poverty

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Chasm Between Haves, Have-Nots Is a Societal Cancer
Chasm Between Haves,
Have-Nots Is a Societal Cancer
NICK KRISTOF
Jan 2, 2011 8:46 AM CST

Chasm Between Haves, Have-Nots Is a Societal Cancer

Money can't buy happiness, but the lack of it can cause profound problems

(Newser) - America's stunning inequality is not just economic, it is also an inequality of the soul, writes Nick Kristof in the New York Times . Citing the work of two British epidemiologists, Kristof argues that severe inequality "tears at the human psyche, creating anxiety, distrust, and an array of mental and...

A Third of Working Families Live in Near-Poverty

Recession has hurt more than just the unemployed

(Newser) - Recession lamenters often focus on the unemployed, but the employed are taking a beating, too. Nearly one in three working families in America is now considered low income, meaning they earn less than twice the official poverty threshold, according to a report released today from the Working Poor Families Project....

Surprise! Taxes Will Actually Go Up for the Poor

But for the rich, it's a great deal

(Newser) - This tax cut deal President Obama struck with Republicans is awesome—as long as you’re among the wealthiest Americans. At least a quarter of the tax savings will go to the top 1%, the New York Times points out, in a piece headlined “Tax Package Will Aid Nearly...

Brazil Elects First Woman President

Dilma Rousseff takes 56% in runoff vote

(Newser) - Brazil has elected its first woman president: Dilma Rousseff took the top slot after yesterday’s runoff election. The former energy secretary and chief of staff to president Luiz Inácio da Silva declared in her victory speech that her “mission is to eradicate poverty,” CNN reports. A...

To Help World's Poor, Hand Them Cash

Government 'cash-transfer' programs prove successful

(Newser) - It might seem counter-intuitive, but in some 45 countries across the globe, it’s working: Governments are handing cash to the poor to use at their own discretion, writes Christopher Werth in Newsweek . Some 110 million families are getting aid, and the World Bank has spent $5.5 billion on...

Cell Phones Can Be Saviors for World's Poor: UN

Report shows gadgets can lead to better livelihoods

(Newser) - For the financially comfortable, cell phones may make life a little easier—but for those in less-developed countries, the gadgets can be the difference between a life of poverty one of relative comfort, a UN report finds. “Mobiles have spawned a wealth of micro-enterprises, offering work to people with...

Census Finds Record Gap Between Rich and Poor

Young people hit hardest

(Newser) - The income gap between the richest and poorest Americans grew last year to its widest amount on record as young adults and children in particular struggled to stay afloat in the recession. The top-earning 20% of Americans—those making more than $100,000 each year—received 49.4% of all...

US Poverty Rate Hits Record 14.3%

One in 7 fall within guidelines; highest since at least '65

(Newser) - The ranks of the working-age poor climbed to the highest level since the 1960s as the recession threw millions of people out of work last year, leaving one in seven Americans in poverty. The overall poverty rate climbed to 14.3%, or 43.6 million people, the Census Bureau said...

US Poverty Approaches 1960s Levels

Record increase expected with 2009 census results

(Newser) - The number of people in the US who are in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Barack Obama's watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty. Census figures for 2009, the recession-ravaged first year of the...

If You're Poor, You've Got Religion...

...Except in the rich US, where 65% say they're devout

(Newser) - The most devout countries in the world are “relatively poor”—except the United States. A new Gallup study shows that in “the world’s poorest countries,” a median of 95% say religion is important in their daily lives. In the richest countries, that number drops to...

Record Number Enrolled in Medicaid
Record Number Enrolled in Medicaid
Aug 30, 2010 10:59 AM CDT

Record Number Enrolled in Medicaid

One in 6 Americans now in federal anti-poverty programs

(Newser) - The recession has sent a record one in six Americans into federal anti-poverty programs, according to a new USA Today survey. More than 50 million are now enrolled in Medicaid, a number that has jumped 17% since the recession’s official start in December 2007. “Virtually every Medicaid director...

