Poverty Consciousness Is the New Black

First, there was Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County. The HBO documentary chronicled the tragic experiences of the working poor living miserably in pay-by-the week motels near the happiest place on earth.

In terms of exposure, it didn't hurt that the film's director, Alexandra Pelosi, happens to be the daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Then, there was Winter's Bone, a feature film that, while fictional, painted a picture of the kinds of hard decisions that poor people entangled in the criminal justice system sometimes have to make to survive or remain free.

Winning the Grand Jury Prize for best drama at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival didn't do the film or its message any damage.

Now, with the release of the Census Bureau's latest data, the ugly truth has been revealed and is getting a lot of attention. One in seven Americans were living in and struggling with poverty in 2009.

Things have gotten so bad that poverty consciousness — knowledge of its causes, an understanding of its consequences and a belief that it really exists in the United States — may have reached a long-time high.

So if there are more Americans who now know that poverty is more than the simple failure to locate and use one's bootstraps, what's next?

Will someone designate the color, size and proper placement of the anti-poverty equivalent of a  Live Strong bracelet to raise millions for the American poor? Will a celebrity, who incidentally earns more than 20 times the national median income (pdf) for one film, lobby to become the UN's Goodwill Ambassador to the United States? Will people stop believing that Antoine Dodson's ability to embody a series of stereotypes then become a Youtube phenomenon with merchandising options is actual evidence of a viable pathway out of poverty for others?

Will public support for infrastructure projects and the local jobs they can create, expanded access to health care and other critical social service programs such as food stamps actually grow? Will lawmakers make outsourcing a less-profitable decision, finally get the nerve to address both the need for expanded opportunities for legal immigration and the need to stop letting companies exploit illegal immigrant workers? Will a public that doesn't like to consider the wonky details of policy push Congress to reconsider key international trade agreements or pressure China to stop manipulating the dollar in a way that is expanding the trade deficit? Will the defense budget finally be forced in for a haircut,  then be made to give its fiscal Locks of Love to public primary, secondary and higher education?

Those are important questions to ask and answer now that we know more than 43.6 million Americans are living and struggling in poverty, the greatest number since data began to be kept in 1959. Will information become action this time?

Photo credit: Coso Blues