A study conducted by the Brookings Institute found that 53 million Americans between the ages of 18 and 64 (or 44 percent of the workforce) yearly earn a median average of $18,000 (or $10.22 per hour). What this means is that a large section of our society can’t afford even small mistakes, let alone major emergencies. It only takes one bad move or shock for a low-wage worker to be irrevocably thrown into a catastrophe. CBS’s post about the Brookings report appeared the day after it aired the 60 Minutes episode on Seattle’s homeless crisis.
The Brookings report pretty much explains what the host of the 60 Minutes episode, Anderson Cooper, considered a mystery, which could be solved with well-rounded reporting. He interviewed homeless people (all white), a Safe Seattle proponent (white), and the mayor (white again) who authorizes sweeps. (Those sweeps, however, were not mentioned in the episode. Instead, Durkan told Cooper that she’s throwing lots of compassion and whatever money is available at the crisis.)