A person’s most direct way out of poverty is to have a job that pays a living wage. Acquiring the skills and overcoming structural barriers for some will take time. Therefore policy must focus on these pathways.
In the short run, a more robust Earned Income Tax Credit would reduce poverty for those that are able to work. For those that are not able to work, improving the generosity of disability insurance would be helpful.
Will Swaim is president of the California Policy Center, a nonprofit educational organization working to help all Californians prosper. Swaim began his journalism career as a business reporter in 1990, as managing editor and ultimately Read more…
Adam B. Summers is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He previously worked as an editorial writer and columnist at the Orange County Register and its 10 sister newspapers in the Southern California News Read more…
Mike Soubirous serves as a Riverside City Councilmember. Mike is a fourth-generation native Californian who attained the rank of Eagle Scout in 1976, joined the California Highway Patrol in 1982 and retired from the CHP Read more…