$2.00 a Day

Ford School professor Luke Shaefer’s book, The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America (Harper Collins, August 2023) is the recipient of the 2023 Richard A. Lester Book Award at Princeton University. Shaefer, the Hermann and...

America is rife with "internal colonies," where systemic violence, resource extraction, and corruption among decision makers have contributed to generations of poverty and disadvantage. These communities suffer from environmental degradation, lack...

A recent New York Times article cites Luke Shaefer and Kathryn Edin’s 2015 award-winning book, $2.00 a Day as a marker that led to the passage of important elements of the $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” which includes temporary measures to...

On June 21, a proposal by Christopher Wimer (Columbia University), Jane Waldfogel (Columbia University), and the Ford School’s Luke Shaefer – “A Universal Child Allowance to Combat Child Poverty” – was published in Spotlight On Poverty, a...

A January 18 Detroit MetroTimes piece by Jack Lessenberry, "Politics & Prejudices: Screwing the poor, and ourselves," features quotes from Luke Shaefer.Lessenberry's opinion piece profiles the issue of a faulty fraud detection system implemented by...

$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer, has been selected as next year’s pick for the Washtenaw Reads community initiative. Washtenaw Reads aims to “promote reading and civic dialogue through the...

The Economist cites $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, in the story “Poverty in America: No money no love,” which calls on today’s Presidential candidates to address endemic poverty.$2.00 a Day, a recently released book by Luke...

“So, let’s start with poverty,” says Ezra Klein, editor of Vox, launching a 40-minute interview with Hillary Clinton. “Scholars have estimated that the number of American families living in extreme poverty, under $2 in cash income, has skyrocketed...

In “Why the very poor have become poorer,” Christopher Jencks reviews $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, for the June 9 issue of The New York Review of Books. Written by Luke Shaefer and Kathryn Edin, $2.00 a Day (Houghton Mifflin...

Sandra Danziger and $2.00 a Day are cited in The New York Times piece, “Political rifts over Bill Clinton’s welfare law resurface as aid shrinks.” The piece, which examines the mixed legacy of welfare reform on the occasion of its pending 20th...

This spring, State & Hill magazine focuses on the vitally important theme of rising inequality.Feature stories highlight the work of six Ford School faculty members who are combating inequality in a number of arenas:Susan Dynarski’s quest to remove...

On Tuesday, September 1, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America. Written by Luke Shaefer and Kathryn Edin, the book movingly documents the troubling rise of extreme poverty in the wake of America’s 1996...

The Sidney Hillman Foundation has selected $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, by Luke Shaefer and Kathryn Edin, for the 2016 Hillman Prize for Book Journalism. The prize will be awarded on May 3 at the 66th annual Hillman Prize...

The Obama administration has announced plans for a $2 billion initiative to test new approaches to fight poverty in the U.S., citing Luke Shaefer and Kathryn Edin’s recently published book about Americans living on $2 a day.White House officials say...

Published on September 1, 2015, $2.00 a Day, Living on Almost Nothing in America, a book by Luke Shaefer and Kathryn Edin, has drawn audiences across the nation. The book, which illuminates extreme poverty in the U.S., has been positively reviewed...

When living in extreme poverty, people make use of whatever assets they have as a means of survival, whether it means selling plasma, junk yard scrapping, food stamps or sex just to get by."It's both depressing and uplifting," Luke Shaefer says of...

Luke Shaefer testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee today in a hearing on welfare and poverty in America. During his testimony, Shaefer offered recommendations for reforming safety net programs (such as TANF) and provided insight into...

The latest edition of the Ford School feed, an email news source for alumni and friends of the school, arrived in inboxes this week.This spring edition of the feed calls for Alumni Board nominations; celebrates Susan Dynarski's accomplishment as a...

Luke Shaefer and Kathryn Edin’s new book, $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, details the lives of Americans in extreme poverty.In a recent op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, the authors estimate that the proportion of Americans living...

“This essential book is a call to action,” writes William Julius Wilson of Luke Shaefer and Kathryn Edin’s just released $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America. Wilson, who is a professor of sociology and social policy at Harvard, writes...

The Ford School is delighted to announce that a number of faculty members will join our community this fall. To introduce them to the Ford School and University, we’re running weekly Q&As throughout the summer that touch on their policy and personal...