Posts Tagged Poverty

Daily Feminist Cheat Sheet

The best Royal Baby newspaper front page.

Katie on why the Royal Baby should have been a girl.

What you need to know about military sexual trauma.

SURJ has released a Justice for Trayvon Martin activist toolkit for white people.

Dreamers take a huge risk to return home.

“Why I support the #BringThemHome campaign.”

Eve Ensler was wrong.

On forced sterilization in India and horror films.

USC and Dartmouth are both being investigated by the Department of Ed for mishandling sexual violence.

The War on Drugs is really the War on Blacks.

Who is the Saddest Girl in music?

Good job, team. Let’s gender losing ...

The best Royal Baby newspaper front page.

Katie on why the Royal Baby should have been a girl.

What you need to know about military sexual trauma.

SURJ has released a Justice for ...

Quick Hit: What happens to women who are denied abortions?

They’re three times more likely than those who got an abortion to be below the poverty level two years later, for one thing.

The New York Times Magazine takes an in-depth look at a first-of-its-kind study–which we’ve mentioned before–that’s trying to determine how women who are forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term after being turned away from abortion clinics fare compared to demographically similar women who got the abortions they wanted. Here’s what head researcher Diana Greene Foster of UCSF has found so far:

When she looked at more objective measures of mental health over time — rates of depression and anxiety — she also found no correlation between having an abortion and increased symptoms. In a working paper based ...

They’re three times more likely than those who got an abortion to be below the poverty level two years later, for one thing.

The New York Times Magazine takes an in-depth look at a first-of-its-kind study–which ...

Behold the spectacle that is poverty! NYC bus tour offers the “ghetto” as an attraction

The Black Youth Project reported that a bus tour in New York City called Real Bronx Tours was apparently offering its patrons the opportunity to see what what a “real ghetto” looks like. They ride through the Bronx, a New York borough that is heavily populated with poor people of color, making fun of residents and wowing their audience with stories about how dangerous the neighborhood is.

This is obviously problematic in more ways than one. On the surface level, it doesn’t seem to be a service worth its money. According to someone on the tour:

“At one point during the tour, Battaglia [the tour guide] allegedly told the tourists in front of pantry line, ‘I don’t know what that line’s ...

The Black Youth Project reported that a bus tour in New York City called Real Bronx Tours was apparently offering its patrons the opportunity to see what what a “real ghetto” looks like. They ride through ...

Poverty in America: What we hope, what we believe, and what is actually true

This video, created by YouTube user “Politizane,” aptly demonstrates not only the astonishing wealth inequality in the United States, but the great yawning divide between what Americans believe is the distribution of wealth in this country and what actually exists. Note: the idealized version of the wealth curve is the same across partisan lines. (No socialism here!)

According to Politizane, who created the visualization using data from Mother Jones, Think Progress, CNN, and economist Dan Ariely, the poorest Americans, in our idealized version, would be poor, but wouldn’t suffer unduly. In reality, the poor don’t even register on the wealth scale. The middle class is barely distinguishable from the poor, and even the ...

This video, created by YouTube user “Politizane,” aptly demonstrates not only the astonishing wealth inequality in the United States, but the great yawning divide between what Americans believe is the distribution of wealth in this country and ...

Is this #FirstWorldProblems video genius or exploitative?

When I begin writing a blog post, I normally figure out what I think about something and then try to make that argument in a logical and concise way so that you the reader agrees with me by the end. Thus, it’s very rare that I don’t know the answer to the question I’m posing when I’m drafting a post.

So when I saw this video, by WaterIsLife.com, featuring children living in third world countries spouting off a series of #firstworldproblems to make the point that they aren’t actually real problems, I was conflicted. Sure, it’s an effective way to make the point that we have it pretty good and have so much to be grateful for.

At the same time, ...

When I begin writing a blog post, I normally figure out what I think about something and then try to make that argument in a logical and concise way so that you the reader agrees with me ...

Chart of the Day: Poor elderly women to get screwed in fiscal cliff deal


After several offers and counteroffers, Congress and the President may be close to reaching a fiscal cliff deal. Part of that agreement involves cutting Social Security benefits by switching to calculating them based on chained CPI.

According to Brad DeLong, “‘Chained-CPI’ is code for ‘let’s really impoverish some women in their 90s!'”

Since women tend to live longer than men and tend to be poorer than men, they’ll be the hardest hit by this change. As Bryce Covert notes, Social Security is basically the only source of income for nearly 40 percent of women over 80, compared to 28 percent of men. By switching to chained-CPI, at age 80, a single elderly woman’s Social Security benefits would be cut by ...

Phoenix Mayor finds out first hand that it’s hard to eat well off of food stamps

The mayor of Phoenix was asked to live on a foodstamp budget for one week in honor of Hunger Awareness Month. He did, but found after 4 days he was “hungry and tired.”

He writes in his journal,

OK- ran out the door today with no time to scramble eggs or even make a sandwich. So I’m surviving on an apple and handful of peanuts, and the coffee I took to the office until dinner. I’m tired, and it’s hard to focus. I can’t go buy a sandwich because that would be cheating- even the dollar menu at Taco Bell is cheating. You can’t use SNAP benefits at any restaurants, fast food or otherwise. I’m facing a long, hungry day and an ...

The mayor of Phoenix was asked to live on a foodstamp budget for one week in honor of Hunger Awareness Month. He did, but found after 4 days he was “hungry and tired.”

He writes in his journal,

OK- ...

Mitt Romney says he cares about Americans, but not the very poor

In a stunning demonstration of his lack of empathy, tact and political savvy, Mitt Romney confirmed all of the accusations that he is privileged and out of touch with most Americans and specifically insensitive to the hardships so many Americans are currently experiencing.

I particularly love the way he suggests that the very poor are not “Americans.” And of course the great irony, as Think Progress points out, is that Romney wants to cut the very programs– which are already insufficient– he claims take care of the poor.

I’m in the race because I care about Americans. I’m not concerned with the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs ...

In a stunning demonstration of his lack of empathy, tact and political savvy, Mitt Romney confirmed all of the accusations that he is privileged and out of touch with most Americans and specifically insensitive ...

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