Few Thousand Dollars

Robert E. Friedman is founder and chair emeritus of Prosperity Now, formerly the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), a national economic development nonprofit founded in 1979. He helped create the U.S. microenterprise and savings and asset-building fields and the international enterprise development and child savings fields. He lives in San Mateo, California.

Praise for A Few Thousand Dollars:“A welcome antidote to wealth inequality.”—Ms. Magazine“A welcome plan from a wealthy man with empathy for the less fortunate.”—Kirkus Reviews“Here's the bad news: The United Nations has just announced that the United States has the biggest income disparity of any Western nation. Here's the good news: Robert Friedman has just published A Few Thousand Dollars: Sparking Prosperity for Everyone, proof positive that low-income and very poor people will start businesses, seek education, and buy and keep homes given any chance. He has done this all of his activist life, and now he has given us a road map out of division and despair.”—Gloria Steinem “Friedman takes on tough issues—how growing wealth inequality threatens prosperity, why the deeply racialized distribution of assets stymies progress, and how small changes to the rules could set the country on a more equitable course. A Few Thousand Dollars is an important and highly readable contribution to a necessary debate about how to craft a more inclusive and sustainable American economy.”—Manuel Pastor, professor, University of Southern California, and author of State of Resistance “Robert Friedman's opus treatment of our nation's wealth divide reveals how essential assets and wealth are for building an equitable economy and society. The analysis of the racial wealth gap is profoundly sobering. Friedman's years of personal and professional dedication shine in this work full of uplifting stories, striking graphics, and bold policy ideas.”—Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and president, PolicyLink “A Few Thousand Dollars is superb social history, thorough case-making for policy, a treasure trove of great ideas, and brave. The opposite of poverty is not wealth, it's justice.”—Tom Shapiro, author of Toxic Inequality “Bob Friedman has been fighting for economic justice since before it was cool. At a particularly dark and uncertain time in American politics, A Few Thousand Dollars is a beacon of hope lighting the way to a future America with opportunity for all.”—Ezra Levin, co-executive director, Indivisible