People who helped to create the American Dream must have access to living it....

Maine Writer:  Although my family benefits from the American dream, I am painfully aware about how the opportunities we enjoy, being access to food, clean water, housing and medical care, are not available to others. For example, my husband delivered a donated modest bag of food and personal hygiene supplies to our local food pantry, in Maine. Rather than donate to a food drive, he took the bag directly to the pantry. His brief donation visit caused him to became completely aware about food insecurity and economic inequities. The line waiting to enter the food pantry consisted of elderly who, obviously, lived day to day, on fixed incomes. Those standing in line are not benefiting from the prosperity shared by my family. Sometimes, I get the feeling from fine people I know that real money doesn't exist anymore, because those around us are buying houses with cash and without regard for appraised values. Others, who we don't see, are frozen out of their rentals because of the soaring costs of housing.  With so much spendable money infused in the American economy, it is incredible to me that this level of inequity exits. This following essay published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, written by three social scientists, offers a proven plan to improve life for those who are experiencing the nightmare of waiting in line at the food pantry, or who are forced to accept free food or forgo paying rent because they cannot afford to go to the supermarket; or not buying their medicine because they cannot afford to pay for health care. 

Opinion echo, published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel by 

David Feingold, Roger Feldman and Rongal Watson.

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”, Emma Lazarus. 

Unfortunately, Americans have come to accept poverty as a normal part of American life. We see it everywhere: uncounted homeless and destitute neighborhoods, food banks and shelters, in rural and urban communities.

Actually, this is not normal, and it is not necessary.

Although poverty affects people of every kind, the stark history of the Black community is notable. For generations, most Black Americans have been forced to live in segregated neighborhoods that lack decent housing, quality education, sufficient goods and services and adequate public health and safety measures. Mass incarceration for nonviolent crimes and acts of desperation has further destroyed the lives of millions of Black men and torn families apart.

The residents of minority neighborhoods perform society's hard, dirty and underpaid work. Now they are “essential workers” in a pandemic — exposed to COVID-19 at much higher rates than the affluent and very rich whom they serve. It has long been this way, and it remains so.

Brown and black people attaining middle-class life also experience racism. Any minority person may be arbitrarily stopped by police and face the risk of harm, even death. Far too often, they are seen as dangerous targets unworthy of equal respect or protection. Here, too, racism has taken root and found a home.

It is crucial that violent and excessively militarized policing be ended and disproportionate law enforcement funds moved to other community needs. Racist imprisonment must end. However, even effective police reform will still leave the underclass living in broken neighborhoods.

A new Marshall Plan

Americans who live in poverty are in need of a Marshall Plan, and the money to fund a plan is worth the investment because they and their ancestors helped to build the opportunity society called the "American Dream"... AKA, "Bring me your tired...your poor...".

Ending racism is a fundamental goal, but it will not be achieved without ending poverty for people of any color. A unified program must equally benefit all in need, in service to this greater goal. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan makes a significant down payment toward alleviating poverty — such as increasing unemployment aid and expanding the child care tax credit. But more is needed.

To end poverty, America needs a domestic Marshall Plan. 

The original Marshall Plan, implemented in 1948, invested billions of dollars to rebuild European nations devastated in World War II. Some of those nations did not deserve our country's massive expenditure to rebuild their lands. They had slaughtered entire communities and brutally killed American soldiers to impose false racial superiority and gain world domination. 

Nonetheless, Americans helped rebuild their shattered nations. This was a truly wise, generous and remarkable act.

While billions of dollars were sent to Europe, America’s impoverished continued to struggle within an unjust society. Soldiers who had served with distinction in segregated units were denied access to jobs and wealth when they returned from the war.

A new Marshall Plan would mobilize resources from all levels of government — federal, state and local — each level doing what it can to end poverty within its sphere. Some funds will come from militarized and excessive police budgets.

But government support is not sufficient. Most of the nation’s wealth is held in corporate and other private hands. This money was made through expenditures and hard work of all people — including minorities and the working poor. Such fortunes have skyrocketed, in part due to favorable taxation geared to increase their wealth.

Just taxation would provide a good portion of the necessary funds. In addition, the affluent and very rich must contribute a share of the funds for this historic effort. This possibility has been affirmed by corporate actions to address certain inequities, especially in response to protests seeking social justice.

Such a unified plan must do the following:

• Create decent housing for all, by restoring or constructing a sufficient supply of homes or units, without gentrification displacing the poor.

• Achieve equitable school funding, with quality teachers, spaces, supplies and essential services.

• Provide employment or a universal basic income sufficient for a decent standard of living.

• Conduct policing, and deliver all public services, with the same respect for persons and their dignity as in white neighborhoods. Enact and enforce laws to reduce gun violence.

• Ensure an adequate number of stores, offering affordable goods and services, regardless of neighborhood composition or condition.

• Provide health insurance and a clean environment for all.

• Assure full voting rights, and finally end segregation in every form.

• Establish diverse federal, state and local commissions to direct these programs, accountable to the people living in impoverished conditions.
There are precedents for this idea and post World War II devastation in Europe is evidence of it!

A new Marshall Plan would be a sea change in our attitudes toward poverty and race. It has precedents in other social movements in this country. In the 20th century, there were three especially powerful eras when inequity and poverty were addressed.

During the Progressive Era, from about 1896 to 1920, progressive taxation, workers' compensation for injury, antitrust legislation, the right of women to vote and other reforms created a more equitable way of life.

President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal during the Great Depression of the 1930s provided jobs for millions of the unemployed, built massive public works, established labor rights, Social Security benefits and more. Taken together, such reforms built the foundation for a broad middle class in our society.

The Civil Rights movement swept away legal segregation and required the opening of public and private institutions to more Americans regardless of race. This movement later came to include the belief that well-being should never be denied because of any attribute that sets one person apart from another, including faith or gender.

Such forward-looking policies have had profound and lasting effects on America. The labor movement brought workers far better pay and working conditions, the right to organize and governmental protection. Women’s movements established the right to vote and laws requiring equal treatment, regardless of gender. 

Moreover, the Civil Rights movement continues in many forms, including opposition to punitive voting restrictions.

Of course, much is undone. Native Americans, whose lands this nation now occupies, too often live a bare existence in the shadow of historic genocide and unending neglect. Nevertheless, a commitment to eliminate poverty and racism is not an impossible dream.

Some think that ending poverty and racism will require fundamental changes in our society and economy. Others believe it cannot be done at all. This piece suggests that poverty can be ended with great effort, but without sweeping changes to our system. We have argued that a plan to end poverty and overcome racism has roots in American history and the current struggles for racial justice.

Time will tell what is necessary to achieve economic and social justice, but failure to try is no longer tolerable. Let us raise the stakes by ending racism that for centuries has harmed people solely because of the color of their skin. Let us raise the stakes by ending poverty that persists in the richest nation on earth.

This American Plan stands on the shoulders of generations who have moved us forward. Continuing this effort will bring us closer to becoming the people we have always imagined.

David Feingold organized and took stands for justice in diverse communities and marched with Martin Luther King Jr. 

Roger Feldman is an internationally recognized economics professor, emeritus, at the University of Minnesota. 

Rongal Watson is co-founder of Black Lives Matter in Beloit and a professor at Beloit College, who teaches courses about racism in government and politics, as well as inequality in health. 

More than 30 people of diverse age, gender, occupation, and race and ethnicity contributed to this piece. For a complete list, go to: bit.ly/3dKJFej