Ten days before the most charity-soaked of holidays, a story appeared in the Washington Post, front page, above the fold, like the Ghost of Christmas Real Time: “Inside Welfare’s New World,” subhead: “Watching Reform at Work.” In this, the threatened “First in a series of occasional articles,” reporter Katherine Boo describes the lives of two Washington single mothers.

Elizabeth Jones has resigned from the welfare rolls and gotten a job. Her monthly salary, after taxes, is $ 1,374. But, because she is employed, her public housing rent has risen from $ 103 to $ 497, and her three children have lost their free medical insurance.

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