March 2010
2 posts
The Hungry Hungry Hipsters →
This is an interesting development, perhaps it’s mostly hype, but the newest group to go on social assistance are twenty-somethings using their food stamps to buy organic vegetables.
Via: Salon
Let's All Party as America Reverts to its... →
Not a bad idea since Detroit is already full of urban subsistence farms (or as full as a deserted city can be.)
July 2009
5 posts
America's Meanest Cities for Homeless →
The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP) and the National Coalition for the Homeless released a list of America’s Meanest Cities for homeless Americans based on anti-homeless laws and the way the homeless are targeted in these cities. Some of these cities are surprising because you would think, cities associated with prestigious academic institutions would work harder to...
June 2009
19 posts
“I’m responsible for a great deal of suffering and pain, I understand...”
– Bernie Madoff before he was sentenced today.
TARP CEO Wife As Vile As You Imagined →
This is an article one of the wives of a TARP recipient wrote. She is a rich, obnoxious, woman complaining about her life. She bemoans having to act like a human being and shows no signs of concern for the people whose lives were destroyed by the economic disaster her husband helped create.
On the upside, Vile Plutocrat makes fun of her.
Via: Conde Nast Portfolio
Poorgeoisie →
We all lament our situations, giving up luxuries, like Starbucks, like Bath & Body Works, during this recession, but while we struggle there those that suffer. It’s the bum-proof bench of the recession. Those who were already poor, are doing worse than ever, but rarely do we here about them in relation to the recession. The highest rate of unemployment is among unskilled laborers. The...
Have to be rich to be poor →
I know I’ve blogged about this before, but after that last post I think it bears repeating. It is expensive to be poor. Poor people pay more for food, housing, to wash their clothes, to even get their freaking paycheck. So, here is an article from WaPo illustrating this point again.
Via: Washington Post
“All The Money Or The Simple Life...
This Is Why You're Poor
Before I start ranting I want to apologize, because I have been erroneously categorizing my financial situation. I’m not poor; I’m broke. You would think I would know to recognize this distinction but I misinterpreted the longevity of my financial state as equivocal to not being able to bring myself out of it, which is the very definition of poverty. I’m sorry and from now on I will refer to my...
Medical Bills! Cause Bankruptcy
Contrary to popular belief (by popular I mean stupid), most bankruptcies are not caused by housewives let loose with credit cards. A new study indicates the majority (62%) of bankruptcies are caused by medical bills. 75% of these debtors actually had health insurance and most were college educated and middle class.
I guess the plan is:
Go to college
Get a good job with health benefits
Go...
Dead End Street by The Kinks
WatchDon’t have insurance? Don’t go to the ER.
MAN APPLIES FOR 300 JOBS AND GETS NOWHERE.
the405club:
-By Janet Raiffa, Contributing Writer, Member & Recruiting Manager
If you’re getting depressed about your job search and your low hit rate on resumes this month’s “Esquire” may provide some consolation. While the cover photo of Israeli model Bar Rafaeli clad only in body paint will likely delight 90% of the male population (and 10% of the female population if statistics are...
Government Must Now Support Me
Benefit spending (or what some might call entitlement spending) has steeply increased this year to the tune of 209 billion dollars.
33 million people on Food Stamps, 5 million more than last year
10-15% increase in retirees collecting Social Security benefits. Now that they no longer have jobs or any retirement left, why not just give up and start collecting Social Security? Hey, Medicare...
Living Near Rich Kills
My last post illustrated that in fact, being poor makes you sick because you are constantly reminded you don’t have a dvd player, iPhone, or “me time.” It turns out that living in a wealthy neighborhood exacerbates these problems. Well first off, if you are poor and live in a rich neighborhood, you’re probably working for rich people, some who treat you like an indentured...
Poverty Kills
We already know poverty is expensive, and now I’ve learned it can kill you. I just read a 2005 report on poverty by Robert Sapolsky linking poverty and ill health. I can already hear a chorus of “well, no kidding,” but bear with me. This study controlled for things like access to healthcare and violence. It also addresses the complications of poverty like, say, income insecurity...
