Category Archives: Poverty

DOJ’s Zero Tolerance Of Zero Tolerance

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A Justice Department report critical of the Baltimore police missed the point. So did those who praised and faulted it. [Credit: NY Post]

A Jus­tice Depart­ment report crit­i­cal of the Bal­ti­more police missed the point. So did those who praised and fault­ed it. [Cred­it: NY Post]

The Depart­ment of Jus­tice report on Bal­ti­more police prac­tices has prompt­ed pre­dictable reac­tions from Left and Right.

The report con­firmed sus­pi­cions on the Left that police uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly harassed African-Amer­i­can males. From the Right came reflex­ive defens­es of the police.

Both have a point.  And both miss the point.  As does the report itself. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

If Obama Were President

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The mammone -- a jobless man in his 20s, 30s or 40s who lives with mamma -- is an Italian tradition. But under President Obama, labor force participation rates of young men have plunged to Italian levels. [Credit: studenti.it]

The mam­mone — a job­less man in his 20s, 30s or 40s who lives with mam­ma — is an Ital­ian tra­di­tion. Under Pres­i­dent Oba­ma, labor force par­tic­i­pa­tion rates of young Amer­i­can men have plunged to Ital­ian lev­els. [Cred­it: studenti.it]

In Italy, they call him a mam­mone: an unem­ployed man in his 20s, 30s or 40s who still lives with mamma.

The preva­lence of the mam­mone has long been thought to be a pre­dom­i­nant­ly Ital­ian phe­nom­e­non, with deep cul­tur­al roots.  It has grown more pro­nounced with the country’s recent eco­nom­ic dis­tress.  Since 2008, a grow­ing per­cent­age of Ital­ian men aged 25–54 have aban­doned the labor force, no longer both­er­ing even to look for work.

Italy’s work­force par­tic­i­pa­tion rate among men of prime work­ing age is by far Europe’s low­est.  But it is not the low­est in the devel­oped world.  Italy now shares that dubi­ous dis­tinc­tion with the U.S.

That wouldn’t hap­pen if Oba­ma were Pres­i­dent. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Tsunami And The Triumph Of Hope

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Ten years after a tsunami ravaged villages like this on the Indian Ocean Coast, towns have been rebuilt, lives repaired. [Credit: endignorance.org]

Ten years after a tsuna­mi rav­aged vil­lages like this that line the Indi­an Ocean coast­line, towns have been rebuilt, lives repaired. [Cred­it: endignorance.org]

A decade has passed since a tsuna­mi dev­as­tat­ed vil­lages in 13 Asian coun­tries, which remind­ed me that some­where I have a plas­tic sand­wich bag filled with rupees.

The rupees are among the memen­toes of a woman I cher­ished.  She went to Kudanku­lam, a fish­ing vil­lage on the south­ern tip of the Indi­an sub­con­ti­nent, ten years ago to pro­vide med­ical care to the tsunami’s sur­vivors. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Inequality: What We Earn vs. What We Consume

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Is inequality better measured by what we earn or what we spend? The difference is surprising. [Credit: Politic.org]

Is inequal­i­ty bet­ter mea­sured by what we earn or what we spend? The dif­fer­ence is sur­pris­ing. [Cred­it: Politic.org]

Is your stan­dard of liv­ing bet­ter mea­sured by what you earn or by what you buy?

The ques­tion may seem an odd one, but it is crit­i­cal to under­stand­ing the prob­lem of ris­ing inequal­i­ty. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Vince Young And Economic Mobility

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Vince Young in happier times. His rapid rise and sudden fall constitute a cautionary tale. But behind it all there is good news about economic opportunity and upward mobility. [Credit: Dallas Morning News]

Vince Young in hap­pi­er times. His rapid rise and sud­den fall tell a cau­tion­ary tale. But a new study pro­vides wel­come news about eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty and upward mobil­i­ty. [Cred­it: Dal­las Morn­ing News]

Vince Young is bank­rupt.  The sto­ry of a star col­lege quar­ter­back who rose from hum­ble cir­cum­stances to impos­si­ble wealth only to plunge into insol­ven­cy in the course of eight years is one marked by extrav­a­gant spend­ing, fool­ish invest­ments and, he has argued in court doc­u­ments, exploita­tion by agents, busi­ness asso­ciates, fam­i­ly and friends.  His is an extreme exam­ple of eco­nom­ic mobility.

