The whole reason that the Sequestration hasn’t gotten more media coverage is because it is affecting poor people most… It’s a shame on the nation.
Jon Berg, qtd. on The Daily Show segment, “Cut Punters” (April 30).
Research ties economic inequality to gap in life expectancy
The widening gap in life expectancy between these two adjacent Florida counties reflects perhaps the starkest outcome of the nation’s growing economic inequality: Even as the nation’s life expectancy has marched steadily upward, reaching 78.5 years in 2009, a growing body of research shows that those gains are going mostly to those at the upper end of the income ladder.
The Lines Between Us, Episode #20: The Middle-Class
If you haven’t checked out this series from Baltimore’s local NPR station, “The Lines Between Us,” you should take a minute and check it out.
This episode focuses on the staggering decline of the middle class in Baltimore. You can listen for free here.
In 1970, two-thirds of Americans lived in middle-income neighborhoods, according to the US2010 research project. Now it’s less than half, and the proportion of poor and rich neighborhoods has doubled. On the map to the right, you can watch middle-income neighborhoods (the lighter colors) be gobbled up by the red (affluent) and blue (poor) neighborhoods over time.
It’s not just that rising income inequality is depleting the middle class that would fill those middle class neighborhoods, according to Sean Reardon, one of the US2010 researchers who provided us the maps. Americans are sorting themselves by income more than ever.
People are rising all across the globe. Go to the website to see live clips of inspiration from India, Sudan, Taiwan, Phillipines, Australia and more! What will you do to rise today?
Source: onebillionrising.org
U.N. launches new fight against food waste
No one can agree on just how much food we’re wasting. But it is so, so much.
The United Nations and its Food and Agriculture Organization say it’s a third of all food produced, while other studies say it’s closer to 40 or 50 percent. After it leaves the farm, a lot of food is chucked because it’s not pretty, or it’s past its expiration date, or it simply falls through the cracks. According to the EPA, food waste makes up 21 percent of the garbage bound for landfills in the U.S.
This is not news — we’ve known for a while that our modern foodprint is massive. What’s noteworthy is that people are actually maybe kind of starting to do something about it.
Source: grist.org
In the town that launched the War on Poverty 48 years ago, the poor are getting poorer despite the government’s help. And the rich are getting richer because of it.
The top 5 percent of households in Washington, D.C., made more than $500,000 on average last year, while the bottom 20 percent earned less than $9,500 - a ratio of 54 to 1.
That gap is up from 39 to 1 two decades ago. It’s wider than in any of the 50 states and all but two major cities. This at a time when income inequality in the United States as a whole has risen to levels last seen in the years before the Great Depression.
READ ON: The Unequal State of America - A Reuters Series
The carbon tax is a market-based approach to account for the external/social costs of carbon pollution. Though it has ‘tax’ in its name, it’s actually supported and even championed by a number of Republicans as well as Democrats. (Look at that—a policy solution with bipartisan support!) And it could make a big dent in the budget deficit.
Step Up Climate Action to Reduce Poverty
People sit on the rooftops of houses submerged in floodwaters, after days of heavy rain brought by Hurricane Sandy in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Oct. 26, 2012. REUTERS/Ricardo Rojas
The devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy reminds us once again of the destructive potential of extreme weather - even in a developed country such as the United States, and even with ample warning and swift emergency response. From Kingston, Jamaica to Jamaica, Queens, this “perfect storm” exacted a deadly toll that New York’s mayor reckoned was even higher as a result of climate change.
Read more
Hurricane Sandy: Income inequality writ large
Power outages didn’t divide New York. It’s always been a city split between the haves and have nots
After an explosion at a power station cut off power to Lower Manhattan, photos showed a stark divide in Manhattan between lit-up uptown and downtown blanketed in darkness. The image was gripping, but when the inevitable posts went up declaring that “New York is now divided,” I had to laugh. Because it’s not the divisions we can see after a storm, but rather the city’s giant unseen fissure which makes events like Sandy so threatening.
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