Sacramento Head Start Alumni Association

MAKING A BETTER CASE FOR GOOD POLICIES

Oct 18, 2002

**New Opportunities
Images of the "undeserving poor" have decreased in current public policy debates, offering advocates new opportunities to build a public consensus to establish the reduction of poverty and economic insecurity as goals for welfare reform, according to an updated report from Demos USA.

While long-standing disagreements about the causes of poverty endure, the public is aware that many jobs do not pay enough to keep a family out of poverty. Most Americans support policies that make work pay from raising the minimum wage to providing health care. Eighty-one percent believe that "the working poor should be eligible for the same kinds of help [as] people who are making the transition from welfare to work."
http://www.demos-usa.org/Pubs/POReport2/

**Responsibility and Opportunity
Recent public opinion research by Douglas Gould and Company on issues affecting the low-wage workforce suggests that current media coverage?—which typically profiles individual workers and their struggles?—is counterproductive to building support for better workforce policies. When faced with these stories, the public expects the individual to fix the situation themselves. While arguments that rely on values like opportunity, fairness and responsibility can help build support for individual policies, these gains are ?“likely to be hard-fought and short-lived?” unless there is a concerted effort to introduce a new systematic way of thinking about low-wage work and the economy. E-mail Dgould@douglasgould.com for a free copy.