman, who has written or co-authored 12 books, has focused much of her scholarly work on the lives of the working poor and mobility up and down the economic ladder.
"Conservatives insist that poor adults got where they are because they haven't the brains to do better, lack the moral fiber to restrain their sexual urges, or have succumbed to the easy out-of-state support that, we are told, puts people on the federal payroll for having children out of wedlock. What fails to register in the national imagination is the fact that the vast majority of poor people do work for a living."
If I asked you how many times you have made a joke about never working at McDonalds, what would your answer be? My answer would be....a lot. But these people hold jobs that no one else wants, yet we all depend on.
"The ones [jobs] that pay with minimum wage try the strength and patience of anyone who has ever tried to hold them and subject their incumbents to a lingering stigma. Hamburger flippers, bed-makers, bedpan cleaners."
According to Newman, there are around 30 million people in the US that fit the description of working poor.
"They are as far from the shiftless stereotype as one can imagine. Their full-time, year-round earnings are so meager that despite their best efforts they can't afford decent housing, diets, health care or child care. Apart from the Earned Income Tax Credit--perhaps the most important antipoverty program of the past twenty years, now threatened with dismemberment--we've devoted precious little attention to support of the working poor."
I realize I am quoting a lot in this blog today, but Newman is really hitting the nail on the head. The working poor are hard workers. And we as a society, don't give this class enough credit why? Because of the small percentage that sheds bad light among this class. Let's open our eyes and mind to the true life of the working poor, not the stereotype.
