What it means to be poor by global standards
What exactly does it mean to live on $2 per day? And how does that compare with the notion of poverty in richer countries?
A Global Middle Class Is More Promise than Reality
The first decade of this century witnessed an historic reduction in global poverty and a near doubling of the number of people who could be considered middle income. But the emergence of a truly global middle class is still far from fruition.
Hispanics only group to see its poverty rate decline and incomes rise
Public is sharply divided in views of Americans in poverty
Poverty is an issue that deeply divides the American public when it comes to how much of a role government should play in alleviating the problems of the poor.
One-in-four Native Americans and Alaska Natives are living in poverty
On his visit to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota today, President Obama is using his first stop at a Native American reservation while in office to highlight the challenges Native Americans face. In an op-ed published in Indian Country Today, Obama called the poverty and high school dropout rates among Native Americans […]
Minimum wage hasn’t been enough to lift most out of poverty for decades
The current federal minimum wage falls below the poverty threshold for most households. A new CBO report says raising the minimum will increase income for millions of low-wage workers but cost thousands their jobs.
Inequality, poverty divide Republicans more than Democrats
There are wide gaps between conservative and centrist Republicans on whether the government should do something to reduce poverty and inequality.
Who’s poor in America? 50 years into the ‘War on Poverty,’ a data portrait
The War on Poverty was arguably the most ambitious domestic policy initiative since the Great Depression. But the overall effectiveness of the War on Poverty remains hotly debated.
Four takeaways from Tuesday’s Census income and poverty release
On Tuesday the Census Bureau released its annual trove of data on income, poverty and health insurance in 2012. Here were some of the key findings on household income: New data show that median household income has stagnated for the longest period since the government began collecting such data in 1967. In 2012 the median […]
King’s “I have a dream” speech, by the numbers
Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech 50 years ago today on Washington D.C.’s National Mall and Memorial Parks has become one of the most famous, and quoted, pieces of oratory in U.S. history (though that wasn’t apparent to everyone at the time). But how well have the aspirations King so memorably expressed been realized? We ran […]
