POVERTY, AMERICAN STYLE

Timothy Smeeding, world renowned poverty expert:

"In 1997 -- in the midst of a robust economy -- one in five American children lived in poverty. This is about double the rate in other wealthy industrialized nations, such as France, Germany and the Nordic countries...We in America have high child poverty rates because we choose to, not because we cannot do anything about it. Other nations make different choices and get different results."