In "Putting Children First," author Ajay Chaudry agrues that, based on the welfare system in the United States, that while "we [society] are asking the least fortunate to strive and work harder, we are deeply discounting our public responsibility for the children born into poor families and disadvantaged communities" (14). His point of view is the product of, first, legislation passed under President Bill Clinton, called The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). This reform set forth the requirement that, in order to receive welfare benefits, one must first have a job.
The videos from this section that identify the working poor support Chaudry's perspective that the issue of poverty is a public one and not simply a personal problem because so much of the population is in the category of "working poor." This means that although they get by, many are in debt because, as Professor Katherine Newman notes, they try to keep up with the proverbial Joneses. Additionally, they must work more, longer hours, at jobs where healthcare is probably not provided. Making ends meet and living check-to-check is a way of life for people who are not bordering the poverty line. Because the group of people that compose the "near-poor" or "working poor" was 53 million Americans as of 2007, according to Newman, this cannot be simply written off as a private problem. It is obviously a wide-reaching issue that is also reflected in the current economic climate: People bought things they could not afford, and which their jobs could not pay for. This class of working poor issue touches women, men, married, single and divorced. These people become trapped in a seemingly unbeatable system where they cannot make enough money to truly be safe or comfortable in the world. When such a large group of people are being affected aversely by their attempts to improve their station in life by either working more or receiving welfare, the issue has to be the system in which they participate, and not they, themselves, as cogs within it.
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I agree with you that it is the system that we are in that is making it increasingly difficult for the working class and the near poor to provide for our own families. When over 57 million people are in this category in the riches nation in the world there is obviously a problem bigger than the people themselves. On a personal note, I just learned last week that my health insurance coverage will increase by about $50 a month. Now, I consider myself very fortunate because I do have it but paying close to $400 a month for healthcare is unfathomable for the working poor. I am pro-health care and I firmly believe that all the American people deserve a level playing field so that they can provide for their own families with livable wages and basic health care coverage. In the videos for example, we saw the mother of four working for minimum wage without the prospects of looking for a better job because the transmission is out on her car and she cannot afford to fix it because that would mean taking money away from rent that would otherwise provide a roof over the head of her four children. The bus driver lady working two jobs without paid time off, no sick days, and no health care is a recipe for disaster if she becomes ill. Why should she have to go to work sick or go to bed hungry for missing one day of work? This is absurd!
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