Megan Jones of Palmerton, Pennsylvania, finds it tough supporting three kids on her own. She wants to marry her boyfriend, Ron Morgan, so they can combine incomes and raise the children together. But that would mean losing the government child care subsidies she now receives, and she and Morgan would not be able to afford child care. Due to the structure of government programs for low-income families, marriage would actually make Megan and her kids worse off financially than they are now.

Jones and Morgan are one of ten families profiled in Lives on the Line: American Families and the Struggle to Make Ends Meet (Westview Press, 2001), a book that combines research with real stories of families struggling to get by in America. Written by journalist Martha Shirk, along with Neil Bennett and J. Lawrence Aber from the National Center for Children in Poverty, the book explores the problems that keep many working families from real financial security.

In Lives on the Line, we meet 27-year-old Magda Rodriguez, whose income is above the official poverty line, but cannot afford to buy her son a birthday cake because of the high prices in the San Francisco Bay area. We meet Nancy Keebler, 34, who makes $10,620 a year and cannot work outside her home because she has a severely disabled child whom no child care provider in the area will accept.

We meet little Orlando Saylor, a child with such severe learning disabilities and developmental problems that he may never be able to live on his own. Saylor's brain was twice deprived of oxygen because of delays in receiving medical care that his mother believes were directly related to his family's poverty. For these parents and others, the book offers detailed accounts of the barriers they face to getting by in America, what risk factors contribute to their poverty, and ultimately, what policy and programs may be able to help.

Real Poverty, Real Lives
More than 12 million U.S. children live poverty—more proportionally than in any other Western nation. But many of us do not know what poverty means to these children, and what their day-to-day lives look like. Through detailed monthly budgets, the authors demonstrate how even modest everyday expenses of working families often exceed their incomes. Rather than worrying about the cost of a vacation or a new hand-held video game for the kids, these families worry about the basics: electric bills, car payments, food on the table and health insurance so that illness or accident does not set them months behind in paying for necessities.

The families represent the diversity of the low-income families in America: four are white, two Hispanic, three black and one Pacific Islander. Four live in cities, three in rural areas, and three in suburbs. Their children also span a wide spectrum: some are getting A's, others are getting lost in bureaucratic red tape as they try to get special services. All the families break down stereotypes and allow the reader to understand the day-to-day lives of families struggling to get by.

Lives on the Line presents a picture of how government programs work—or don't work—to help children in poverty. Many of the families profiled have difficulty understanding the government's eligibility rules for programs ranging from WIC (The Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children) to Medicaid, food stamps and subsidized child care. Several of the families seem to be eligible for food stamps but are not receiving them, either because they're unaware of the program or because caseworkers have provided faulty information. Whatever the case, they are struggling to navigate the complicated system of government subsidies for the poor.

Contrary to stereotypes, the National Center for Children in Poverty reports that nearly two-thirds of families of poor young children in America have at least one parent who is employed. Many of these parents are paid by the hour and are not entitled to sick leave or health insurance. Whereas middle and upper-income families can fall back on benefits, savings and credits, many low-wage workers have none of these. While a car breakdown can be an inconvenience for a middle-income family, it could mean a week's worth of salary for a poor family—and if there is no public transportation to get parents to and from work, it opens up a whole new set of problems.

For these families, poverty means adverse living conditions, poor health and fewer educational opportunities. "To find affordable rent, a family compromises on the safety of the neighborhood and the quality of the school their children attend. To pay the utility bill ? the kids may have a steady diet of breakfast cereal for the last few days of the month."

Poor Families: Myths and Realities
Part 2 of Lives on the Line offers demographic information to place the stories in a broader context. The authors identify risk factors that play a major role in child poverty: teen parenthood, low educational achievement and low-wage work—the "Bermuda Triangle" of child poverty. They also explore associated risks including domestic violence, lack of quality child care, risks to early brain development and other challenges facing parents, like housing expenses and overcrowding.

The authors describe how public attitudes toward the poor directly affect the way we address the problem of poverty in our country. For example, if Americans believe that causes of poverty are beyond the control of the poor, and that families are actually held back from financial independence because of existing social structures, then we are more likely to address poverty through public policies and programs. If we blame the poor for their circumstances, believing that poverty is rooted in their mistakes or character flaws, then we are more likely to dismiss their plight entirely.

In the foreword to Lives on the Line, former senator Bill Bradley emphasizes the fact that there is no clear line separating the problems of low-income families from middle-income families: "Low-income Americans are just one illness, one car breakdown, or a couple of days of missed work away from financial disaster, while middle-class Americans may be two or three bad breaks away."

The difference between the poor and the middle class, according to Bradley, "is one of degree, not kind." Therefore, the steps we take to reduce poverty—by providing better child care, expanding affordable housing, or extending health coverage to all—help middle-class Americans too. The families in Lives on the Line could be our neighbors, our cousins, or the people we pass on the street every day. They could also be you or me. If Americans want to help those who help themselves, this book might make encourage us to extend a helping hand to many more hard-working American families.

For more information:

• The National Center for Children in Poverty has strategies to prevent child poverty and improve the lives of low-income families in the United States.

Lives on the Line: American Families and the Struggle to Make Ends Meet. By Martha Shirk, Neil G. Bennett and J. Lawrence Aber, Westview Press, $17. ISBN: 0-8133-3820-4.

Julee Newberger is assistant managing editor of Connect for Kids.