Poverty & Wealth

A higher minimum wage and the earned income tax credit fit like puzzle pieces, each compensating for the other’s flaws. Together they are our best bet to fight poverty.

R ecently, I participated in a new television program called Debates, Debates, in which two teams have an hour to argue an issue of the day. The proposition under debate that day was whether trade sanctions should ever be used to advance human rights. For the opposition, the team captain was Eugene Rotberg, former vice […]

T he city of Inglewood, population 140,000, lies in the southwest corner of the Los Angeles sprawl. It has the features of almost every other L.A. suburb-long commercial strips of burger shacks and auto body shops, low-rise neighborhoods of motel-style apartment complexes and tiny homes with tiny lawns. The city map is dominated by large […]

Continuing the debate from “Family Feud,” July-August 1997 and “Family Values: The Sequel,” May-June 1997. BARBARA DAFOE WHITEHEAD I n a review essay that purports to include my book, The Divorce Culture, Arlene Skolnick ignores what the book actually says. Instead, she falsely ascribes to me things I have never written. Let me begin with […]

W hat’s behind the declines in violent crime? The question prompts lively discussion among people coming at a huge social issue from different angles: Some point to random demographic changes, others cite lock-’em-up prison policies; still others, most recently, point to more astute policing. This debate is not exactly a replay of the old argument […]

When a rising tide lifts only a few boats.