Middle Class Morphs Into 'New Poor'

Ever more Americans heading downward

(Newser) - At first, it seemed the financial crisis wouldn't leave the US deeply scarred, that's we'd ultimately emerge from it with renewed energy—until Americans stopped to look around and realized that somewhere along the way the middle-class had atrophied, leaving a small super-rich elite and swelling ranks of the poor....

Billionaires' 'Giving Pledge' Not Good Enough

But here's a way to fix it

(Newser) - A bunch of billionaires have signed up for Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ “ Giving Pledge ,” promising to give away half or more of their money to charity. Sounds great, right? Not to Ron Rosenbaum of Slate . “I think I can speak for the rest of the world...

Why I Honor the True Catholic Church
 Why I Honor the True 
 Catholic Church 
NICHOLAS KRISTOF
May 2, 2010 11:30 AM CDT

Why I Honor the True Catholic Church

Brave priests and nuns sacrifice their lives for the poor

(Newser) - Nicholas Kristof didn't go to Sudan to pontificate about all that's wrong with the Catholic Church, and instead, unexpectedly, he ran into all that's right with it. Here, in the midst of grinding poverty, "are lowly nuns and priest—notable not for the grandeur of their vestments but for...

Mo. clerk says he'll use $258M jackpot on bills
$258M Powerball Winner May Keep Job
Apr 23, 2010 4:00 PM CDT

$258M Powerball Winner May Keep Job

Missouri store clerk making minimum wage will pay bills, fix teeth

(Newser) - A Missouri man who won a $258 million Powerball jackpot said he hasn't decided yet if he'll quit his job at the convenience store where he bought the winning ticket. Chris Shaw, a 29-year-old tattooed father of three, came forward yesterday as the winner of the 10th-largest Powerball jackpot ever,...

How We're Failing MLK
 How We're Failing MLK 
opinion
Apr 3, 2010 10:46 AM CDT

How We're Failing MLK

We've let him down on poverty and war

(Newser) - Forty-two years after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the nation has let him down on two important fronts:
  • Poverty: "All these decades later, little has changed when it comes to economic equality," write Bill Moyers and Michael Winship in Salon . "If anything, the recent economic
...

Advice on How to Live Cheaply, Simply Is Thriving

Books, blogs popular in recession

(Newser) - What with the recession, worldwide poverty, and impending environmental doom, it’s no wonder that bookshelves and the blogosphere are crammed with tales of voluntary privation and experiments in skimp. Last month there was On a Dollar a Day, about a couple's attempt to live on that amount—in San ...

Hipster Defends Using Food Stamps

 Hipster Defends 
 Using Food Stamps 
OPINION
Mar 18, 2010 11:43 AM CDT

Hipster Defends Using Food Stamps

Why the backlash over access to healthy food?

(Newser) - There's been quite the backlash against hipsters buying fancy organic fare with their food stamps, but one such hipster argues that “cheap food is the real extravagance.” Gerry Mak—a subject of the recent Salon article —points out that "a whole rabbit at Lexington Market is...

Hipster Foodies Turn to Food Stamps

Stimulus package makes more young people eligible for benefits

(Newser) - Food stamps are for the poor, no matter if you’re a single mother or a destitute hipster. Salon checks in on the growing number of young, unemployed, college-educated foodies who qualify for stamps and use them for organic delicacies along with staples. One UChicago grad says he “used...

Dr. King: A Life in Photos

  Dr. King: A Life in Photos  
Jan 18, 2010 1:02 PM CST

Dr. King: A Life in Photos

In his last months, Martin Luther King saw poverty as the next struggle

(Newser) - The Root takes the occasion of Martin Luther King Day to observe that Dr. King's focus in the last months of his life was an effort to broaden and convert the civil rights struggle into a campaign to end poverty among all Americans, not just those suffering racial discrimination. It...

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