A Rising Tide Only Lifts All Boats When Everyone Has a Boat

Wednesday, 27 August 2014 14:58
By The Daily Take Team, The Thom Hartmann Program | Op-Ed

President John F. Kennedy once said about economic development that "a rising tide lifts all boats." Kennedy was, of course, right, but he missed something really, really important: A rising tide only lifts all boats when everyone has a boat.

This has never been clearer than it is right now. According to a shocking new study out of the Brookings Institution, around 12 million Americans survive on less than $2 per day. To put that number in perspective, 12 million people is about about 25 percent of the 46.5 million people living under the poverty line and about 4 percent of the U.S. population as whole.

Poverty statistics are notoriously difficult to work with, but that doesn't change the fact this Brookings study is really, really disturbing. 12 million people living on less than two measly dollars a day in the richest country in the history of the world isn't just shameful, it's also the sign of policy failure of the highest order.