The Economy
White Recession, Black Depression
Published September 14, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Barbara Ehrenreich published her fourth and final NYT column on poverty in the U.S. this week, raising the perennial issue of racial economic inequality. (Our previous coverage of Ehrenreich's pieces are here, here, and here.) From 2000 to 2007, African-American employment and incomes fell almost 3%. Now, as the "Great Recession" has engulfed us all, the unemployment rate among African-Americans is over 15% (compared to less than 9% for whites). The black-white and overall ethnic/racial wealth gap is nothing new, but it is easily overlooked at times of crisis when competing senses of "we're all in it together" versus white racial resentment towards President Obama blind us to the disproportionate burden African-Americans face in economic downturns.
Remembering 9/11's Low-Wage Victims
Published September 11, 2009 @ 09:55AM PT
I came to my work in the post-Katrina Gulf Coast in part because I worked with survivors of the terrorist attacks in Lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001. I worked for a non-profit, Seedco, that ran the Lower Manhattan Small Business Recovery Program - providing grants, loans and technical assistance to small businesses around Ground Zero. We were intimately and intensely involved with assisting commercial residents rebuild their livelihoods and their futures.
Frequently covered in the press since that horrific day 8 years ago are the families of the financial titans or workhorses who were killed in the building fires and collapse. Less frequently heard from are the survivors of the thousands of low-wage workers who supported the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (FIRE) industry most associated with the World Trade Center. As we remember and grieve, I ask us to honor the restaurant workers, livery drivers, janitors and other low-wage workers who were disproportionately economically devastated by the terrorist attacks on 9/11.
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)
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.
