The Missing Class

by By Katherine S. Newman and Victor Tan Chen

Beacon Press. 288p $24.95

Recently, economists pointed to a small drop in the number of absolutely poor in 2006 census data. Many dispute the finding’s significance. The U.S. government’s calculation of poverty ($20,000 or under a year for a family of four) is considered by many policy analysts as a grossly inadequate measure. The proportion of Americans living in poverty has remained relatively constant in the past decades, ranging from 11 percent to 15 percent (the highest rates of any advanced industrial country). Those who do escape from the ranks of the 37 million who live below the poverty line tend to approach the precarious position of the 57 million near poor (those making between $20,000 and $40,000 for a family of four). Many of these are just one pink slip, one divorce or one major health crisis from falling back below the poverty line.

This article appears in November 26 2007.

John A. Coleman S.J., is an associate pastor at St. Ignatius Church in San Francisco. For many years he was the Casassa Professor of Social Values at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. His books and other writing have focused largely on areas connected to sociology of religion and also to social ethics. His most recent work has concentrated on issues of globalization.