Introduction / by Marion Crain and Arne L. Kalleberg -- Confronting poverty and declining opportunity -- Connecting the dots / by David K. Shipler -- Economic mobility in the United States: how much is there and why does it matter? / by Jared Bernstein -- The vanishing middle class / by Elizabeth Warren -- The forces undermining the American dream -- The great doubling: the challenge of the new global labor market / by Richard B. Freeman -- The risky outlook for middle-class America / by Jacob S. Hacker -- Single mothers, fragile families / by Sara McLanahan -- A new agenda for America's ghetto poor / by William Julius Wilson -- Spurring better jobs and creating higher incomes -- Up and out: when the working poor are poor no more / by Katherine S. Newman -- The earned income tax credit / by John Karl Scholz -- Making work pay / by Beth Shulman -- Education and training for less affluent Americans in the new economy / by Harry J. Holzer -- Jobs for life / by David Spickard -- Sharing the prosperity: asset building -- Reducing wealth disparities through asset ownership / by Melvin L. Oliver and Thomas M. Shapiro -- Banking the poor: overcoming the financial services mismatch / by Michael S. Barr -- Assets for all: toward universal, progressive, lifelong accounts / by Michael Sherraden -- Making saving easier: the automatic 401(k) and automatic individual retirement account (IRA) / by Peter Orszag -- An affordable homeownership strategy that promotes savings rather than risk / by Michael A. Stegman -- Making homeownership a reality by believing in working-class families / by Martin Eakes -- The role of the entrepreneur in combating poverty / by Secretary Jack F. Kemp -- Strengthening family and community -- Why we should be concerned about young, less educated, black men / by Ronald B. Mincy and Hillard Pouncy -- A hopeful future: the pathway to helping teens avoid pregnancy and too-soon parenthood / by Carol Mendez Cassell -- Public schools: building capacity for hope and opportunity / by Dennis K. Orthner -- Getting parents and community into the school reform act / by Hugh B. Price -- Top down meets bottom up: local job creation in rural America / by Anita Brown-Graham -- Strengthening the rural community / by Ruston Seaman and Michael Ferber -- Fighting poverty with equitable development / by Angela Glover Blackwell -- Ending poverty in America / by Senator John Edwards -- About the editors -- About the contributors -- Index.