When it comes to poverty, both liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans have it right.

That's according to David K. Shipler, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Shipler told the Deseret Morning News editorial board on Wednesday that liberal Democrats see poverty as a "product of societal failure in major institutions," and conservative Republicans tend to see poverty as a "product of individual failure."

"Both are right," said Shipler, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his book "Arab and Jew."

"If liberals and conservatives would sit down at the same table and put together all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzles they carry around with them and assemble them all, they'd have a full picture of the problem."

The growing problem of poverty and the U.S. welfare system is the focus of Shipler's book, "The Working Poor: Invisible in America."

Shipler will speak today at an event sponsored by the Voices for Utah Children.

The former New York Times reporter spent seven years interviewing farm workers, illegal immigrants, drug addicts and business owners in his study of the low-wage workforce.

Most are working hard, but in low-paying, dead-end jobs. If they miss one day stocking shelves or as a cashier, they will likely lose their jobs. These "invisible poor" despair of finding a better way of life, he said.

"When you fail again and again, you feel completely devoid of competence," Shipler said. "Maybe they don't think they are important enough to matter."

During the course of his interviews, Shipler said he found that most people wanted to move off of welfare into a better life. The problem is most are uneducated and work in service-oriented fields, where opportunities for promotion are few.

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Shipler said the decline in manufacturing jobs has taken its toll on the working poor. "Life is a little more fragile than we'd like to think," Shipler said.

Some working poor take advantage of the welfare system, and others proudly decline any sort of government handouts, Shipler said. But many don't know that help is really out there.

"There are people who are eligible that aren't getting money," Shipler said. "Because of budget shortfalls, it's in the interest of the government not to have everyone who's eligible receiving benefits."


E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com

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