Credit unions launch a savings lottery, and everyone hits the jackpot, By Anne Stuhldreher, February 7, 2010, Washington Post: “Highland Park, Mich., is the last place you’d expect to find more people saving money these days. One-third of the residents live below the poverty line, and everyone sees the blight of vacant homes, abandoned furniture and dumped tires. It seems like a ridiculous place to launch an experiment to turn nonsavers into regular savers. But eight Michigan credit unions, including one in Highland Park, have helped build people’s savings by doing something radical: acting less like financial institutions and more like the lottery. Bank deposits don’t get people’s hearts pumping, but scratch-off tickets do. The average American household snaps up about $500 annually in lottery tickets, whose appeal is especially strong among those with lower incomes. Some estimates suggest that more than 80 percent of lottery revenue comes from households making less than $50,000 a year — the very people who have the hardest time saving…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty