End extreme inequality , Weds, Aug 19 at 7:30pm in Palo Alto

[Alison H]

ENDING EXTREME INEQUALITY

An Economic Bill of Rights to Eliminate Poverty

An Author Presentation By
SCOTT MYERS-LIPTON
Professor of Sociology, San Jose State University

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 7:30 PM
First Baptist Church, Parlor Room, 305 N. California Avenue, Palo Alto

Poverty and economic inequality are at record levels. Today, forty-seven million Americans live in poverty, while middle class incomes are in decline. The top 20 percent now controls 89 percent of all wealth. These conditions have renewed demands for a new economic Bill of Rights, an American idea proposed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Martin Luther King Jr.

The new Economic Bill of Rights has a coherent plan and proclaims that all Americans have the right to a job, a living wage, a decent home, adequate medical care, a good education, and adequate protection from economic fears of unemployment, sickness, and old age.

Integrating the latest economic inequality and social data, this new book explores these rights. Each chapter includes an analysis of the social problems surrounding each right, a historical overview of the attempts to implement these rights, and assessments of current solutions offered by individuals, civic organizations, and politicians.

These contemporary, real-life solutions to economic inequality can inspire students and citizens to become involved and open pathways toward a more just society.

Dr. Scott Myers-Lipton is a Professor of Sociology at San José State University, and is the author of Ending Extreme Inequality: An Economic Bill of Rights Approach to Eliminate Poverty (Paradigm 2015), Rebuild America: Solving the Economic Crisis through Civic Works (Paradigm 2009) and Social Solutions to Poverty: America’s Struggle to Build a Just Society (Paradigm 2006), as well as numerous scholarly articles on civic engagement, education, and racism.

He founded the successful effort to raise the minimum wage in San Jose´ from $8 to $10, and the Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign, an initiative to develop 100,000 prevailing wage jobs for local and displaced workers after Hurricane Katrina. He has worked to help students develop solutions to poverty by taking them to live at homeless shelters, the Navajo and Lakota nations, the US Gulf Coast, and Kingston, Jamaica.

Dr. Myers-Lipton is the recipient of San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP Social Justice Award, the Elbert Reed Award from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Association of Santa Clara County, and the Manuel Vega Latino Empowerment Award.

Free & open to all <> Contributions requested <> Wheelchair accessible

Copies of Ending Extreme Inequality will be available to purchase at this event, or you can order in advance from Dr. Myers-Lipton’s website.