State of California Archives: on Welfare & Poverty

Duf Sundheim: Address the 8.9 million Californians living in poverty

The historic paths to the middle class are being choked off. In fact, the fastest growing path to the middle class today is a government job. So it is not "what you know," it is "who you know." And an economy based on "who you know" has a disproportionate negative impact on citizens of disadvantaged backgrounds or modest means. The answer to America's problems lies in addressing the problems these voters and voters like them across the nation face every day.

Jerry Brown: 1977: Visited tenement & prison to see 1st-hand

In 1977, Brown showed up unannounced to a tenement building called "The Pink Palace" in San Francisco, where he met residents and stayed the night. "I get firsthand knowledge uncensored by the normal channels," Brown said at the time. He also visited state prisons and mental hospitals.

Kashkari said that he wished Brown would do visits like that again. "I think it's great," he said. "I think it'd be great for the governor to get out of his cocoon."

A spokesman for Brown's campaign said, "Gov. Brown has spent a lifetime involved in these issues; Kashkari is a multimillionaire banker who put on a costume and posed as something he isn't."

Neel Kashkari: With $40 & no job, economy hasn't improved since 2011

Brown himself has done something along the same lines before. In 1977, when he was governor for the first time, Brown showed up unannounced to a tenement building called "The Pink Palace" in San Francisco, where he met residents and stayed the night. "I get firsthand knowledge uncensored by the normal channels," Brown said at the time.

Kashkari said that he wished Brown would do visits like that again.: "I think it'd be great for the governor to get out of his cocoon." Kashkari said before filming in Fresno, he had also stayed in a homeless shelter for a night in Oakland last year and worked alongside migrant workers. "I was looking for ways to bring the issues to the forefront," he said. "I only got a sliver of a taste of what they were experiencing because I knew at the end of the week, I'd get to go home."