Week Nine
Many of the things we can do for the working poor involve legislation. Because it is much cheaper for society to pay for communal needs than individuals, enacting things like universal health care and subsidized early childhood education and higher education increases families' disposible income, which provides more funds for saving and both keeps more people in the work force and allows access to higher paying jobs. Things that especially benefit single mothers and people are subsidized food, housing, health care, child care, and transportation (mothers are responsible for transporting their children and selves to work, school, and activities). In "No Shame In My Game: The Working Poor in the Inner City," Katherine Newman discusses various examples of creative initiatives that are location specific that target the working poor and help them build connections that open the doors to higher paying work, such as "Bridges to Work" that transports people from areas with few job opportunities to more wealthy areas. Systemitizing the movment of young people from school to work through programs in which teacher monitor students academic performance and set them up with jobs or in which students alternate between school and the work shop are also valuable in insuring the future of our young people and have extra positive side effect such as decreased teen pregnancy.