Posts tagged as Poverty
Barack Obama and Goldman Sachs' New Permanent Underclass
• Good news, America! We're finally building equal opportunity ghettos! Now that 1 in 15 Americans are considered the "poorest poor," we're making sure they live in underserved neighborhoods; "geographically concentrated poverty in the U.S. is now at the highest since 1990." But it's a rainbow of poverty! Red and yellow, black and white! READ MORE
Hungry People Don't Burn Things Down
How unexpected, that unemployment insurance prevented the U.S. from having the highest poverty rate since the 1960s! May we point out: only barely. 2009's poverty rate: 14.3%. (History: 2007: 12.5%. 2000: 11.3%. 1983: 15.2%. 1973: 11.1%. 1964: 19%.) And that's still after we moved a big chunk of older people out of poverty with OUR INTERFERING BIG GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS. Now we just keep young people poor. (And food-insecure.)
Cars, Emergency Rooms Kill White People A Lot Less
Johns Hopkins announced a study this morning that found that "minority pedestrians are far more likely than white pedestrians to be struck by motor vehicles" and "uninsured minority pedestrians hit by cars are at a significantly higher risk of death than their insured white counterparts, even if the injuries sustained are similar." Oh yes: "uninsured patients had a 77 percent greater risk of death" than the insured. Here's one nice way of putting something complicated: "Previous studies have shown that insurance status and race may increase mortality risk because of treatment delay or differences in services provided." Jaywalking! A one-way ticket to death in racist America! No but, best of all, now we're going to see a spike in "minority" ER visits, since it's the fun new past-time to drive Muslims off the road in your Chevrolet Blazers.
Breakfast In America
More than ten percent of Americans rely on food stamps. Tina Contraeras is one of them: "Unemployed and on disability benefits, Contraeras, 45, has custody of her grandchildren, ages 2 and 3. She has resorted to circling the first of the month on her calendar so that when her grandchildren are hungry, she can count down the days until they can return to the grocery store. READ MORE
The Great Annual Change Bowl Guessing Game
Every year or so, when finances grow slightly tight, Americans turn to that big bowl of change on the dresser. The annual pilgrimage to Coinstar! America! It is like all the money ran out for another country. So let's have a little guessing game. How much change is in The Awl's Big Bowl O' Change? The winning guess will... win something. Not sure what. Undying loyalty? A portion of the profits? A small amount of Awl equity?
Beanie Sigel, "In The Ghetto"
If you're looking to counter the oddly antiseptic aftertaste left by Jay-Z's ostensibly warlike hit "Run This Town," there's this new video from Jay's old Philadelphia recruit, Beanie Sigel. Sit through the corny Vincent-Price-from-"Thriller" voice-over in the beginning, settle in to the swaying organ line and the tinkling piano and, um, brace yourself. READ MORE
Do Not Pay Emergency Room Bills, Poors. This Is How.
I frequently meet people, most of them young and poor, who are burdened by debts to emergency rooms, and I am always shocked that these people with no money are even considering paying. Here is how it is done, in a strangely servicey explanation from Vice. READ MORE
