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Wanting more for the working poor

  2013 is the year many Americans discovered the crisis of the working poor. It turns out it’s also the crisis of the welfare poor. That’s tough for us: Americans notoriously hate welfare, unless it’s called something else and/or benefits us personally. We think it’s for slackers and moochers and people who won’t pull their weight. So we’re not sure how to handle the fact that a quarter of people who have jobs today make so little money that they also receive some form of public assistance , or welfare – a proportion that’s much higher in some of the fastest growing sectors of the workforce. Or that 60 percent of able-bodied adult food-stamp recipients are employed. (“Poverty nation,” Joan Walsh, Salon.com) - - - - - DanielGree There are two aspects that have come together.  One is punitive Calvinism which I have been writing about for years. The other is the lefts denigration of work. There was a time when work working for fast food places was smeared not beca...