Poverty

1.5 Million U.S. Households Live on $2 a Day per Person

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Homeless in New York City.jpg
Homeless in New York City (photo: Spencer Platt, Getty Images)

– 1.5 Million U.S. Households Live on $2 a Day per Person (AllGov, Sep 7, 2015):

A person living on $2 a day conjures images of late-night TV commercials with a teary actress seeking donations for people living in a third-world hovel. But there are 1.5 million households in the United States whose members are living—barely—on that tiny sum.

Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer point out in their book, $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, that far from Ronald Reagan’s fictional “welfare queen,” there are a significant number of people in America who receive no benefits, have no job and are hanging on with virtually no income.

Read more1.5 Million U.S. Households Live on $2 a Day per Person

Germany’s Poverty Rate Just Hit A Record High

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Germany Poverty Rate - Deutschland Armutsquote 2013

– This European Nation’s Poverty Rate Just Hit A Record High (Spoiler Alert: Not Greece) (ZeroHedge, Feb 22, 2015):

For the last few years – and most especially the last few months – all eyes have been focused on Greece. From record poverty rates to record suicide rates and levels of youth unemployment, post-election emboldened hopes for a phoenix-like rebirth of a nation from the flames of Eurogroup repression were seemingly dashed on Friday. However there is another nation, that begins with the letter ‘G’ and that is at the heart of the EU-Greece talks that is suffering seemingly silently. As Newsweek reports, poverty in Germany is at its highest since the reunification of the country in 1990, with 12.5 million residents now classified as ‘poor’…

Read moreGermany’s Poverty Rate Just Hit A Record High

3.1 Million German WORKERS Have An Income Below The Poverty Threshold, Can Barely Make Ends Meet

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poverty-rates-in-germany
Poverty index from 2007

– Millions of German workers in poverty (Deutsche Welle (DW), Jan 24, 2015):

More than three million Germans can barely make ends meet despite being in work, according to a German newspaper. Growing numbers of struggling workers are cutting back on heating and food.

About 3.1 million wage and salary earners in Germany had an income below the poverty threshold, according to Saturday’s edition of the Saarbrücker Zeitung newspaper.

The paper cited an overview from Germany’s Federal Statistical Office showing the most recent available data, which covered the year 2013. It also showed the numbers of workers struggling to make ends meet jumped from about 2.5 million in 2008 – an increase of 25 percent in five years.

Read more3.1 Million German WORKERS Have An Income Below The Poverty Threshold, Can Barely Make Ends Meet

Majority Of Public School Students Are In Poverty For First Time In 50 Years

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Related info:

– 14 Facts That Prove That The Number Of Children Living In Poverty This Christmas Is At A Record High

Oligarchy

– Welcome to the Oligarch Recovery – Majority of Public School Students are in Poverty for First Time in 50 Years (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Jan 17, 2015):

“When they first come in my door in the morning, the first thing I do is an inventory of immediate needs: Did you eat? Are you clean? A big part of my job is making them feel safe,” said Sonya Romero-Smith, a veteran teacher at Lew Wallace Elementary School in Albuquerque. Fourteen of her 18 kindergartners are eligible for free lunches.

She helps them clean up with bathroom wipes and toothbrushes, and she stocks a drawer with clean socks, underwear, pants and shoes.

From the Washington Post article: Majority of U.S. Public School Students are in Poverty

It’s a recovery so lopsided only Timothy Geithner or an oligarch could love it. Since 2008, U.S. economic policy has concentrated on funneling as much money as possible to billionaires, keeping the poor alive and submissive through government programs, and squeezing the middle class to death while at the same time holding out the carrot of hope that things will return to how they were before (they won’t).

The latest evidence of this monumental cultural theft was highlighted yesterday in the Washington Post. Here are a few excerpts:

Read moreMajority Of Public School Students Are In Poverty For First Time In 50 Years

UK: 25% Of Private Tenants Ration Food & Heating To Pay Rent

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Related info:

– 1.6 Million UK Pensioners LivingBelow The Poverty Line, Startling 900,000 Living In ‘Severe Poverty’

– Britain: 8.7 Million Working Age Adults Live In ‘Absolute Poverty’

– 25% of private tenants ration food & heating to pay rent (RT, Dec 23, 2014):

Soaring rental costs and hefty deposits are causing financial struggle for Britons who find themselves locked out of home ownership; they are forced to ration their heating and food just to cope, a new survey reveals.

