She added, "Congress always pushes block grants versus direct grants- with more money to homeowner subsidies than housing for the poor."
Wanda, from West Virginia, wondered how Senator Manchin blocked child tax credits for poor families, which for its short time in existence cut child poverty in half- when many families in that state have "for a hundred years lived without water or plumbing. They don't know better- it's not advertised."
Sandy said we need to fight "tipflation": She said., "Americans resent that employers pay unfair wages" and effectively "ask customers to make up the difference".
Marjory asserted that :"interest rates of credit cards are exorbitant- 20-29%, but if you are short on food, you use a credit card." She added, "We used to have usury laws to stop exorbitant interest rates. Who gets rich from interest rates? Banks."
Wanda put it together: "If you can fight the government, fine. But if you can't, the next person must help. It's the moral thing to do."
Desmond demonstrated that there is a major racial element to poverty, including disproportionate justice enforcement and imprisonment.
The book catalogues the details on every point.
Brenda urged that "everyone in any organization should read this book". All in the Club agreed, as the book urges, "We have to be 'poverty abolitionists.'"
Robert Weiner is a member of the PuLSE Institute National Advisory Board, a former Clinton and Bush White House spokesman, former Spokesperson under Chairman John Conyers for the House Government Operations and Judiciary Committees, and senior aide to Cong. Charles Rangel, Ed Koch, Sen. Ted Kennedy, and Gen. Barry McCaffrey.
Patricia Berg, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita at the George Washington University, former senior fellow at the National Institutes of Health, elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Senior Editor and Chief Scientist for Robert Weiner Associates News and Solutions for Change Foundation, and Weiner's wife. Both Dr. Berg and Weiner are members of the Camp Springs Seniors Book Club.
(Article changed on Dec 17, 2023 at 2:39 PM EST)
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