Explaining Poverty

Stephen Steinberg’s Boston Review article “Poor Reason: Culture still doesn’t explain poverty“ is a breath of fresh air, reminding us that the path toward ending poverty is creating decent jobs for everyone.

The pervasiveness of neo-Moynihanism today is revealed by the fact that politicians of both parties talk only of the needs of the “Middle Class” and virtually never about the poor, as though the economic needs of the poor aren’t legitimate. To the extent that the poor are noticed at all, it is to justify pouring money into charter schools and privatized education, especially for African American children, at the expense of our nation’s scandalously deteriorating public education system.