The research, carried out by the National Housing Federation (NHF), suggests Britain’s rising rents are making life extremely hard for those who are unable to get on the property ladder.

The organization, which represents a diverse network of England’s housing associations, surveyed a total of 1,183 tenants across the country as part of its research.

Read moreUK: 25% Of Private Tenants Ration Food & Heating To Pay Rent

Million Elderly Brits Malnourished As Third Of Councils Cut ‘Meals On Wheels’ Service

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– Million elderly Brits malnourished as third of councils cut ‘meals on wheels’ service (RT, Nov 11, 2014):

A third of all UK councils have scrapped ‘meals on wheels’ services to their elderly and vulnerable residents due government to spending cuts, putting senior citizens at risk of malnutrition and social isolation, research showed.

Over half expect further service reductions in the year ahead. A study by the British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition claims more than one million older people in the UK are malnourished.

The total number of meals provided by UK meals on wheels services and lunch clubs has dropped from 40 million to 19 million meals over the past ten years.

Read moreMillion Elderly Brits Malnourished As Third Of Councils Cut ‘Meals On Wheels’ Service

Child Poverty Jumps by 2.6 Million in Developed World Since 2008, While Number of Global Billionaires Doubles

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– Child Poverty Jumps by 2.6 Million in Developed World Since 2008, While Number of Global Billionaires Doubles (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Oct 30, 2014):

Two headlines came across my screens today, which taken together pretty much sum up the effects of policy decisions made by Central Bankers and politicians since the financial crisis. The financial oligarchs got bailed out, and the rich got richer due to decisions made by “leaders” around the globe. As such, the entire planet has now been transformed into a neo-feudal tinderbox. Myself and countless others warned all the way back to 2008 that this is what would happen, and here you have it.

Let’s first examine the results from Oxfam’s report on the billionaire growth spurt. I hope all 1,645 of you have sent thank you notes to the patron saint of oligarchy: Ben Bernanke. From NBC:

Read moreChild Poverty Jumps by 2.6 Million in Developed World Since 2008, While Number of Global Billionaires Doubles

1.6 Million UK Pensioners LivingBelow The Poverty Line, Startling 900,000 Living In ‘Severe Poverty’

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– ‘Scandalous’: 1.6m UK pensioners living in poverty – report (RT, Oct 17, 2014):

More than one and a half million British pensioners are “floundering” on low incomes and consigned to poverty, a report by elderly care charity Age UK suggests.

The research, How We Can End Pensioner Poverty, published on Friday, reveals that poverty among pensioners is rife in Britain, with 1.6 million living below the poverty line and a startling 900,000 living in “severe poverty.”

Read more1.6 Million UK Pensioners LivingBelow The Poverty Line, Startling 900,000 Living In ‘Severe Poverty’

The GMO Biotech Lobby’s Emotional Blackmail And Bogus Claims: Monsanto’s Genetically Modified Crops Will Not Feed The World

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– The GMO Biotech Lobby’s Emotional Blackmail and Bogus Claims: Monsanto’s Genetically Modified Crops Will Not Feed The World (Global Research, Oct 9, 2014):

“There are 7.2 billion people on the planet. There will be 9.6 billion by 2050. The demand for food will double… [Using GM food and data science is] the only thing that will enable us to feed the planet without encroaching on the forests and wetlands….This represents a business opportunity, but from a societal perspective, it’s very important.” Robert Fraley, CEO of Monsanto, Winner of the World Food Prize 2013 [1].

The claims made by Monsanto do not stack up. Issues pertaining to the weaponisation of food aside [2], GM food represents little more than a massive business opportunity, a way of enriching a handful of people, all carried out under the guise of altruism.

