Homelessness

( Tomdispatch.com ) – On the island of Manhattan, where I live, skyscrapers multiply like metal weeds, a vertical invasion of seemingly unstoppable force. For more than a century, they have risen as symbols of wealth and the promise of progress for a city and a nation. In movies and TV shows, those buildings churn […]

Employment

Poverty amid Plenty: A World Fragmented by Inequality

Liz Theoharis

By Liz Theoharis | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – A few weeks ago, the world’s power brokers — politicians, CEOs, millionaires, billionaires — met in Davos, the mountainous Swiss resort town, for the 2023 World Economic Forum. In an annual ritual that reads ever more like Orwellian farce, the global elite gathered — their private jets […]

Food Insecurity

Housing Unaffordable for Half of US Renters

Human Rights Watch

By Matt McConnell | Researcher, Economic Justice and Rights Division | – ( Human Rights Watch ) – New survey data released recently by the United States Census Bureau found that housing payments for about half of all US renters were unaffordable in 2021 under guidelines set by the US Department of Housing and Urban […]

Employment

Child poverty rates highest in states that haven’t raised minimum wage

Minnesota Reformer

By Casey Quinlan | – ( Minnesota Reformer ) – Of the 20 states that have failed to raise the minimum wage above the federal $7.25 an hour standard, 16 have more than 12% of their children living in poverty, according to a States Newsroom analysis of wage and poverty data. Anti-poverty advocates say that’s […]

Democratic Party

If Government wants to Significantly Reduce Poverty, it Can: Census Data Proves It

OtherWords

By Shailly Gupta Barnes | – ( Otherwords.org) – The U.S. Census Bureau recently reported that poverty dropped notably in 2021. Amid a pandemic and widespread economic pain, this is a significant accomplishment. There are three lessons here — about government programs, about how we measure poverty, and about how far we have left to […]

Employment

America as a Sacrifice Zone

Liz Theoharis

( Tomdispatch.com ) – In the American ethos, sacrifice is often hailed as the chief ingredient for overcoming hardship and seizing opportunity. To be successful, we’re assured, college students must make personal sacrifices by going deep into debt for a future degree and the earnings that may come with it. Small business owners must sacrifice […]

Climate Crisis

How Climate Emergency could further Punish Inflation-Ridden Economies, with Record Heat Waves across US, UK and Europe

The Conversation

By Derek Lemoine, University of Arizona | – Hundreds of millions of people struggled to keep cool amid a sweltering summer heat wave as cities across the U.S. and mainland Europe experienced record-high temperatures. In the U.K., thermometers topped 104 Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) on July 19, 2022, the highest ever recorded. While all this […]

Employment

Does the Future Belong to People Who Profit Off Our ‘Excessive Wealth Disorder’?

Sam Pizzigati

( Inequality.org ) – If Dustin Hoffman should ever do a remake of The Graduate, the classic 1967 film that launched his famed cinematic career, what might be the 2020s update for that film’s most iconic exchange? A good many of us still fondly remember that poolside party scene. A 21-year-old “Benjamin” gets pulled aside […]

Food Insecurity

How Far Right Legislators are Criminalizing Homelessness and Recreating Debtors’ Prisons to Please the Rabid Trump Base

H. Scott Prosterman

In today’s America, it is increasingly difficult to tell government officials from criminals. A case in point is the Tennessee legislature, which just criminalized homelessness as a felony , which is surely is a crime against man, nature, humanity and natural law. As of July 1, it will be a felony in Tennessee to camp […]