Research
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!)
Recessions Bad News for Unions
Published September 08, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
I find this depressingly curious:
"for every point's worth of increase in the unemployment rate, approval of labor unions goes down by 2.6 points." The inestimable Nate Silver leaves us alone to stew over these results from Gallup, which find that support for organized labor in the US has fallen below 50% for the first time. Worse, respondents clearly think unions are on the decline.
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.
How Many Calories Does $1 Buy?
Published August 27, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
The answer depends largely on what type of food you're purchasing.
As I was reading through the recent TIME Magzine cover story on the real price of cheap food, I came across reference to a study conducted by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The study examined how many calories, of certain kinds of food, one dollar can buy you. They determined that:
A dollar could buy 1,200 calories of potato chips or 875 calories of soda but just 250 calories of vegetables or 170 calories of fresh fruit.
Yeah, you read that right. A dollar can buy you almost 10 times more calories from potato chips than it can from fresh fruit. Is it any wonder that obesity and food security are so intricately tied to income level in this country? I think not.
This statistic has a lot to do with why many people who do not have adequate access to healthy foods are often unhealthy and overweight. Really, it's all about the energy density of the foods we eat. Let me explain.
Empower Women, End Poverty
Published August 21, 2009 @ 11:00AM PT
If you haven't yet read the series on women and poverty at The New York Times, I highly recommend adding it to your weekend reading list. The paternalistic on-line title notwithstanding, the collection of articles details the collective economic improvements in poor communities and households resulting from investing in women's and girl's education, health, bodily safety and autonomy, and work opportunities. The focus of the issue is mainly on the developing world, where the majority of the world's poor - and poor women - live. This is always somewhat frustrating for domestic anti-poverty activists, as if our nation is a haven of gender equity and parity. Nonetheless, there's some important lessons on education, policy and power for those of us fighting for equality and an end to poverty stateside.
Highest Income Inequality Ever
Published August 16, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
We've surpassed even the vaunted inequality of the 1920s - the "Gilded Age" years that preceded the Great Depression. In 2007, the top 10% of American workers took home just under 50% of all wages. Think about that: if 10 workers were to split $100, one guy (no doubt) would get $49.70, and the remaining 9 would split $51.30. What do you think that one man does for a living compared to the other nine? What jobs, to your mind, possibly deserve that kind of distorted payout?
The paper, written by a Berkeley professor, shows how from 1993 through 2007, the top 1% of earners captured "half of the overall economic growth." Think about how hard you've been working at your job for the past two decades - now you know where your hard-earned profits have gone! And the trend continues - the just released Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows American workers are working longer hours for less pay. Make sure you click through the link to see that thanks to all this productivity, corporate profits are up.
And the cycle continues.
Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly thinks if Democrats or progressives try to rectify this inequality they will be charged with fomenting "class warfare." David Sirota sees the wrangling over Social Security and concludes we're all ready there. We've asked a few times here: is it time to protest yet?
