Government
Don't Forget the (Faux) Middle
Published September 11, 2009 @ 05:07AM PT
As policy wonks and politicians try to convince us of recovery, the rest of the country is focused on white-knuckled survival. Far too many are in dire straits. Take Laura and her 2 teen sons, crammed in a ramshackle trailer with Laura's prematurely aged parents in Franklin, a little town south of Indianapolis.
Her parents live, like many housing-challenged seniors do, in a trailer park. Laura and her sons doubled-up with them because they are homeless, their abode lost in this latest fiscal crisis that continues to bedevil our country (despite all the "happy" talk). Her parents own this humble single-wide. From the outside it looks like the rest of the units in the park, but the inside tells the story.
40M Americans in Poverty
Published September 10, 2009 @ 11:42AM PT
The census results on poverty in the U.S. in 2008 are in, and they're worse than we thought. The lowlights:
- Median household income declined by 3.6%, to $50,303 from around $52K.
- The poverty rate rose to 13.2% from 12.5% in 2007. That's an additional 2M Americans who have fallen below the nation's already absurdly low poverty threshold to officially qualify as poor.
- Over 46M people - or 15.4% of the population - lack health insurance.
Of course, the specter of poverty hits some groups harder than others. Median incomes for Hispanics, Southern households, and foreign-born households declined by about 5%. If you were earning $10/hour, now you're earning $9.50 - this adds up to almost $1,000 in wages lost over a year for someone already struggling full-time at such a low wage.
Almost every group is worse off, including those with comparatively low rates of poverty: households headed by married couples; non-Hispanic whites; and working age adults.
Interestingly, the number of people with health insurance also grew - because more people are receiving coverage from the government. What's that now about a public option?
Finally, income inequality is unchanged (yippee?), but the poverty rate is the highest in 11 years. It's worth combing through all the data to really get a full picture of how many more Americans have become so poor even the government has officially taken notice - your neighbors, your grandmother, your kid's friends at school, perhaps even you.
Please help us get this info out today (#PDD09!) as part of Poverty Day. And you know the drill - Take Action to Fight Poverty in America now!
(Photo of a tent city in St. Petersburg, FL by Lboogiepeace)
Yuppie Foodies and Hungry Children
Published September 10, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
On Labor Day this past Monday, Slow Food USA kicked off its new Time for Lunch campaign by staging "eat-ins" in various cities across the United States.
The purpose of these events, as well as the campaign in general, is to raise awareness about the need to increase healthy food in schools by reauthorizing the Child Nutrition Act before the legislation expires at the end of September.
The message of this campaign is right, but the image and the branding are completely wrong.
Slow Food--although being an organization whose mission I support--is the epitome of the yuppie-foodie groups, a pay-to-play network of gazpacho sipping gastro-enthusiasts.
Poverty Data Day Twitter Campaign
Published September 09, 2009 @ 04:36PM PT
Tomorrow morning, Thurs, September 10th, the Census will release its first round of 2008 poverty data. Spotlight on Poverty has organized Poverty Day, a Twitter Campaign to spread the word about the current state of poverty in the U.S. No doubt it will be bleak.
Poverty in America at Change.org is joining Spotlight on Poverty and many other anti-poverty activists in this Campaign. To join us in raising awareness about poverty in the U.S., just add the #PDD09 hashtag to your tweets. Including this #PDD hashtag will ensure your tweets show up in Spotlight's TweetGrid.
No need to wait until tomorrow! The campaign has begun! If you're at a loss for words (poverty is depressing!), consider RT some of these sample tweets:
- 2008 poverty data will be released on September 10th. Learn more http://su.pr/2je5FS #PDD09 (Please RT)
- Did you know that nearly 40 million Americans live in #Poverty? Learn more: http://spotlightonpoverty.org/why_spotlight_poverty.aspx #PDD09
- RT @povertynews Obama Administration makes first estimate of 2008 poverty rate: http://su.pr/1kUBcG - data to be released on 9/10 #PDD09
Take action now!
(Photo by RobertSkirts; I came, I saw, I tweeted!)
Latin@s Most Likely To Die on Job
Published September 07, 2009 @ 06:47AM PT
That's a harsh title to jolt you out of your Labor Day holiday reprieve, I know. Courtesy of Poverty & Policy, I see that the National Council of La Raza has released a report on Latin@s in the low-wage job market. Like the National Employment Law Project study we covered last Wednesday, NCLR's research reveals a dangerous and highly unequal workplace for low-wage Latino workers, many of them immigrants. The report shows that smart, ethical immigration reform is the "first step" towards reducing worker exploitation and improving the job market for all low-wage workers.
1 in 5 Elderly are Poor
Published September 05, 2009 @ 10:38AM PT
When calculating poverty using the modernized measure from the National Academy of Sciences, the number of older adults living in poverty is nearly double the official rate. The whole article is worth reading for the ways current poverty numbers - among children, single mothers, in cities, etc. - would change if we updated the federal poverty measure.
Everyday that I blog I find more features, reports, news items, etc. than I can possibly cover here. But I don't want to let these stories slip by. So consider this your weekend afternoon news dump on poverty in the U.S.
Willingham, Innocent & Poor
Published September 04, 2009 @ 11:00AM PT
H/t to G.D. at Postbourgie for inspiring me to sit down with the chilling report on the wrongful execution in Texas of an almost certainly innocent man, Cameron Todd Willingham. The investigation and findings pointing to his innocence, and the likelihood that TX may become the first state in the nation to admit to killing an innocent human being, has been extensively covered in the media and on the blogs - including by Matt at our Criminal Justice blog. (Matt's also got an excellent follow-up post about the declining role of the media as a watchdog.)
I highly recommend reading the original New Yorker article if you have a moment this long weekend. Like so many wrongfully convicted, Willingham was poor. At the intersection of poverty and criminal injustice, we need to work to stop the death penalty and improve legal counsel for the indigent.