16.4% U.S. Under/Unemployment →
Currently 16.4% of the workforce is either unemployed, underemoployed or otherwise beaten down by the current economic condition. That sucks. What sucks even worse- I’m one of them.
via BLS
May 2009
7 posts
WatchA makeshift homeless shelter in SoCal was discovered underneath the freeway. The city is forcing out the residents, some living there for up to ten years, and moving them elsewhere.
Via: CNN, UPI
WatchWhat Makes Us Happy? A video with the psychiatrist working with the Harvard Study of Adult Development. Begun in 1937, the HSAD followed Harvard undergraduates from their sophomore year of college through their lives until death. JFK even participated. The study is interesting because it produces all these questions about happiness and success. The greater predictors of health in these men were...
Homelessness & Wired →
Homelessness is not keeping these people from being online. It’s not easy to stay connected but I guess some people are trying. This makes sense to me. Homelessness disconnects people from society and, the internet reconnects them to friends, family, social services, etc. With netbooks getting less and less expensive, and wifi getting more and more prevalent, this seems like a good trend,...
Rejected White Whines
These are whines I’ve submitted to White Whine and haven’t been posted there. I think they’re the epitomy of upper crustiness. These are collected from Facebook statuses, things I’ve overheard and comments from the New York Times Style section.
“I hate it when my groceries are delivered at the later end of the scheduled window”
“We can’t hang out...
“Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.”
– Epictetus (via theimpossiblecool)
WatchI’ve seen both sides of this issue, mothers who cannot survive without the child support and otherwise good fathers unable to pay the court ordered sums. Complicating the situation further, when a single mother applies for TANF or Food Stamps, the Office of Child Support Enforcement automatically files for child support. A lot of this could be done out of the court system I think.
Bad News by Owen
This seems to be the theme song...
April 2009
8 posts
The Hooverville that wasn't | The Economist →
“For some reason, America notices only when they’re on Oprah, or from the middle class.” - The Economist
“If you were waiting for a sign. This is it. Do it. It will be amazing.”
– PostSecret
Poverty Harms The Brain →
Everyone knows poverty creates disadvantages, but generally we think of those as structural disadvantages, poorer schools, less access to opportunity, etc. But now research say the stress of poverty actually impairs the brain’s ability to learn.
Via Kalamazoo Gazette
WatchPBS Frontline: Sick In America
Watch whole program online
March Unemployment & Underemployment →
This is dismal and rising. Underemployment & unemployment combined are now (seasonally adjusted) 15.9%. The unemployment rate is 8.9%.
March 2009
1 post
February 2009
10 posts
WatchPBS Frontline “Inside the Meltdown” explores the beginning of the financial crisis with te eery voice of the Frontline narrator and Chris Dodd.
Watch the entire episode
2 tags
“ If the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our...”
– The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
3 tags
Poverty = Negligence? →
The Nadya Suleman story has pissed me off for days. A chorus of “take the kids! take this kids!” Have these people screaming this way ever known any foster kids? That usually doesn’t end well.
Low-income parents are much more likely to have their children removed from their care. Take this story from a story from Ms. Magazine.
When a recurrent plumbing problem in an upstairs...
ARRA & Poverty
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Stimulus package) has been criticzed by a bunch of anti-welfare knuckleheads because it includes some increases in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and food stamp increases.Here are the facts:
The ARRA does include a 13% increase in food stamp benefits over the next year. It also waives the limit on benefits for adults without...
Thoughts on Octo-Mom
I’m sticking up for Nadya Suleman. Who’s with me? Okay, I guess I’m on my own. Ms. Suleman’s action were not responsible but she’s not alone. I’ve seen many people with 14 kids and no resources to care for them. Some of my clients lack the intellectual capacity to write their own names yet they conceive and raise (or something) seven, eight & ten kids.
How are...
3 tags
A Man-Made Disaster →
The whole economic crisis could be called a man-made disaster. This takes that a step further. County Comissioners in Port St. Lucie, Florida are contemplating an unprecedented move. They are considering declaring the county a man-made disaster. The city is 8th worst in the nation for foreclosures. The comissioner even said the economy has suffered more from high unemployment and high foreclosure...
