Ending Poverty As We Know It: Guaranteeing A Right To A Job

1 Why a Right to a Job at a Living Wage?

1 Why a Right to a Job at a Living Wage? When it shall be said in any country in the world, my poor are happy; neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive; . . . when these things can be said, then may that country boast of its constitution and its government. —Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man There are approximately thirty million people in the United States who are working full-time but earning poverty-level wages. In addition, there are approximately fifteen million people who are either out of work or working part-time but would like to be working fulltime . Historically, the first response to poverty has been to advise the poor to work. But if the poor are already working or cannot find a job, what’s the next response? Usually, silence. And because of that silence, more and more people join the ranks of the poor. There is, however, a solution. By amending our Constitution to guarantee every person the right to a job at a living wage, we can end poverty in America. A surprising amount of support exists both for a guaranteed right to a job and a guaranteed right to be paid a living wage. The need for such a national commitment is real and growing, and implementing a constitutional solution to poverty in the United States is possible. In my twenty-plus years as a lawyer and law professor, I have come to know hundreds of poor people by representing them in legal matters and working with them on issues such as public housing, public education , health care, living wages, and welfare reform. As a teacher, I have discussed poverty and economic justice issues with thousands of others . Since I live in the South, many of the people with whom I discussed these issues are deeply conservative. As a result of these experiences, I have learned something about how people, both the poor and those better off, think and feel about poverty. 3 4 Chapter 1 Fundamentally, the vast majority of us believe in the American dream—that people who work should be able to support a family and build for the future. We also tend to think that work—the historic path that many Americans have followed to a more affluent life—is the way out of poverty. While I applaud the sincerity of these beliefs, as a longtime student of poverty issues I know that they simply are not true. However, if we understand poverty as it truly exists in our country, we can end it for every person able to work. To do so, we will have to scrap a number of myths about poverty that stand in the way of positive change. First, ask yourself two questions: •Do you think that every person who wants to work should have the opportunity to do so? •Do you think that every person who works full-time should earn enough to be self-supporting? For years now I have posed these questions to audiences in places as varied as housing developments, church cafeterias, union halls, and university lecture auditoriums. No matter where I ask them, the responses have always been same: •Everyone who wants to work should have the opportunity to do so. •Everyone who works full-time should also be able to support his or her family. These are things we all believe. But there is a big problem. Poverty is much more widespread than most people understand. Poverty is not confined to inner-city welfare recipients—it extends to many who work but cannot afford health insurance, to those who work but still have to rely on churches or other charities for food. Tens of millions are working but still cannot afford health insurance and housing and child care and food and transportation. Many can afford some of those needs, but most cannot afford all of them. We need a new definition of poverty that reflects reality. People are poor if they cannot take care of themselves and their children without help. That is what real poverty is, and we need to recognize it. Once we recognize what poverty is and how widespread it is, we need to do something about it. I think most people are willing to do something about poverty, but since they have been told so often that...