Reports of Young’s bank­rupt­cy fil­ing coin­cid­ed with the release this week of a new study by a group of Har­vard and Berke­ley econ­o­mists that reached an unex­pect­ed con­clu­sion: upward eco­nom­ic mobil­i­ty is not the exclu­sive province of entre­pre­neurs, enter­tain­ers and star ath­letes like Young. The Nation­al Bureau of Eco­nom­ic Research [NBER] report con­clud­ed that “chil­dren enter­ing the labor mar­ket today have the same chances of mov­ing up in the income dis­tri­b­u­tion (rel­a­tive to their par­ents) as chil­dren born in the 1970s.” Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Frenemies of the Poor

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The 50th anniversary of the President Johnson's declaration of a War on Poverty has provoked strong views on whether it has succeeded or failed. The truth lies somewhere between. [Credit: Huffington Post]

The 50th anniver­sary of the Pres­i­dent John­son’s dec­la­ra­tion of a War on Pover­ty has pro­voked strong views on whether it has suc­ceed­ed or failed. The truth lies some­where between. [Cred­it: Huff­in­g­ton Post]

It’s not much of an exag­ger­a­tion to say that right now Repub­li­cans are doing all they can to hurt the poor, and they would have inflict­ed vast­ly more harm if they had won the 2012 elec­tion. More­over, GOP harsh­ness toward the less for­tu­nate isn’t just a mat­ter of spite (although that’s part of it); it’s deeply root­ed in the party’s ide­ol­o­gy.  Paul Krug­man, “Ene­mies of the Poor,” Jan­u­ary 12, 2014

The 50th anniver­sary of Pres­i­dent Johnson’s War on Pover­ty has occa­sioned a good deal of moral exhi­bi­tion­ism. Lib­er­als heap praise on the pro­grams and flat­ter them­selves for sup­port­ing the trans­fer of an esti­mat­ed $20.7 tril­lion (in 2011 dol­lars) in cash and non-cash ben­e­fits from those who earned it to those who did not. And they are rel­ish­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to denounce con­ser­v­a­tives as ene­mies of the poor, moti­vat­ed by ide­ol­o­gy and spite.

Some con­ser­v­a­tives, like the Her­itage Foundation’s Robert Rec­tor, are using the anniver­sary to declare the War on Pover­ty lost. Rec­tor recent­ly was quot­ed as say­ing that “the War on Pover­ty has been a com­plete cat­a­stro­phe.” Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Good News Pope Francis Missed

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Pope Francis's inaugural encyclical celebrated the gospel and excoriated markets. But did he overlook some very good news? [Credit: Telegraph]

Pope Fran­cis’s inau­gur­al encycli­cal cel­e­brat­ed the gospel and exco­ri­at­ed mar­kets. But did he over­look some very good news? [Cred­it: Telegraph]

In writ­ing about the joy of the gospel, Pope Fran­cis over­looked some very good news – about mar­kets, about com­pas­sion, about poverty.

His first encycli­cal (Evan­gelii Gaudi­um, “The Joy of The Gospel”) has drawn atten­tion less for its focus on mis­sions than for its eco­nom­ic pro­nounce­ments. Pres­i­dent Oba­ma favor­ably cit­ed the doc­u­ment in his recent remarks on eco­nom­ic mobil­i­ty, while some con­ser­v­a­tive com­men­ta­tors have offered up harsh crit­i­cisms. Con­tin­ue read­ing →