Briefing: Improving Economic Mobility: Restoring the American Dream for All
Blog Post
Oct. 19, 2011
Tomorrow, October 20th, Justin King from the Asset Building Program is speaking at a briefing organized by the Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus. See the details below from the briefing invitation.
Please join us for an important discussion on the impact of the rising racial wealth gap in America.
The Pew Research Center, in a recent report, ‘Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics: Twenty-to-One’ found that minority households were hit disproportionately hard by the housing and financial crisis.
According to a recent report by the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, Latino, black and American Indian children under the age of five are three times as likely as whites and some Asian ethnicities to live in households with little income and few or no assets, such as cash savings, stocks and bonds or retirement savings.
This means that minority households are much more likely to lack the financial resources necessary to invest in entrepreneurial opportunities or to invest in post-secondary education, both of which is shown to potentially move one up the socioeconomic ladder and in particular, will not have the resources to weather financial shocks like a serious illness or a temporary loss of employment.
The lack of savings and wealth means greater economic instability and increased rates of reliance on public services.
Please join us for a discussion on the impact of the rising wealth gap and what we can do to reduce the gap and improve our entire economy.
The panelists listed below will give short remarks to allow time for questions and discussion:
Nancy Wilberg Ricks, Policy Analyst for Wealth-Building Policy Project at National Council of La Raza.
Anne Price, Director of Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative from Insight Center for Community Economic Development.
Justin King, Federal Policy Liaison of the Asset Building Program at the New America Foundation.
Erin Currier, Project Manager for the Economic Mobility Project at The Pew Charitable Trust.
When: October 20th, 2011 (11am -12pm)
Where: Rayburn 2456