OUR FIFTY MILLION POOR

In: Commentary, Band 28, Heft 1, S. 19-27

Abstract

By even the most conservative official definitions, close to a third of the nation is living at econ levels which, as a 1956 Congressional resolution put it, 'are below the prevailing standards of adequacy.' More gloomily, these millions are today living at income levels permanently, not temporarily, depressed. The aged, the unskilled workers, the migratory workers, & the non-white minorities constitute the vast majority of the 50 million Americans who represent the hard core of impoverished that did not escape from poverty to the LMc in the last decade. In large measure poverty is a separate culture with its own way of life. Our lack of concern with poverty is part of the temper of moderation that has ruled our policies for the past 2 decades. J. A. Fishman.