Read moreThe GMO Biotech Lobby’s Emotional Blackmail And Bogus Claims: Monsanto’s Genetically Modified Crops Will Not Feed The World

The U.S. Is Now a ‘Third World’ Country – 4.3% of Americans Survive on Less than $2/Day

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Extreme-Poverty-US

– The U.S. Is Now a ‘Third World’ Country (Washington’s Blog, Aug 31, 2014):

4.3% of Americans Survive on Less than $2/Day – 

That’s Considered Poor in Even the Poorest Lands

Read moreThe U.S. Is Now a ‘Third World’ Country – 4.3% of Americans Survive on Less than $2/Day

85 Super Wealthy People Have More Money Than The Poorest 3.5 Billion Combined

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NWO

– 85 Super Wealthy People Have More Money Than The Poorest 3.5 Billion Combined (Economic Collapse, July 27, 2014):

The global economy is structured to systematically funnel wealth to the very top of the pyramid, and this centralization of global wealth is accelerating with each passing year.  According to the United Nations, 85 super wealthy people have more money than the poorest 3.5 billion people on the planet combined.  And 1.2 billion of those poor people live on less than $1.25 a day.  There is something deeply, deeply broken about a system that produces these kinds of results.  Seven out of every ten people on the planet live in countries where the gap between the wealthy and the poor has increased in the last 30 years.  Despite our technological advances, somewhere around a billion people go to bed hungry every single night.  And when our fundamentally flawed financial system finally does collapse, it will be the poor that will suffer the worst.

Read more85 Super Wealthy People Have More Money Than The Poorest 3.5 Billion Combined

Even The WSJ Agrees: GMOs Threaten Food Security While Offering No Solution For India’s Poor

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– Even WSJ agrees: GMOs threaten food security while offering no solution for India’s poor (Natural News, July 22, 2014):

The government of India appears to be slowly falling into the clutches of multinational chemical companies craftily pushing their own patented genetically modified (GM) crops as the solution to hunger and poverty, with a new bill set to deliver subsidized food made from these poisons to more than 800 million Indian people. But one prominent organizer with extensive knowledge in Indian farming issues says the answer is not GM crops but rather agro-ecological approaches that rely on organic, chemical-free growing methods.

Dilnavaz Variava, who heads the consumer issues division of the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, says more than 1 million Indian farmers from roughly 10,000 villages throughout the country are already growing pesticide-free crops on more than 3.5 million acres with great success — apart from GMOs. This is the agriculture model with the greatest potential for feeding impoverished Indian people, she says, and the one that officials who are being courted by the biotech lobby are shamefully overlooking.

Read moreEven The WSJ Agrees: GMOs Threaten Food Security While Offering No Solution For India’s Poor

UK Families Living On ‘Knife Edge’, Homeless Charity Says

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uk-homeless

– UK Families living on ‘knife edge’, homeless charity says (RT, July 22, 2014):

Welfare cuts and pressures on household budgets is driving people to the brink of homelessness, a leading UK charity has warned.

Shelter, a charity that campaigns against homelessness, says it can no longer keep up demand for its helpline after calls increased by 20% since 2011. As a result, almost a third of phone calls go unanswered.

Last year, the charity received 7,600 calls from renters at risk of eviction, compared to 3,997 over the same period in 2011-12.

It warned that people were living on a ‘knife edge’ as losing a job or falling sick could tip them into homelessness.

Read moreUK Families Living On ‘Knife Edge’, Homeless Charity Says

Britain: 8.7 Million Working Age Adults Live In ‘Absolute Poverty’

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– 1 mn more working Brits plunged into poverty, trade unions outraged (RT, July 2, 2014):

A million more working Britons have been pushed into poverty because of soaring housing costs and stagnant wages. That’s according to a new UK government report attacked bitterly by unions and rights groups.

New figures published by the UK government reveal that the number of working Britons below the poverty line has risen by at least 1 million. The government, however, insists the poverty numbers keep shrinking.

A report published by the Department for Work and Pensions shows that the number of working age adults living in “absolute poverty” soared from 7.7 million to 8.7 million between 2010-11 and 2012-13.

The Child Poverty Action group also cited the Department of Work and Pensions’ figures saying that children living below the breadline rose from 3.6 million to 4.1 million during the two-year period.

