Bootstraps and Benefits: What the Right and Left Understand about Poverty and How We Can Work Together for Lasting Solutions

Is there a solution to poverty? Even those who believe there is a solution differ on exactly what that solution is. Many conservatives believe the solution lies in people accepting more personal responsibility; and many liberals believe we need to provide more benefits. This book, Bootstraps and Benefits: What the Right and Left Understand about Poverty and How We Can Work Together for Lasting Solutions, shares how liberals and conservatives can come together to discuss and implement more powerful solutions to poverty with a strategic mix of insights from both Bootstraps and Benefits. Simply defined: Bootstraps are persons inclined to focus on what individuals can do to improve their own circumstances. Benefits are persons inclined to focus on what society can do to improve the circumstances of groups of people. Scott Miller is a liberal, founder of Circles USA and advocate for creating smarter systems to reduce poverty while emphasizing the importance of self-responsibility. Denise Rhoades is a conservative who, for many years, volunteered in Circles supporting families as they make their way out of poverty, while also advocating for smarter public policy and programs. As Scott explains: “When Denise told me her observation—that I am fluent in progressive/liberal, but can speak conservative with an accent—I was both amused and appreciative to have someone share such a unique perspective. Similarly, Denise is a conservative who ‘gets it’ when it comes to reducing versus managing poverty.”The strategies to ending poverty in the United States, while somewhat complex, are not the rocket science “experts” would have us believe. We have made it far too complicated to motivate people to take necessary actions. And we have become distracted by arguments that protect our cherished ideals and beliefs about one another: Bootstraps and Benefits. At the heart of all this are real people whom most of us, including policymakers, rarely get to know. Conservatives need to recognize that large numbers of people in poverty and receiving government assistance really do want to work and have the same personal aspirations for themselves and their families as anyone else, but the ladder for moving up and out of poverty is missing the bottom rungs. Liberals need to recognize that much of the government funding spent to address poverty, however well intentioned, often goes toward managing poverty, not reducing it. If we involve the real experts—those individuals who are working hard, yet not getting ahead—“We might be surprised by their answers. We would surely learn more about the challenges of moving out of poverty than we ever knew.” This book will help persuade both Bootstraps and Benefits to join the cause to begin the end of poverty.

"Bootstraps and Benefits, with its suggestions for how we all can work together toward the eradication of poverty, comes to us at a critical moment in the great American experiment. We live in a rapidly changing and complex global world. The times demand that we tap into everyone's wisdom, gifts, knowledge, and skills, not just those who think and feel the same way we do. This Benefits gal has her boots on and is ready to join with Bootstraps friends on the journey toward our shared destination."