On Monday, journalists and Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn joined Boston Public Radio to talk about their latest book, “Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope.”
“Tightrope” is their fifth book together and it focuses on poverty in the U.S. and the factors that keep low-earning families in a cycle of generational struggle.
"It’s strange to talk about this at a time when the economy overall in the U.S. has done so well, and when the stock market has set records,” Kristof said. "But there really is something of a great depression out there, or at least a great social depression that afflicts a chunk of the population, even as the first class’ ballroom is decked out.”
“Tightrope” makes its case by incorporating a series of personal accounts, many of which come from the residents of Yamhill, Oregon, where Kristof grew up.
"I’ve done a lot of reporting in refugee camps, where I had a certain armor when I heard stories. This time I was talking to kids that I had crushes on, that I’d passed notes to in class, that I competed with on the track, and saw the degree to which they had imploded and their kids had exploded."
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“Tightrope” poses that, for the average American family, upward mobility used to be a near-given, but due in part to government deregulation in the 1970’s, it has become significantly harder for poor families to lift themselves up.
"Part of this lifting of regulations was the idea that people have to take responsibility for their own lives– personal responsibility, lift yourself up by the bootstraps,” WuDunn said. "But remember,” she continued, "have you ever tried to lift yourself up by the bootstraps?”
"You can’t… because it’s impossible."
