Poverty nation: How America created a low-wage work swamp For decades, both parties supplanted a push for higher wages with well-intended public aid. The result: calamity Joan Walsh   2013 is the year many Americans discovered the crisis of the working poor. It turns out it’s also the crisis of the welfare poor. That’s tough for us: Americans notoriously hate welfare, unless it’s called something else and/or benefits us personally. We think [...]