Katherine Newman - The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America

Beacon Press
25 Beacon Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02108-2892
www.beacon.org

Beacon Press books
are published under the auspices of
the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.

2007 by Katherine S. Newman and Victor Tan Chen

All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America

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This book is printed on acid-free paper that meets the uncoated paper ANSI/NISO specications for permanence as revised in 1992.

Text design and composition by Wilsted & Taylor Publishing Services

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Newman, Katherine S.
The missing class : portraits of the near poor in America / Katherine S. Newman and Victor Tan Chen.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8070-4140-6 (pbk: acid-free paper)
eISBN: 978-0-8070-4141-3
1. Working classUnited States. 2. PoorUnited States. 3. PovertyUnited States. 4. United StatesEconomic conditions. I. Chen, Victor Tan, 1976II. Title.
HD8072.5.N487 2007
305.560973dc22 2007013553

For Phillip Selznick,
mentor, teacher, and friend

K.S.N.

To my parents,
for their sacrifice,
and to Emi, for her love

V.T.C.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

Throughout our countrys history, books have held the power to capture the American imagination and spark historic social and political change. A half century ago, for example, Michael Harrington published The Other America and introduced readers to millions of people living in poverty in inner-city housing projects, Appalachia, and rural America. In the 1960s and 1970s, our nation launched a war on poverty that helped move millions of Americans out of poverty and into the middle class. But today, thirty-seven million Americans still live in poverty. While we were able to make some important progress, much more work remains.

In the pages that follow, Katherine Newman and Victor Tan Chen give us insight into anotherand much largerforgotten group of people they call the near poor or Missing Class. Fifty-four million near-poor Americansincluding one in ve childrenlive in households earning incomes between $20,000 and $40,000 for a family of four. They live at 100 percent to 200 percent above the poverty line but just one pink slip, divorce, or health crisis away from the edge. They are less likely to have a savings account or own a home or other assets that soften the blow of a nancial crisis in middle-class families.

Ask them about a tax cut for the rich, and they will shrug and get back to work. A total of 1.6 million Americans fell into personal bankruptcy in 2004. In fact, more people le for bankruptcy than graduate from college each year. Plenty more fear they will be next.

Through meticulous research over a seven-year period, Katherine and Victor tell the personal stories of nine families in four New York City neighborhoods. Youll nd yourself, as I did, rooting for each and every one of them. Their grit and determination are extraordinary. In sharing their lives and struggles, these families have done more to educate the nation than any set of statistics or government report ever could. Policymakers, journalists, think tanks, and people of good conscience everywhere must take notice and begin the challenge of building an America that works for all of us.

When we set about xing welfare in the 1990s, we said we were going to encourage work. Near-poor Americans do work, usually in jobs that the rest of us do not wantjobs with stagnant wages, no retirement funds, and inadequate health insurance, if they have it at all. While their wages stay the same, the cost of everything elseenergy, housing, transportation, tuitiongoes up.

As youll see in the stories that ll this book, the near poor work hard to provide for their children and to take care of their elderly parents. In fact, they are the backbone of our economy. They work in transit, construction, nursing-assistance, cooking, trades, retail, and even teaching jobs. If they belong to a union, they are more likely to have benets.

Yet, Missing Class families are far from stable or secure. If they have a setbacka layoff, an illness, an unanticipated expense or lossthey risk joining their cousins and neighbors living in poverty. The near poor are susceptible to predatory lenders, credit-card debt, and oppressive mortgages with unfair interest rates. They struggle to nd money for a childs tuition or simply to get time off work to get a checkup that they will have to pay for in cash. They need a helping hand to start to put money away or to recover from the lost income of a spouse sent overseas in the National Guard or Army Reserve. Their dreams are simpleto nd affordable housing near decent schools, to hold a steady job, and to give their children opportunities they didnt have.

For generations, America has been the land of opportunitythe place where if you worked hard and played by the rules, you could get ahead. Unfortunately, millions of Americans are working just as hard or harder but still struggling to make ends meet.

In recent years, the nations leaders have abandoned working families. By focusing on those who need help the least, leaders in Washington, D.C., have made things worse for everybody else. When President George W. Bush talked about an ownership society, he meant that the more you own, the more you get. For most Americans, his approach has meant that the more you work, the more you pay and the less you make.

This book is about more than nine families. Its about the millions of people who hold down two or three jobs, put in long hours, and struggle to nd time to read to their kids and help with their homework. Its about the people who have made it out of poverty, but for how long? We have a responsibility to apply what we learn about their struggles and begin to create an economy that works for all Americans, not just the privileged few.

I cannot think of any more signicant test of leadership than the challenge of improving the circumstances of Americans living in poverty and the Missing Class living at the edge of poverty. Katherine and Victor identify solutions, such as stimulating home ownership and other forms of asset building, creating better employment opportunity in underserved communities, and improving the benets that go along with those better jobs. They focus correctly on starting education earlier, making it more thorough, and increasing college enrollment and the chances for graduation. As Americans, we all must do our part. The rst step is educating ourselves. In writing The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America, Katherine and Victor have done America a tremendous service by bringing these issues to light.

I hope that people across the country read The Missing Class and take it for exactly what it isa call to action to change America. If we care about our national community, we must accept this great challenge. We know that no one succeeds on their own. We know that when one person is down, it drags us all down. This is not something we do for them. This is something we do for usfor all of us.

Like other books that transformed our nation, The Missing Class will inspire us to work for an America that doesnt ignore those in need and lifts up those who wish to succeed. It will move us to hold our government accountable for ignoring the suffering of so many for far too long. It will stir us to build the America that we have dreamed ofwhere the bright light of opportunity shines on every personan America where the family you were born into or the color of your skin never controls your destiny.