Government
Should We Embrace Power-Law Policies?
Published May 20, 2009 @ 12:00PM PT
Three years ago, Malcolm Gladwell wrote a long article in The New Yorker about permanent supportive housing - the social program that houses and provides social services the chronically homeless, often mentally ill - in which he explained the power-law theory behind the policy. I personally like designing policies around power-law distributions, even as it challenges our notions of universalism - equality of opportunity and social support for all, that is.
Credit Card Legislation Passes in Senate
Published May 19, 2009 @ 01:26PM PT
The Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to put new restrictions on the credit card industry, passing a bill whose backers say will make card-issuers spell out their terms in fewer words, using plain English, and treat customers more fairly.
This follows a similar House bill. After the differences between the two are worked out, a final bill goes to Obama for signature.
Frankly, I'm surprised it passed so quickly. This must be the give-away legislation for voters so as to distract us from the on-going bank bailouts and inadequacies in the housing rescue bills and stimulus. Not to mention the potential taxpayer subsidy behind this as well.
Action: Bill Offers Up to 7 Days Paid Sick Leave for US Workers
Published May 19, 2009 @ 06:47AM PT
The Healthy Families Act was introduced in the House and Senate yesterday. It would require businesses with at least 15 employees to provide one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked - or up to 7 paid sick days per year.
The legislation’s preamble notes that nearly half of private-sector workers and three-fourths of low-wage workers do not receive paid sick days. Far too often, advocates say, such employees feel compelled to go to work even when ill, because they fear being fired or at the least losing the day’s pay. (My emphases)
These kind of universal (i.e., federal) bills disproportionately benefit low-wage workers, who lack so many of the protections offered by larger companies. Furthermore, they disproportionately benefit women, immigrants, and African-Americans, who are overrepresented in low-wage work. As anti-poverty advocates, we need to give vociferous support to this bill.
Expectations are low that it will be passed this year, but the signs look good, pundits say, next year - an election year that tends to make our elected officials more responsive to "family-friendly" legislation. (There's a fitting summary of how our government works!) But there's populist momentum for this bill, with 12 states debating similar versions, two cities already requiring paid sick leave for workers, and recent voter approval for an equivalent bill in Milwaukee - which was subsequently blocked by business groups in the courts. Furthermore, groups as varied as the National Partnership for Women & Families, the Catholic social justice lobby Network and the Human Rights Campaign all have campaigns supporting the bill.
TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Support the Healthy Families Act!! Let's bring the U.S. into the fold with the rest of the industrialized world, shall we?
Figure from the Center for Economic & Policy Research's new report, Contagion Nation.
Disasters of Biblical Proportions
Published May 17, 2009 @ 10:19AM PT
There's a new, illuminating article about Donald Rumsfeld in GQ, detailing his apparent zealous, cynical, manipulative, and ultimately deadly approach to the War in Iraq (most adjectives here helpfully inspired by Frank Rich). What's especially troubling, besides the religiously tinged war imagery that Rumsfeld submitted to Bush every morning to maintain Dubya's resolute faith in the righteousness of our Iraq mission, is the unsurprising toll Rumsfeld's actions took on our nation at home - in addition to the number of servicemen and women's lives lost.
Basically, Rumsfeld delayed much needed troops on the ground for five days following Katrina, despite even Bush's outrage and embarrassment that our citizens were fighting for their lives in what looked like a "Third World" nation.
First, Principles
Published May 16, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
Of all the lessons from our economic downturn, the first, most basic one has not really changed: unless and until we do something to solve the home lending and foreclosure mess, we can’t really hope to climb out of the hole we’re in.
Everybody knows that… right?
Of course, there’s knowing and there’s doing… and unfortunately, while the knowing we have a problem part seems a given, the doing is not so clear.
Report: One in Six Children in the U.S. Are Hungry
Published May 14, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
A new report (pdf) released last week by Feeding America claims that one in six young children (those who are five-years-old and younger) in 26 U.S. states face a constant threat of food insecurity. That adds up to 3.5 million young children in this country who do not have adequate access to healthy food.
The statistics in the report—Child Food Insecurity in the United States: 2005 – 2007—were compiled using data collected by USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS).
Perhaps an even more disturbing statistic is that the rate of food insecurity in young children is 33 percent higher than the rate experienced by U.S. adults, where only one in eight live at risk of hunger. I personally find it deeply troubling that there are so many hungry children in this country who don’t have the ability to provide for themselves.
Erasing the Decision-Makers
Published May 13, 2009 @ 12:59PM PT
Following up on Kate's terrific post from this morning, I'm reading this absolutely maddening article from The Times-Picayune about the impending mixed-income housing complexes that are replacing the projects, demolished last year. Absent entirely from this article are the decision-makers behind the demolition and redevelopment of the projects, whose proposal will reduce the # of deeply subsidized units from ~5k to fewer than 1,600. Check out the passive and/or anthropomorphic language journalist Katy Reckdahl uses:
New designs hope to avoid past problems in public housing complexes
Because we all know designs, when gathered around the board room table, are very focused on problem-solving. More inanity after the jump!
