Routledge Ending Extreme Inequality: An Economic Bill of Rights to Eliminate Poverty

Poverty and inequality are at record levels. Today, forty-seven million Americans live in poverty, while the median is in decline. The top 20 percent now controls 89 percent of all wealth. These conditions have renewed demands for a new economic Bill of Rights, an idea proposed by F. D. Roosevelt, Truman and Martin Luther King, Jr. The new Economic Bill of Rights has a coherent plan and proclaims that all Americans have the right to a job, a living wage, a decent home, adequate medical care, good education, and adequate protection from economic fears of unemployment, sickness and old age. Integrating the latest economic and social data, Ending Extreme Inequality explores each of these rights. Each chapter includes: an analysis of the social problems surrounding each right; a historical overview of the attempts to right these wrongs; and assessments of current solutions offered by citizens, community groups and politicians. These contemporary, real-life solutions to inequality can inspire students and citizens to become involved and open pathways toward a more just society. About the Author Scott Myers-Lipton, Associate Professor at San Jose State University, is the author of Social Solutions to Poverty: America's Struggle to Build a Just Society (Paradigm 2006), as well as numerous scholarly articles on civic engagement, education, and racism. For the past 20 years, Myers-Lipton has helped students examine solutions to poverty by taking them to live at homeless shelters, the Navajo and Lakota nations, Kingston, Jamaica and the Gulf Coast. He is also the cofounder of the Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign. He is the recipient of the Mover of Mountains Award from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Association of Santa Clara County and the Manuel Vega Latino Empowerment Award. He lives with his wife, Diane, and his two children, in the Santa Cruz mountains, where they are the proprietors of the Sequoia Retreat Center, a meeting space dedicated to individual and social transformation. Catalog Author Bio Scott Myers-Lipton, Associate Professor at San Jose State University, is the author of Social Solutions to Poverty: America's Struggle to Build a Just Society (Paradigm 2006), as well as numerous scholarly articles on civic engagement, education, and racism.