The Balance Sheet of Low-Income Households

How poor or not poor are low-income households.  Two divergent perspectives on what the poor own and what it means can be found in:

• Adam Carasso & Signe-Mary McKernan, "The Balance Sheet of Low-Income Households: What We Know About Their Assets and Liabilities," Urban Institute, Nov. 2007. 
• Robert Rector, "How Poor are America's Poor? Examining the "Plague" of Poverty in America," The Backgrounder from The Heritage Foundation, No. 2064, Aug. 27, 2007. 

The charts found in both of these reports are worth checking out and can inspire class debate...
-E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu