Center For Economic and Policy Research: Mobility Agenda Report: A New Lens on Poverty and Inequality in the US
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 30, 2007
10:41 AM
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CONTACT: Center For Economic and Policy Research
Margy Waller 202-552-1713, waller@inclusionist.org
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Mobility Agenda Report: A New Lens on Poverty and Inequality in the US
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WASHINGTON - October 30 - In a new report released this week, The Mobility Agenda – an initiative of Inclusion at the Center for Economic and Policy Research – finds that analysis of polling trends over two decades shows that American views about poverty are little different today than they were during the 1980s. The tendency for Americans to blame poverty on a lack of effort has held steady, feelings toward the poor have grown slightly cooler, willingness to aid the poor has stayed the same or diminished, and racial attitudes still color support for assistance to the poor.
“Over 40 million jobs in the United States—or about one in three—pay low wages. The great majority of these jobs lack benefits such as health insurance or retirement accounts and provide little or no chance for career advancement,” said Margy Waller, director of The Mobility Agenda. “Unfortunately, traditional efforts to build support for proposals that address poverty and support low-wage workers are not working.”
Matthew Nisbet of American University, author of the new report, added, “Appeals that profile the plight of individuals, lament the ‘unfairness’ in hard-working Americans having to live in poverty, or that emphasize the moral duty to help the disadvantaged all run up against strong perceptual screens. While these arguments accurately reflect reality and may mobilize natural allies and constituencies, research suggests that such language only further reinforces individual, moral, and racial attributions of blame.”
The new report, commissioned by The Mobility Agenda and released today, Communicating About Poverty and Low Wage Work: A New Agenda, reviews research and survey work in the U.S. on how messages shape public perspectives.
The report includes a review of public opinion surveys in the last two decades and a summary of the enduring core values, stereotypes, and patterns in news coverage that anchor the public’s ambivalence about poverty. More recent research examining the communication dynamics of the 1990s welfare reform debate reveals that despite great optimism about current polling trends, American views about poverty are little different today than they were during the 1980s.
Nisbet also reviews research from early in this decade concluding that it identifies several promising alternatives to the traditional appeals on poverty. Specifically, in place of a sympathy for the poor frame, this research suggests emphasizing “responsible economic planning,” with the central issues defined as jobs, community interdependence, and collective prosperity. These new definitions closely parallel lessons from the United Kingdom’s “social inclusion” approach and are likely to be more effective in communicating to diverse audiences how structural problems in the economy and society are pulling Americans apart.
For more information including the full report and an executive summary, see http://inclusionist.org/mobility.
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