The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly food stamps, is known to have had one of the strongest anti-poverty effects of any US benefits program. It kept over 6.6 million, including 3 million children, above the poverty line before the pandemic. In short, the SNAP program helps people with no or low income buy essential … Read more
San Mateo County’s Board of Supervisors have approved a pilot program — one they call the first of its kind — guaranteeing income for survivors of domestic violence, aiming to help ease the financial burden of leaving an abusive situation. The program will provide monthly $1,000 payments to 20 survivors of domestic violence with at least … Read more
Last week, I wrote about the conviction of Singapore’s former minister of transport S. Iswaran for improperly obtaining valuables, a case that has shocked Singaporeans, who, like Hongkongers, do not tolerate corruption in the government and civil service. A case involving corruption in China in the late 18th century was so massive in scale that … Read more
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says the cholera outbreak in Nigeria has seen a sharp increase in 2024, with suspected cases rising by an alarming 220 per cent. The NCDC, on its official website, said this was according to the latest epidemiological report. The Nigerian Public Health Agency said that by the end … Read more
In Zhongwei, a city in northwest China’s Ningxia Hui autonomous region, fighting poverty seems to be a never-ending battle. While the country as a whole has made tremendous gains in living standards, in July, the city’s Shapotou district announced that 28 more individuals had been added to a poverty relapse watch list. The officials who … Read more
The number of Americans living in poverty, according to the nation’s official definition, fell slightly to about 36.8 million in 2023, the Census Bureau announced on September 10, 2024. The data released also indicated that the poverty rate declined a little. However, an alternative way to measure poverty ticked up, as more people in the … Read more
A shrinking number of Californians live in poverty. But the improvement is much too slow. My trusty spreadsheet reviewed the latest “supplemental” poverty measurements from the Census Bureau. These calculations weigh state-by-state incomes – that’s paychecks plus government assistance – against local costs of living. And as every Californian painfully knows, this is a pricey … Read more
Nearly one in 5 people in the world lives in poverty. Even in many developed countries such as the U.S., poverty rates exceed 12%. In an age of breathtaking technological progress and dynamic social change, poverty remains stubbornly persistent. As a professor of entrepreneurship, I’m interested in a critical question: Can people in poverty create … Read more
MGNREGS work demand does not directly correlate with increased rural distress at a micro-level and data from Financial Year 2024 shows states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, with relatively lesser poor population, use more funds under the flagship rural employment scheme, according to the Economic Survey. The survey found there is a marked variation in … Read more
As Nigerians celebrated 25 years of unbroken democratic rule on Wednesday, Civil Society Organisations under the aegis of Osun Civil Societies Coalition (OCSC) and social activists took to the streets in Osogbo, Osun State capital, to protest against hardship occasioned by the Federal Government’s economic policies. They charged President Bola Tinubu to address prevailing hunger, … Read more
