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 Center for Economic and Policy Research
1611 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 400Washington, D.C. 20009202-293-5380www.cepr.net
 
Talking about Povertyin a Jobs and Economy Framework
Shawn Fremstad
September 2011
 
 
CEPR Talking about Poverty in a Jobs and Economy Framework
i
 About the Author
Shawn Fremstad is the Director of the Inclusive and Sustainable Economy Initiative at the Centerfor Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC.
 Acknowledgments
 This is a slightly revised version of remarks prepared for Opening American Minds to the Impactsof Poverty and the Importance of Public Solutions, a webinar held on September 7, 2011 by Public Works: The Demos Center for the Public Sector, http://bit.ly/nNqOvl.
Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 1
 
 Tell a Big-picture Story ..................................................................................................................................... 1
 
 Avoid Sending the Wrong Message ................................................................................................................ 5
 
References ........................................................................................................................................................... 8
 
 
CEPR Talking about Poverty in a Jobs and Economy Framework
1
Introduction
Reducing poverty substantially is not a small project. Unfortunately, only 1 percent of Americans
point to ―poverty‖ when asked about the most important problems facing the nation.
1
This presentsanti-poverty activists with a strategic problem: we need major policy reforms to substantially reducepoverty, but hardly any Americans
 – 
including, it must be said, those officially categorized as poor
 – 
 
 view ―poverty‖ as a major issue. The good news is that most Americans currently point to ―jobs‖ or the ―economy‖ when asked to
identify the most important problem. The poverty rate is largely determined by job availability andjob quality 
 – 
specifically unemployment, median earnings, and wage inequality, which explain mostof the trend in poverty over the last several decades
2
 
 – 
so poverty is actually best understood withina jobs and economy framework.Here are two general recommendations for doing this:First, tell a big-picture story about the relationship between policy and economic security for bothlow- and middle-income Americans. This story should highlight the role that failed conservativeeconomic policies have played in increasing economic insecurity for both low- and middle-incomefamilies, how things could have been different, and how progressive solutions will make thingsbetter for everybody.Second, avoid talking about poverty in ways that send the message that people living below thepoverty line are inherently different from people living above it. 
Tell a Big-picture Story
 A starting point here is the historical narrative the Economic Policy Institute has told in its State of  Working America reports and that has been echoed in the media by people like Paul Krugman,
3
 Robert Reich and others. A recent example is an opinion piece by Robert Reich in the
 New YorkTimes 
.
4
The chart below, part of a larger graphic that accompanied the piece, summarizes the basic
theme: the difference between what Reich calls ―The Great Prosperity‖ years between 1947 and1979 and the ―The Great Regression‖ between 1980 and now.
 
1 This figure also includes people volunteering homelessness or hunger. Gallup,
―
Most Important Problem, August 11-14, 2011,
‖
http://www.gallup.com/poll/1675/most-important-problem.aspx. When poverty is named explicitly by pollsters and people are asked
 whether they view poverty as a ―top priority 
,
‖ the numbers are much higher, but this
tends to be the case with many issues and tells us little about intensity of feeling, or whether people think about theissue at all without prompting.2 See Hoynes, Page, and Stevens (2006). For similar results, see Lang (2007). Researchers have also examined trends inCalifornia and New York City. Page and Stevens (2005), looking at
the increase in California‘s poverty rate between
1977 and 2004, found that most of the increase was attributable to an increase in wage inequality. Three factors
 — 
 wageinequality, unemployment and median wage trends
 — 
explained about 2/3rds of the increase in poverty. Similarly,Levitan and Wieler (2008) found that increased poverty in New York City between 1966-1999 was largely due to thegrowth in income inequality.3 See particularly Chapter 3 of Krugman (2007).4 Reich (2011).
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