Read moreBritain: 8.7 Million Working Age Adults Live In ‘Absolute Poverty’

Number Of British Households Falling Below Minimum Living Standards Doubles Over Past 30 Years, Despite ‘Economy Increasing Twofold’

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Flashback:

– Cold Killed 180 British Pensioners A DAY Last Winter

– UK: Winter fuel payment cuts to hit millions of pensioners, despite pre-election promises

– UK: Pensioners are burning books to keep warm

A pensioner sits with an electric heater, Conwy, Wales
Basic needs … the research suggests that one in three Britons live in inadequately heated homes. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

– Poverty In The UK Doubles Over the Past 30 Years, Despite Robust “Economic Growth” (Liberty Blitzkrieg, June 19, 2014):

One of my favorite lines about the current oligarch theft continuing to occur throughout the world is courtesy of the “Artist Taxi Driver,” who likes to state:

“This is not a recession its a robbery.”

Truer words were never said, but this theft goes back a lot further than the latest economic catastrophe. As we all know by now, real median wages haven’t increased in the U.S. for the past 45 years, while at the same time, so-called economic growth according to traditional metrics has exploded higher. As yesterday’s article from the Guardian below demonstrates, this is not just an American problem. It is pervasive throughout the Western world.

Read moreNumber Of British Households Falling Below Minimum Living Standards Doubles Over Past 30 Years, Despite ‘Economy Increasing Twofold’

In 33 U.S. Cities, Feeding The Homeless Has Been Criminalized

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In 33 U.S. Cities, Feeding the Homeless Has Been Criminalized

– In 33 U.S. Cities, Feeding The Homeless Has Been Criminalized (Liberty Blitzkrieg, June 12, 2014):

The “war on compassion” when it comes to the homeless in America has been one of Liberty Blitzkrieg’s key themes this year. There are many reasons why I find this topic to be of such tremendous importance. First and foremost, I think that if we want to see how the state and crony corporate status quo will treat everyone in the future, all you have to do is look at how the homeless are being “dealt with.” Secondly, random groups feeding the homeless in various venues is a great example of decentralized compassion. Political power hates decentralization and is quite intentionally trying to corral the homeless into the centralized bureaucratic channels over which it has total control. So this isn’t merely a humanitarian issue, it is also a front line battle in the key war of our time: Decentralization vs. Centralization.  

Read moreIn 33 U.S. Cities, Feeding The Homeless Has Been Criminalized

No Inflation Friday: 42.4% Increase In The Price Of Being … Poor?

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Inflation-Ahead

– No inflation Friday: 42.4% increase in the price of being… poor? (Sovereign Man, May 23, 2014):

One of the most intellectually disingenuous statements made by western policymakers is that inflation is tame… nonexistent.

For example, the minutes released this week from the most recent Federal Reserve policy meeting said that the Fed saw NO inflation risk in ‘fueling job growth’ [i.e. printing money].

So by their own admission, the Fed thinks they can conjure hundreds of billions of dollars out of thin air without any consequences whatsoever. Zero risk.

Every time I hear something like this it just makes my skin crawl… and I always think, “go get on a plane.”

Inflation is out there in the rest of the world. To deny its existence is massively arrogant, insensitive, and just plain wrong.

Read moreNo Inflation Friday: 42.4% Increase In The Price Of Being … Poor?

27 Huge Red Flags For The U.S. Economy

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– 27 Huge Red Flags For The U.S. Economy (Economic Collapse, May 20, 2014):

If you believe that the U.S. economy is heading in the right direction, you really need to read this article.  As we look toward the second half of 2014, there are economic red flags all over the place.  Industrial production is down.  Home sales are way down.  Retail stores are closing at the fastest pace since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.  U.S. household debt is up substantially, and in 20 percent of all U.S. families everyone is unemployed.  In so many ways, what we are witnessing right now is so similar to what we experienced during the build up to the last great financial crisis.  We are making so many of the very same mistakes that we made the last time, and yet our “leaders” seem completely oblivious to what is happening.  But the warning signs are very clear.  All you have to do is open your eyes and look at them.

