Women's Issues

Katha Pollitt | October 10, 2012

 http://www.thenation.com/article/170494/year-woman

As has been noted, the word "women" was not uttered

once the whole evening in the prior debate.

But women's rights and economic situation were not the

only important issue inexplicably left out. Here are

some questions I hope the next moderators will ask:

1.Poverty. It's growing and deepening--some 46 million

people and counting. But the way the economic debate is

framed, you would think that every single person in

America either owned a small business or was looking to

start one, and the only question was how much they

should be taxed and regulated. It's as if we think we

can hardware-store our way into a whole new wave of

prosperity, one newly hired shop assistant at a time.

Given that wages even for full-time work can be so low

they leave one eligible for food stamps, what role do

you see for government in ensuring a decent life for

all?

2.Follow-up: millions of children--almost one in

four--are growing up poor. According to UNICEF, of the

thirty-five richest countries, only Romania (!) has a

higher rate of relative child poverty (kids at less

than 50 percent of median disposable income). Moreover,

the United States does far less than other developed

countries to ameliorate poverty and its effects. Canada

and the United States, for example, start out with

roughly equal percentages of kids in poverty, but

Canadian government policies lift almost half of these

children above the line. What is your program for

ending child poverty in the next ten years?

 Will these be in the debate?