poverty

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Recession's Consequence: Rise of the 'Working Poor'

One-third of working families near poverty

(Newser) - The good news: More people went back to work in the US in 2011. The bad news: Many of them took lower-paying jobs, leading to an increase in the number of working poor families that year, a new analysis shows. In 2011, there were 200,000 more working poor families—...

Stop Making Fun of &#39;Hilbillies&#39;
 Stop Making Fun of 'Hillbillies' 
OPINION
Jan 8, 2013 1:25 PM CST

Stop Making Fun of 'Hillbillies'

'Buckwild' and the like only hurt Appalachia: Alexandra Bradner

(Newser) - America loves to ogle , and often mock, "rednecks" and "hillbillies." But if we would never dream of treating minorities in the same way, then why is this behavior considered acceptable? Philosophy professor Alexandra Bradner takes on the question in Salon , focusing her ire particularly on MTV's...

What Makes This Man The 'Poorest' President?

Uruguay's Jose Mujica gives 90% of his pay to charity

(Newser) - He's a vegetarian, drives a 1987 VW Beetle, and runs a flower farm. Did we mention he's also the ruler of Uruguay? Jose Mujica is known as the world's 'poorest' president, but the one-time guerrilla revolutionary has chosen to shun the state's grand presidential home...

Economy Has Hit Bottom, Census Suggests
 Economy Has 
 Hit Bottom, 
 Census Suggests 
economic roundup
Sep 20, 2012 7:48 AM CDT

Economy Has Hit Bottom, Census Suggests

On the bright side, there's nowhere to go but up, census suggests

(Newser) - Are you a glass-half-full or a glass-half-empty type? Because that will have a lot to do with how you read the American Community Survey, a compilation of 2011 Census data and unofficial figures from the first quarter of 2012 giving us a glimpse at the US economy. With that much...

US Poverty Rate Still at Record Highs

But figures still better than analysts' predictions

(Newser) - The Census Bureau says the number of Americans in poverty stood at 15% in 2011 as the number of poor remained at record highs. About 46.2 million people, or nearly 1 in 6, were in poverty. The figures were better than the expectations of analysts who had predicted an...

Daycare Now Costs More Than College

 Daycare Now 
 Costs More 
 Than College 
study says
Aug 24, 2012 2:41 PM CDT

Daycare Now Costs More Than College

Sending an infant to a center often breaks the bank for parents

(Newser) - It's entirely possible your children won't even remember the most expensive institution you ever enroll them in. On average, sending an infant to daycare is now more expensive than attending a state college, according to a new study from ChildCare Aware of America. Massachusetts residents, for instance, can...

US Poverty Rate to Hit Highest Since 1960s

Economists think it'll hit 15.7% this year

(Newser) - The ranks of America's poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net. The AP surveyed more than a dozen economists, think tanks, and academics,...

Why Teachers Raged at Kenneth Cole
 Why Teachers Raged 
 at Kenneth Cole 
opinion
Apr 30, 2012 5:30 PM CDT

Why Teachers Raged at Kenneth Cole

David Sirota calls Cole campaign 'propaganda'

(Newser) - Facing outcry from teachers, Kenneth Cole has offered to pull a new ad and web campaign that blithely pits "Teachers' Rights vs. Students' Rights"—and David Sirota's article at Salon explains the hubbub. For starters, a Cole foundation website is asking readers to weigh in on the...

Poor Spend 9% of Income on Lottery Tickets

Mega Millions jackpot inspires experts to take a closer look

(Newser) - The Mega Millions jackpot has inspired much media babble about lottery winners, losers, and what to do if you actually win . But how about the effect of lotteries on the poor? Apparently, it's a killer "hidden tax"—because households banking less than $13,000 a year spend...

Nothing&#39;s Wrong With the &#39;Other America&#39;

 Nothing's Wrong 
 With the 'Other 
 America' 
Barbara Ehrenreich
Mar 15, 2012 1:53 PM CDT

Nothing's Wrong With the 'Other America'

The poor aren't fundamentally flawed, they're just broke: Ehrenreich

(Newser) - Exactly 50 years ago a bestselling book entitled The Other America helped America "discover" the existence of an "invisible" class of poor Americans. It was an important book, but it contained a disastrous idea, writes author Barbara Ehrenreich in Salon : It envisioned the poor as essentially different, caught...