The following are 27 huge red flags for the U.S. economy…

Read more27 Huge Red Flags For The U.S. Economy

17 Facts To Show To Anyone That Believes That The U.S. Economy Is Just Fine

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– 17 Facts To Show To Anyone That Believes That The U.S. Economy Is Just Fine (Economic Collapse, April 29, 2014):

No, the economy is most definitely not “recovering”.  Despite what you may hear from the politicians and from the mainstream media, the truth is that the U.S. economy is in far worse shape than it was prior to the last recession.  In fact, we are still pretty much where we were at when the last recession finally ended.  When the financial crisis of 2008 struck, it took us down to a much lower level economically.  Thankfully, things have at least stabilized at this much lower level.  For example, the percentage of working age Americans that are employed has stayed remarkably flat for the past four years.  We should be grateful that things have not continued to get even worse.  It is almost as if someone has hit the “pause button” on the U.S. economy.  But things are definitely not getting better, and there are a whole host of signs that this bubble of false stability will soon come to an end and that our economic decline will accelerate once again.

The following are 17 facts to show to anyone that believes that the U.S. economy is just fine:

Read more17 Facts To Show To Anyone That Believes That The U.S. Economy Is Just Fine

The Truthseeker: Regime Change America (Video)

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Added: Apr 6, 2014

Description:

#WaveOfAction started April 4 the day Martin Luther King was assassinated by US government; military scorns drone operators as ‘cowardly button pushers’, troops refuse to man killer UAVs; America ‘not really a democracy at all’.

Seek truth from facts with Regime Change Begins at Home author Professor Charles Derber; Center on Conscience & War counseling coordinator Bill Galvin; lawyer Kevin Zeese; Banker Occupation author Stephen Lendman; peace activist Professor Michael Nagler; and former drone pilot Brandon Bryant.

Can’t Afford To Die: Brits Struggle With ‘Funeral Poverty’ (Video)

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Russia Today’s news channel has has been suspended on YouTube.

Here is a replacement:


Added: Mar 16, 2014

Description:

With so much efforts spent on making a living few people address the price of dying. In the UK many realize too late the death isn’t something they can really afford.

Starved & Evicted: Britain’s Poor Now Treated Worse Than Animals

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– Starved & evicted: Britain’s poor now treated worse than animals (RT, March 7, 2014):

If someone had told me a decade ago that the British government would deliberately starve my fellow countrymen in an attempt to bully them into slave labor jobs that wouldn’t even pay the bills, I would have laughed in their face.

But now I know I would have been the fool. This is indeed the breathtaking strategy of David Cameron’s LibDem-Tory coalition.

A vast underclass of between 5 and 10 million people has been created in Britain of desperate, destitute and now-dying people. While government and media alike tell of “hopeful signs” that the nation’s getting better off, they are just ‘talking it up’ from their ivory towers.

Even Lord Rothschild, who invests over 2 billion pounds of his own dynasty’s and other depositors’ cash through RIT Capital Partners, is ringing alarm bells this week: “With the world recovery still fragile and reliant to a large extent on policy support [QE/money printing]”, he warns, “it is not hard to envisage markets having to deal with shocks in the coming year.” Yes, “shocks.”

Read moreStarved & Evicted: Britain’s Poor Now Treated Worse Than Animals

Poverty In Greece (Chart Of The Day)

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– Chart Of The Day: Greek Poverty (ZeroHedge, Jan 6, 2014):

And now, the saddest chart of the day: Greek poverty since the crisis, and in 2013, when the so-called “Grecovery” arrived.

Greek Poverty

Here is how Greek Kathimerini describes the fact that nearly half of all Greek incomes, some 44%, had an income below the poverty line in 2013 according to estimates by the Public Policy Analysis Group of the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB).

The poverty threshold is measured as 60 percent of the price-adjusted average income in 2009, or up to 665 euros per person per month and up to 1,397 for a couple supporting two underage children. The AUEB researchers also found that last year 14 percent of Greeks earned below the adequate living standards, compared with 2 percent of the population four years ago.

The blame, of course, was placed squarely on austerity, or the fact that Greece, whose epic socio-economic problems stem primarily from its massive overleveraging leading up to 2008, did not leverage some more to “fix” itself.

Read morePoverty In Greece (Chart Of The Day)