Stop kicking people when they’re down

Barbara Ehrenreich, as always, hits the nail on the head in her observations on the tenth anniversary of Nickel and Dimed:

So what is the solution to the poverty of so many of America’s working people? Ten years ago, when Nickel and Dimed first came out, I often responded with the standard liberal wish list — a higher minimum wage, universal health care, affordable housing, good schools, reliable public transportation, and all the other things we, uniquely among the developed nations, have neglected to do.

Today, the answer seems both more modest and more challenging: if we want to reduce poverty, we have to stop doing the things that make people poor and keep them that way. Stop underpaying people for the jobs they do. Stop treating working people as potential criminals and let them have the right to organize for better wages and working conditions.

Our most recent round of political ineptitude (both nationally and in Minnesota) is leading us down a path of meanness, in both senses: both stingy and malicious. Ehrenreich has also observed that “America’s substitute for decent wages has been easy credit,” but of course that all dried up a couple of years ago.

What to do about the immiseration of the working class (I suppose I’m sounding like an old Marxist again …) has not been on the priority list of either party for many years. Indeed, the policies that both parties agree on tend to maximize rather than minimize the immiseration.

I for one am glad that Ehrenreich’s books (Bright-Sided and Bait and Switch are worthy companions to Nickel and Dimed) are still out there, but I’m very sorry that they’re even more timely than ever.