Miami’s poor
While I share former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz’s concern over the unacceptable levels of poverty in Miami-Dade, which he expressed in the Dec. 8 article Financial literacy can alleviate poverty, I don’t share his analysis of the problem or his proposed solution of financial literacy programs for the poor.
Politicians too frequently frame problems like poverty as a result of individual shortcomings rather than being caused by faulty public policy and structural inequalities within society.
Blaming the poor for their poverty is a tired narrative.
We need real leadership on poverty capable of addressing root causes and shifting public-policy discourse from a view of poor people as the passive objects of social programs to a view of them as equal participants and leaders in making meaningful social change.
Scot Evans, Coral Gables
This story was originally published December 19, 2014 at 6:10 PM with the headline "Miami’s poor."