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It Is Expensive to Be Poor

Minimum-wage jobs are physically demanding, have unpredictable schedules, and pay so meagerly that workers can't save up enough to move on.

"Why is CNN discussing Tamir Rice’s weight and height? A police officer murdered a 12-year-old child in 1.5 seconds. That’s the story."

From @CarolineSiede on twitter. (via stevemarmel)

For whatever we lose (a you or a me) it’s always ourselves we find in the sea.  - E.E. Cummings

Paper sculptures by Peter Gentenaar

The world’s most viewed TED Talk. In GIFs!

I believe that every American should at least watch this monologue from The Newsroom.

“When lobbyists want something, when a giant oil company wants the Keystone pipeline, or when Citibank wants to blast a hole in Dodd-Frank, the Republicans move faster than lightning,” Warren said at a Capitol Hill news conference. “But when it comes to things that will help families, the Republicans refuse to move.” “If the Republicans won’t move, then we should move them out of the way,” she added.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)

After all, if generous aid to the poor perpetuates poverty, the United States — which treats its poor far more harshly than other rich countries, and induces them to work much longer hours — should lead the West in social mobility, in the fraction of those born poor who work their way up the scale. In fact, it’s just the opposite: America has less social mobility than most other advanced countries. And there’s no puzzle why: it’s hard for young people to get ahead when they suffer from poor nutrition, inadequate medical care, and lack of access to good education. The antipoverty programs that we have actually do a lot to help people rise. For example, Americans who received early access to food stamps were healthier and more productive in later life than those who didn’t. But we don’t do enough along these lines. The reason so many Americans remain trapped in poverty isn’t that the government helps them too much; it’s that it helps them too little.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/07/opinion/krugman-the-hammock-fallacy.html?ref=todayspaper (via shhaauun)

Look at the difference: In 1977 I bought a small house in Portland Oregon for $24,000. At the time I was earning $5 per hour working at a large auto parts store. I owned a 4 year old Chevy Nova that cost $1,500. Now, 36 years later that same job pays $8 an hour, that same house costs $185,000 and a 4 year old Chevy costs $10,000. Wages haven’t kept up with expenses at all. And, I should point out that that $5 an hour job in 1977 was union and included heath benefits.

an anonymous online commenter on the current economy. (via han-nara)