Can the poor save?, By Mercedes White, July 16 2013, Deseret News: “When Regina Berrios, a 34-year-old single mother of two girls and a boy, talks about her dreams for her family, her eyes sparkle and her smile gets wide. The Redwood City, Calif., resident would like to finish college and get a master’s degree in social work, open up her own business and buy a home for her family. Until recently, Berrios wasn’t optimistic she’d achieve any of these goals. Dreams cost money, something Berrios doesn’t have much of. She supports her kids working full-time at a flower shop where she earns around $16,000/year ($1,200/month). To put in perspective how meager her income is, the Department of Health and Human Services pegs the poverty line at $23,500/year ($1,900 a month) for a family of four. Just buying groceries and paying her phone bill were tough. Berrios is what economists call asset poor, meaning she does not have sufficient savings to sustain life for three months at her current consumption rate…”
Day: July 19, 2013
Media Coverage of Poverty-Related Issues
Things you don’t hear about on TV: 1 in 6 Americans receive food stamps, By Mercedes White, July 17, 2013, Deseret News: “American food-stamp use rose nearly 3 percent between April 2012 and April 2013 according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. Data from the Department of Agriculture shows that enrollment for food stamps (SNAP) is 47.5 million, or one in six Americans. An interactive map put together by the Wall Street Journal shows a state by state comparison of food stamp enrollment, along with information factors that likely contributed to higher enrollment in particular states. With 22 percent of residents relying on food stamps, Mississippi is at the top of the list for states with high enrollment in food support programs. The higher enrollment in Mississippi can be traced back to Hurricane Katerina in 2005 and the economic downturn of 2008, according to the Wall Street Journal. In Oregon, New Mexico, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky, one in five residents receives food stamps. Wyoming had the smallest share of its population on food stamps — 7 percent. Although food stamp use is pervasive, hunger is a relatively unexamined issue in American media…”…”
Suburban Poverty in the US
Poverty has moved to the suburbs, July 20, 2013, The Economist: “Kim, who is 35 years old and has two children, left high school to look after her mother, a cocaine addict. When Kim’s marriage began to fail and her husband fell ill, she developed addictions of her own—to alcohol and pills, from which she has been free for eight months. She now works at a fast-food restaurant, making, she guesses, around $14,000 a year. Melissa once had an event-planning company. She says it was doing well, but “when the economy went down it took my company with it.” She is now jobless. She and her 16-month-old son live in an apartment provided by the Centre for Family Resources (CFR), a charity. Kim and Melissa live in Cobb County, north-west of Atlanta…”