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The paradox of poverty amidst plenty - namely, that the wealthiest country in the world also has the highest rates of poverty among the industrialized nations - has plagued the United States throughout the 21st century. In 'The Poverty Paradox', Mark Rank, one of the nation's leading authorities on the subject, offers a unique analysis to arrive at a compelling answer and from there he suggests potential policy solutions.

"Towards a Livable Life: A 21st Century Agenda for Social Work explores many of today's most critical issues facing America and the profession of social work. A wide range of leading social work scholars have been brought together to explore and provide innovative solutions to these societal issues. The book is organized around ten key topics. They include reducing health disparities; alleviating poverty; confronting discrimination; addressing inequality; building assets for lower income populations; preventing child maltreatment, fostering civic engagement; building healthy communities; achieving environmental justice; and engaging older adults. Tying the book together across each of these chapters is a foundational idea - that the focus of today's social work must be to enable every individual to achieve what is referred to as a livable life. A livable life is one in which individuals are able to thrive and develop in order to reach their full potential and capacity. Whether the concern is with the household, community, or society at large, striving toward conditions in which all members of these groups can reach their full potential is paramount. It is argued that achieving such a goal must be the ultimate challenge for social work in the 21st century"--

Despite its enormous wealth, the United States leads the industrialized world in poverty. This book unravels this disturbing paradox by offering a radically different understanding of American poverty. It represents a profound starting point for rekindling a national focus upon America's most vexing social and economic problem.

In this compelling look at the lives of welfare recipients, Mark Robert Rank shatters many of the myths commonly associated with the system and its participants. Living on the Edge considers three questions: Why do people turn to welfare? What is it like to survive on these programs? And what can we as a society do to address this critical issue? Based on ten years of research, the book follows individuals and families as they apply for and live on public aid and eventually leave the system. Rank's chronicle of their day-to-day experiences reveals the many sacrifices and crises that tax ordinary people in extraordinary ways. Beginning with a history of welfare from Roosevelt to Clinton, he focuses on AFDC and the Food Stamp program. He then describes the backgrounds of the recipients, their hopes for the future and attitudes toward welfare, their daily routines and problems, their work behavior, and the effect of welfare on family dynamics. Living on the Edge reveals the experiences of female-headed families, married couples, single men and women, and the elderly. Interviews, extensive data, and Rank's firsthand observations of the welfare system puncture the stereotypes of assumed laziness and apathy. By concentrating on a wide range of individuals and families, Rank depicts a side of the welfare experience rarely seen and dispels the myth that only the urban underclass - the center of most policy debate - struggles on welfare. Rank's juxtaposition of numbers and faces alerts us to the fact that welfare recipients have much in common with the rest of us. His frank analysis allows us to see beyond the common biases to the fundamental constraints and forces in our society that push so many people to life on the edge

Attributing poverty to individual failures cannot explain the mountainous gap between the rich and poor in this country. Instead, the author argues, Americans must realize that structural constraints cause there to be "winners" and "losers." In the end, we all pay the price for poverty in the U.S.

Few Americans see poverty as a normal state of affairs. Yet most will experience poverty and will use welfare at some point in their lives. How can this be, and how does (or should) it change the way we look at poverty in the United States?