Poverty, Isolation, Nukes&mdash; What Kim Leaves Behind
 Poverty, Isolation, Nukes— 
 What Kim Leaves Behind 
Assessing a Legacy
Dec 19, 2011 7:30 AM CST

Poverty, Isolation, Nukes— What Kim Leaves Behind

Kim Jong Un inherits 'worst legacy' of Cold War, says Guardian

(Newser) - Diplomatically isolated and economically broken, with massive political prisons and perhaps the worst human rights record in the world—oh, and nuclear weapons—that's the North Korean legacy that Kim Jong Il has left for son Kim Jong Un , reports the Guardian . Born on the revered Mt. Baekdu, accompanied...

Nearly Half of Americans Are Poor, Low-Income
Nearly Half of Americans
Are Poor, Low-Income
CENSUS SAYS
Dec 15, 2011 10:26 AM CST

Nearly Half of Americans Are Poor, Low-Income

New metric includes living costs

(Newser) - Nearly 1 in 2 Americans are living either below the poverty level or within a stone's throw of it, according to a new Census metric designed to give a more complete view of poverty. According to the latest data, 49.1 million Americans are below the poverty line, and...

1 in 3 Americans Poor or &#39;Near Poor&#39;
1 in 3 Americans
Poor or 'Near Poor'
Nov 19, 2011 12:03 PM CST

1 in 3 Americans Poor or 'Near Poor'

Census figures show spike in people just getting by: New York Times

(Newser) - More bleak census numbers: About 100 million Americans, or 1 in 3, are either living in poverty or not too far above the official level, reports the New York Times . Specifically, 51 million people have incomes less than 50% above the poverty line, and this group described by the newspaper...

Ranks of Poorest Poor Swell to New High

One in 15 live below half the poverty level

(Newser) - We've got the top 1% , the 99% , and the 53% , but the poorest of the nation's poor has hit a new high: 6.7% of Americans now fall below half of the federal poverty line, reports the AP . That means about 20.5 million Americans, or one in...

15% of Americans Use Food Stamps
 15% of Americans 
 Use Food Stamps 
RECORD high: 45.8M
Nov 2, 2011 10:52 AM CDT

15% of Americans Use Food Stamps

Mississippi leads the way, with 21% of residents on the rolls

(Newser) - A record 45.8 million people—that's a staggering 15% of Americans—sustained themselves via food stamps in August, reports the Wall Street Journal . That number was up 1.1% over July, notes Business Week , and 8.1% over the year prior. In terms of sheer numbers, Texas and...

Stars Unite to 'F*** Famine'

Group aims to raise awareness, not money

(Newser) - Bono, George Clooney, Colin Farrell, and a host of celebrities spout the F-word in a new ad with a simple message: "F*** famine." (Don't worry, it's still SFW, thanks to a lot of censoring.) "Famine is the real obscenity," explains Bono in the...

Nearly 1 in 6 in US Lives in Poverty
 Nearly 1 in 6 in US 
 Lives in Poverty 
census says
Sep 13, 2011 11:41 AM CDT

Nearly 1 in 6 in US Lives in Poverty

In 2010, 15.1% lived below poverty line: US census data

(Newser) - Unsettling news from the US Census Bureau: Nearly one in six people lived in poverty last year. About 46.2 million people, or 15.1%, were below the poverty line, compared to 43.6 million, or 14.3%, in 2009, the AP reports. CNN adds that the poverty rate was...

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial: America Needs Revolution, Not Memorial, Writes Cornel West

 We Need Much 
 More Than a 
 Memorial 
Cornel West
Aug 26, 2011 6:06 PM CDT

We Need Much More Than a Memorial

We need a revolution: Cornel West

(Newser) - The new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall may be a milestone "in the turbulent history of race and democracy in America," but let's not kid ourselves: "King weeps from his grave," writes Cornel West in a New York Times op-ed . Despite...

Poverty Shouldn't Be A Crime: Barbara Ehrenreich
 We've Made It 
 a Crime to Be Poor 
barbara ehrenreich
Aug 13, 2011 2:21 PM CDT

We've Made It a Crime to Be Poor

10 years after 'Nickel and Dimed,' author Ehrenreich says things are even worse

(Newser) - A decade after her expose on America's working poor, Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich has a sobering assessment: "Things have gotten much worse, especially since the economic downturn that began in 2008," she writes in Salon . For one thing, the economy was booming around 2000 when she...

Poorest Place in US: Jewish 'Burb in NY

Kiryas Joel at rock bottom—on paper

(Newser) - Kiryas, NY, doesn’t look like the poorest place in America. The village has no slums, no homeless people, and pretty much no crime. Yet a whopping 70% of Kiryas Joel's 21,000 residents are below the federal poverty line, and its median family income is just $17,929,...

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