Tag: Poverty
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Stagnant Wages and Rising Rents Squeeze the Middle Class Out of Boston
Boston, and Massachusetts overall, have been outpacing the country on low unemployment numbers and providing housing for the poor, but a new report suggests that this growth is largely limited to the wealthy, and that upward mobility is on the decline. A new poverty report from the Boston Foundation’s research center titled “Boston’s Booming…But for…
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The True Cost of Food
How much would you expect to pay for the most basic plate of food? The kind of thing you might whip up at home – nothing fancy, just enough to fill you up and meet a third of today’s calorie needs. A soup, maybe, or a simple stew – some beans or lentils, a handful…
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Healthcare is a Human Right
By the time you read this, I will have had my second surgery to plant a fistula in my arm for my eventual dialysis treatment. But that is not what I want to talk about today. After all, I’m fine, and I’m reasonably healthy because I have been lucky. I have great healthcare, and I’m…
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Housing is a Human Right: Homelessness in the Shadow of Wealth
Leilani Farha doesn’t want to live in a world where people have to negotiate to use the bathroom. She doesn’t want to live in a world where residents in the United States, the richest country on the planet, live in encampments infested with rats. Farha doesn’t want to live in a world where people are…
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Study Says Food Assistance Improves Health
A new report links access to SNAP benefits to improved health and lower health care costs. The paper, published by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, compiles studies of the health status of low-income people who receive assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, and those who are eligible…
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Drop in food insecurity ‘not statistically significant’
Recently published Census data shows a modest dip in the overall household poverty rate in 2016, yet the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) said that progress has been “too little and too slow.” “While progress is good, it merely underscores that poverty in this country remains too high, particularly harming children,” FRAC President Jim…
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How Inequality Became the Big Issue Troubling the World’s Top Economists
After a riveting keynote speech from Neil McInroy at this year’s Global Street Paper Summit, it is clear that social inequality is becoming a greater focus for economists. In a recent feature for The Conversation, Steve Schifferes, professor of financial journalism at the University of London, takes a deeper look at why social issues are…
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In Their Own Words: Trump and Clinton on Poverty
This year’s presidential campaign has been about a huge list of topics – but one that seemed to be largely missing from that list was poverty and homelessness. Here’s a last minute, pre-election primer on where the candidates have stood. – Trump says he’ll get Americans out of poverty by “creating incentives.” No, it’s not…