Barbara Ehrenreich, author of the acclaimed Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, talks about her latest project to fund investigative journalism focused on poverty in the United States and the financial reality of being part of our nation's working poor.
Download mp3 at www.archive.org
2 comments:
I'm not surprised at all. I'm a Canadian and we have much more camaraderie in our society, but as austerity and restraint become more accepted around the world, people everywhere have to act up for the rights of the poor. They aren't just those lazy welfare queens and addicts on the streets--they are our relatives as well as Barbara'a. The 99% have all the armies, and the money for the best tools of violence, so revolution will have to be non-violent, but extremely vigourous. Occupy and The Economic Hardship Reporting Project are some of the ways. Nothing is as revolutionary as an idea whose time has come.
the whole concept of a "welfare queen" is totally false. the vast majority of people on welfare are
1. employed 2. white and 3. do not stay on welfare for very long. and addicts on the streets aren't "lazy" - they are typically down-and-out people dealing with a predisposition to mental illness which they self-medicate because they don't have adequate support and/or healthcare. i'm a u.s. citizen (been living abroad in Turkey for about a year now) who agrees with the first commenter that the u.s. is one big lie. i like to think there are some great things about the place where i grew up, but i am increasingly doubtful on that score. i'm hoping for a major revolution...
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