Little federal help for the long-term unemployed, By Annie Lowrey and Catherine Rampell, November 1, 2012, New York Times: “In the economy-focused presidential campaign, the two candidates and their teams have scarcely mentioned what economists describe as not just one of the labor market’s most pressing problems, but the entire country’s: long-term unemployment. Nearly five million Americans out of work for more than six months are left to wonder what kind of help might be coming, as the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund and a bipartisan swath of policy experts implore Washington to act — both to alleviate human misery and to ensure the strength of the economy. The pain of the long-term unemployed has persisted even as the overall jobs picture has brightened a bit and the unemployment rate has fallen to 7.8 percent…”
Day: November 1, 2012
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Food stamps and the politics of poverty, By Shereen Marisol Meraji, October 30, 2012, Marketplace: “Andrea Waterstreet is 44, single and doesn’t have children. She grew up in middle class suburbia and worked for 25 years, mostly as a waitress. But when she was diagnosed with a chronic illness and became too sick to work, she quit her job. That was in 2008. ‘I’ve been working since I was 14 or 15,’ says Waterstreet. ‘And this is something I never thought would happen.’ She covered her bills using unemployment benefits until they ran out in 2009. Waterstreet says she lives simply in a rent-controlled apartment in San Francisco with roommates, doesn’t have a car and has a pay-as-you-go cell phone. ‘It’s been a couple of years of living off nothing at all,’ she says. Nothing but a few hundred dollars from her parents for rent. And food stamps, though she doesn’t use that term…”