The Three Biggest Right-Wing Lies About Poverty [View all]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Three-Biggest-Right-Wi-by-Robert-Reich-Economy_Jobs_Lies-Republican_Poor-140613-89.html



The Three Biggest Right-Wing Lies About Poverty
By Robert Reich
OpEdNews Op Eds 6/13/2014 at 20:51:30

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Lie #1: Economic growth reduces poverty.

"The best anti-poverty program," wrote Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, in the Wall Street Journal, "is economic growth."

Wrong. Since the late 1970s, the economy has grown 147 percent per capita but almost nothing has trickled down. The typical American worker is earning just about what he or she earned three decades ago, adjusted for inflation.

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Lie #2: Jobs reduce poverty.

Senator Marco Rubio said poverty is best addressed not by raising the minimum wage or giving the poor more assistance but with "reforms that encourage and reward work."

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But simply having a job is no bulwark against poverty. In fact, across America the ranks of the working poor have been growing. Around one-fourth of all American workers are now in jobs paying below what a full-time, full-year worker needs in order to live above the federally defined poverty line for a family of four.