I went into my local bicycle store this morning to get a long-overdue tuneup and saw clear evidence of how the horrible economic situation is affecting retailers. First, I was the only customer in the store: this on a Saturday morning, when that store is usually filled with cyclers passing by the bike route in [...]
Archive for February, 2009
Yeah, it’s a slow economy
Posted in Data, Employment, tagged Economy, Employment on February 28, 2009 | 1 Comment »
GOOD reporting on a sad reality
Posted in Immigration, tagged GOOD, immigrant detention, Immigration on February 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
If you haven’t heard of GOOD, you should check it out at www.good.is. Here’s how the website explains what it’s about: GOOD is a collaboration of individuals, businesses, and nonprofits pushing the world forward. Since 2006 we’ve been making a magazine, videos, and events for people who give a damn. You can get a subscription [...]
Disparities Faced by Boys and Men of Color in California
Posted in Race/ethnicity, tagged Health, Poverty, race on February 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In a previous post, I alluded to the endurance of inequality along race/ethnic lines in many socio-economic indicators. A recent report by RAND, commissioned by The California Endowment, is a good example of research documenting these disparities. The report, titled Reparable Harm, looks specifically at the gap between Latino and African American males and their [...]
The impact of the recession on the poor, and what’s in the stimulus bill for the hardest hit anyway?
Posted in Data, Homelessness, Poverty, tagged American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, deep poverty, extreme poverty, Homelessness, Poverty, stimulus package on February 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
As highlighted in my previous post, accurately measuring poverty is difficult enough, but another challenge is the timeliness of the data. Even when we have good numbers there is usually a significant lag time between when residents were surveyed and when the final data are released. The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty has [...]
Measuring poverty
Posted in Data, Poverty, tagged Poverty, Poverty measurement on February 18, 2009 | 4 Comments »
It seems like it should be so simple to know how many and what types of people live in poverty, but in reality it isn’t. As highlighted in the Why section of this blog, the official method for measuring poverty in the U.S. was developed decades ago and has several serious limitations. This is more [...]
Layoffs increase the ranks of the uninsured
Posted in Health, Working poor, tagged Employment, Health, health insurance on February 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in the U.S. went up 1.6 points from September 2008 to January 2009, which would mean according to these estimates that the number of people without health insurance increased by about 1.7 million. Clearly, the economic meltdown is affecting all sectors of our society and placing strains on already-overburdened safety net systems.
Report from New Orleans, Part II: What you can do to help
Posted in Poverty, tagged Homelessness, New Orleans, Poverty on February 11, 2009 | 5 Comments »
As noted in an earlier post, the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina to New Orleans was unbelievable, but just as impressive from my recent visit there was the vibrant spirit of rebuilding by committed residents and organizations. As promised, here are some ideas on what you can do to help in this effort: Visit, eat [...]
Race and Inequality: the End of White America?
Posted in Immigration, Race/ethnicity, tagged ethnicity, race, whiteness on February 9, 2009 | 1 Comment »
One of the most enduring factors in socioeconomic inequality in the U.S. has long been differences along racial lines, particularly between whites and African Americans. Due in large part to the successful presidential campaign of Barack Obama, the salience of these dynamics have come into question. If he could win over the nearly all-white populace [...]
Should I or shouldn’t I give money to people on the street?
Posted in Homelessness, Poverty, tagged Homelessness, Poverty on February 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
It’s an age old question: do you give money to someone panhandling on the street? I heard Patty Stonesifer, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, on NPR recently talking about a Slate article she wrote with her daughter trying to answer this question. She argues that rather than giving handouts, we should [...]
Report from New Orleans, Part I: A national disgrace and local dreams
Posted in Poverty, tagged Homelessness, New Orleans, Poverty on February 4, 2009 | 2 Comments »
I spent a couple days in New Orleans this week learning about the recovery effort from Katrina. It was, in a word, stunning. I was stunned by the endurance of the devastation more than three years since the storms, as well as by the resilience and passion with which residents are rebuilding their great city. [...]
