(Kathryn Edin, PhD) The typical thing that triggers
a spell of extreme poverty
is the loss of a job.
People who,
with just a little bit of support,
could have some stability
are spiraling down into situations
that are really harmful for kids.
And, what that means is that
their lives sort of fall apart.
[suspenseful music]
(Kathryn Edin, PhD) Rae McCormick grew up
on the west side of Cleveland
Her father died when she was 12 years old,
and her mother
fled with a lover to the hills.
A landlord who was a friend of her father's,
let he go without paying rent.
But she was essentially living alone.
The only thing she had to live on
was her father's Social Security check.
She hits 18,
she has a child,
and a Supermart - Walmart comes to town,
and she gets a job.
She's absolutely committed
to being a worker.
Her father always worked.
She sees her work as testament
to his influence.
[cash register beeps]
And she says: "I'm going to set as a goal
be named cashier of the month."
[cash register beeps]
So begins observing what
other cashiers are doing,
the things that slow them down.
She notices that
the tags would fall off the produce,
and you have to look up the barcode,
and type it in.
So she gets it in her head that she's
just going memorize all these barcodes.
So she has this little pad by her register
and writes to them all down.
Then, when she returns home,
she reads these into the recording device
that's on her phone.
And then as she sleeps,
she puts earphones on, and puts
this recording device on continuous play.
In the first six months, she is named
cashier of the month, twice.
But then, one day, she's been paying
this extended family to use the truck.
[truck door closes]
She gets into the truck
and the gas is gone.
Nobody in the household has any money
to put in this truck for gas.
[engine starting]
She has no more money
for another two weeks.
So she's pannicked, then she calls in
her manager at Super Walmart.
And he says: "if you can't bother to find
a way to work...
.. don't come back in.
So, this is just crushing!
This starts Rae's spiral into poverty.
We need a safety net that truly is
the springboard for work because
the low-wage labor market of 20 years ago
was much, much better than the low-wage
labor market of today.
Employers have virtually no
loyalty to their employees.
they'll lay you off for weeks,
and then bring you back.
This is fine if you're hiring teenagers,
you know, but these are parents
So, this is devastating to Rae.
So, she toughs it out,
she keeps looking for work, she toughs it out.
Finally, she decides
she's gonna go to the Welfare office
because she's got this little girl
to take care of.
Each time, she was diverted;
"honey, I'm sorry.
There are so many needy people in Ohio,
we just don't have enough to go around,
come back next year".
A lot of times, you end up having
moral discussions about the worthiness
of the poor.
Are these lazy people?
And, as society is growning more unequal,
and we've become more residentially segregated,
it's easier to other the poor.
Almost all of the poor are workers.
They believe in the American Dream too,
but they're people who are vulnerable.
Rae is, I think, a striking example of
how somebody just begins to collapse
under the weight of bad luck,
and no hand-up.
We're producing a lot of really bad jobs
that can't sustain families,
and are corroding the promise of America,
that if you're willing to work, you shouldn't be poor.
We need to help families find a way
to transition from one job to another,
in a way that doesn't lead to
the spiral into housing instability,
homelessness and so on.
[emotional music]