Poverty Wisespread in the Elderly

There's no doubt that poverty and homelessness is a growing problem in America. However, it appears that poverty is especially evident in elderly people. Nearly one in adults over the age of 65 live in a family with income below the official U.S. poverty line. Twenty percent of older adults who are black or Hispanic are poor, and poverty hits people with limited education and those who are not married especially hard. In an article by AARP, experts discuss this issue.

The fact that 3.7 million older adults do not have sufficient cash income to meet their basic expenses too often escapes attention. By most accounts, elderly poverty is a problem we have largely solved. Since 1968 the poverty rate among adults age 65 and older has declined by about a third, falling from 25 percent in 1968 to 9.7 percent in 2008. In contrast, poverty among younger adults, and especially among children, has risen in recent decades even as a national prosperity, real gross domestic product per capita, has grown. But poverty-particularly poverty among the elderly- is mismeasured and poverty rates are still unacceptably high, especially for certain groups of older Americans.

 The main reason that so many elderly are forced into poverty is due to the unaffordable cost of housing. After retiring, people no longer have a steady source of income high enough to pay for necessities. Along with medication many elderly people have to buy, it's no wonder that so many old people are on welfare checks. This is not a problem that we can solve easily but with the right programs, the government can help alleviate this issue.

Another War in the Middle East?

Following riots and opposition from Qaddafi's troops,a no-fly zone was imposed on Libya. Now, after anti aircraft artillery has been destroyed, allied planes have been bombing Libyan ground troops more intensely. These planes are attacking mainly in urban cities which means there is a high chance of civilian casualties. The attacks lead the public to wonder where the line is between all out war the more limited mission of enforcing a no-fly zone. In a N.Y. Times article, other difficult questions are raised:

As the war intensified, Mr. Obama faced new pressures in Congress. The House speaker, John A. Boehner, sent the White House a letter on Wednesday, demanding answers about the cost of the war, an exit strategy and when the United States would hand off the lead role to the allies. He also asked a question central in Washington: “Is it an acceptable outcome for Qaddafi to remain in power after the military effort concludes in Libya?”

While most of the public seems to be against the war, everybody is wondering this same question. What will happen if Qaddafi leaves power after his long and vice-like reign? The U.S. already has many enemies in the middle-east and placing a dictator more favorable to the U.S. in power could have many negative effects. Can we afford to be in another war right now? Obama faces many tough choices and the future of much of the world depends on his decisions.

Radiation Spreads in Japan

After a 9.0 earthquake hit Japan, nuclear reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant were damaged, leading to leakage of radioactivity. Now, a week later, experts have discovered that the current levels of radioactive iodine in tap water are unsuitable for infants. As of today, authorities have advised the public against giving tap water to young children or pregnant women. As a  N.Y. Times article explains,

“It’s unfortunate, but the radiation is clearly being carried on the air from the Fukushima plant,” said Yukio Edano, the chief cabinet secretary. “Because it’s raining, it’s possible that a lot of places will be affected. Even if people consume the water a few times, there should be no long-term ill effects.”
There has been frequent rain in recent days, and the watershed for Tokyo’s water lies almost entirely north and northeast of the city. The nuclear plant is about 140 miles to the north.

This warning has led to a run on stores to buy bottled water. The city government said it would begin distributing 240,000 bottles of water on Thursday to families with children younger than 1 year. Nobody is sure when the radiation levels will go back to normal but hopefully the tragedy will end sooner rather than later.

A Day in the Life

As part of a project started by three recent college graduates who are interns at the BBH advertising agency, four homeless persons were given cell phones and asked to tweet about their daily routine to twitter. Derrick Wiggins, 44, posts about a dozen updates to twitter every day, offering a glimpse into the life of a homeless man in New York.

“The trains are warm and clean, a suitable refuge from the cold,” read a message posted at 9:13 a.m. He posted a photograph he snapped with his phone, of a homeless man sleeping on the subway, behind a shopping cart full of belongings.
“Who’s son, brother, uncle or father is he? What services are available?” Mr. Wiggins wrote.

These sobering messages allow his 3,800 followers to better understand the situation many homeless people are in. When Wiggins couldn't pay the rent for his last apartment, he stayed with a friend before becoming fully homeless. Although his situation is unfortunate, he manages to stay upbeat, much to the credit of his followers who offer him encouragement. This experiment makes even more clear the importance of doing whatever is possible to help those in need.

Republicans Make a Move

The three week stalemate in Wisconsin had been going on since the senate's democrats left the state, making it impossible for republicans to pass a bill curtailing collective bargaining. However, republicans altered the bill to the point where it was no longer necessary to have 20 senators present. Then, with no democrats present to debate the bill, they pushed it through in under half an hour.

Mr. Walker, a Republican whose efforts to diminish collective bargaining rights have placed him firmly in the national spotlight during his less than three months in office, applauded the Senate’s move on Wednesday night, and said it brought the state a step closer to balancing its budget. “The action today will help ensure Wisconsin has a business climate that allows the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs,” Mr. Walker said, in a statement released minutes after the unexpected vote.

Although the bill still needs approval from the State Assembly on Thursday morning, that chamber already approved the bill once before. The democrats were outraged saying that the bill undid 30 years of civil rights and that it is unfair to working families.

Budget Plan is a Rocky Road

 As the deadline approaches for congress to reach a decision on the budget, tensions are running high. Many are getting exasperated now as a plan for test votes failed. The house republicans and the senate democrats were each supposed to send their version of the bill to be voted on but Senator Mitch McConnell from Kentucky refused to move on as agreed. According to a N.Y. Times article, many congress members expressed that the president needs to help guide the debate if the budget is ever going to be passed.

“The truth of the matter is this: This debate, as important as it is, will not be decided by House Republicans or Senate Democrats negotiating with each other or past each other. The debate will be decided when the president leads these tough negotiations, and right now that is not happening.”

 The current proposals, $61 billion in cuts sought by house republicans and an alternative $10 billion in cuts put forward by senate democrats, are still not reasonable enough for the bill to pass. It will be a while before the tricky balance is found and the bill can be passed but it would certainly speed up the process if Obama were to intervene and help guide debates. It is important that they are able to decide before March 18 to avoid a government shutdown.

Is Poverty Up or Not?

It's no secret that the recession we experienced had an impact on poverty levels. However, due to current methods of getting these measures, it is hard to be clear exactly how it was impacted. Nancy Folbre of the N.Y. Times explains that the method currently used for official measures does not include certain programs and therefore understates the positive effects of them.

By the traditional non-experimental measure, poverty jumped to 14.3 percent in 2009 from 13.2 percent in 2008. This measure, however, does not include the value of in-kind benefits, such as food stamps (under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), tax benefits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, and some other government programs that received a special boost from the federal stimulus put into effect in 2009.

Fortunately, this suggests that poverty levels were impacted as much as it seemed from the recession.

Most of these measures indicate little if any change between 2008 and 2009, indicating that public antipoverty programs did their job pretty well.

She explains that the unofficial, experimental measures take many more factors into effect and are therefore more accurate. In any case, it is clear that poverty is still on the rise. More and more families are sinking into poverty and unemployment is still high. That is why it is important to support anti-poverty programs and volunteer. Hopefully in the near future poverty levels will begin to fall and our country can ultimately heal.

Obama is not a Keynesian!