Can the poor pull themselves out of poverty? By Diane Brady, June 25, 2014, Bloomberg Businessweek: “Amid all the debate over poverty’s causes and cures right now, little focus has been on what the poor can do to help themselves. They’re more often cast as the victims of concentrated wealth, misguided policies, and a laissez-faire capitalist system that’s created more crises and fewer opportunities to succeed. As President Barack Obama noted on June 23 at the White House Summit on Working Families: ‘There are a whole lot of people who are working harder than ever and can’t seem to get ahead.’ When it comes to such issues as trade and taxation, workers obviously don’t hold much sway. Almost half of Americans now attribute poverty to factors other than individual initiative, according to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. In 1995, less than a third felt that way. Yet many Americans continue to move into higher income brackets, despite stagnant wages and job growth. They pay for cars, cell phones, and college without getting crippled by credit card debt. They’re able to buy homes and save for retirement. To John Hope Bryant, an entrepreneur and founder of the nonprofit Operation HOPE. . .”
Tag: Financial literacy
Individual Development Accounts
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…”
Payday Lending
Payday loans cost economy $1 billion in 2011: study, By Mark Koba, May 2, 2013, CNBC: “Payday loans cost the U.S. economy nearly $1 billion and thousands of jobs in 2011, according to a report from the Insight Center for Community Economic Development. The study says that the burden of repaying the loans resulted in $774 million in lost consumer spending and 14,000 job losses. Bankruptcies related to payday loans numbered 56,230, taking an additional $169 million out of the economy…”