This book looks at the way we tax the poor in the United States, particularly in the American South, where poor families are often subject to income taxes, and where regressive sales taxes apply even to food for home consumption. The authors argue that these policies contribute in unrecognized ways to poverty related problems like obesity, early mortality, the high school dropout rates, teen pregnancy, and crime. They show how, decades before California's...

This book gives voice to the 57 million Americans--including 21 percent of the nation's children--who are sandwiched between poor and middle class. While government programs help the needy and politicians woo the more fortunate, the "Missing Class" is largely invisible and ignored. Through the experiences of nine families, sociologists Newman and Chen trace the unique problems faced by individuals in this large and growing demographic--the "near poor"--Who...

Covers among other topics the effects of downward mobility on families, blue collar workers, and middle class women.

The early twenty-first century is witnessing a concerted effort to privatize risk--to shift responsibility for the management or mitigation of key risks onto private-sector organizations or directly onto individuals. Proposals to reform Social Security through the creation of private accounts are perhaps the leading example, but in a wide range of areas, similar trends are now playing out. Yet, ironically, pensions and other private systems for responding...