Economic opportunity issues

Minimum wage | Self-sufficiency | Public assistance | Housing

Unemployment insurance | Payday lending | EITC | Savings | Opportunity Lost

Self-sufficiency

Self-sufficiency means families are able to meet their basic needs without having to rely on any public or private assistance. That is the definition that underlies the self-sufficiency standard, which we have long recommended as the best way for the state government or anyone else to measure the economic well-being of families.

Opportunity Note - SB 07-235: Concerning the creation of an economic self-sufficiency standard, by Rich Jones, March 29, 2007

Press conference statement - The Bell Policy Center supports state funds for micro enterprise development, by Rich Jones, March 1, 2007

Blueprint Implementation Memo - Create an economic self-sufficiency standard for Colorado, Dec. 20, 2006

The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Colorado: A new measure of family well-being, from The Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute, July 27, 2006

Commentary - Increase opportunity for all: a summary of the Bell's 2005 State of Opportunity Report, by Heather McGregor, The Boulder Daily Camera, Nov. 27, 2005

National report - Working Hard, Falling Short: America's Working Families and the Pursuit of Economic Security, a report from the Working Poor Families Project, October 2004

Press Release - Millions of families work hard but struggle to make ends meet: New report finds that one in four working families are low-income. Oct. 12, 2004
Working Hard, Falling Short: America's Working Families and the Pursuit of Economic
Security concludes that greater national and state-level attention is needed to address the problems confronting low-income working families, including access to need-based college scholarships, job training and subsidized child care.

Commentary - Report dispels myths about poverty, by Spiros Protopsaltis, The Boulder Daily Camera, Oct. 24, 2004
We all know that unemployment can lead to poverty, but hard work is supposed to protect families from economic distress. But the sad truth is that more than 27 percent of working families in this country are low-income.

Policy Brief - Help Colorado's workers get better skills and back to work, January 2003