United States
Here’s how the safety net has—and hasn’t—reduced poverty in the US
The authors construct a broader definition of poverty and factor in programs like Social Security, food stamps, and unemployment insurance. Based on that data, the fraction of Americans with incomes below the poverty line has dropped from 26 percent in 1967 to 16 percent today....

Invisible child: Dasani’s homeless life
Slipping out from her covers, the oldest girl sits at the window. On mornings like this, she can see all the way across Brooklyn to the Empire State Building, the first New York skyscraper to reach 100 floors. Her gaze always stops at that iconic temple of stone, its tip pointed celestially, its fac...
Study: US poverty rate decreased over past half-century thanks to safety-net programs
New research has found that with the help of food stamps and unemployment insurance, the percentage of Americans who are poor has decreased since the 1960s. Above is a scene from Woonsocket, R.I., where a third of the residents receive nutritional assistance....
Obama: Income inequality a defining challenge
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Push for minimum wage hike led by localities, Democrats
States and municipalities across the country are leading a localized push to raise the minimum wage, driven largely by Democrats, who see an opening to appeal to working-class Americans at a time of growing inequity....

Life on $7.25 an hour: Older workers are increasingly entering fast-food industry
On a recent Friday evening, Eduardo Shoy left work at 6 p.m. Mr. Shoy, a deliveryman for KFC and Pizza Hut, was coming off an eight-hour shift of driving three-cheese pies and crispy chicken fingers, in an automotive blur, to private homes and businesses in central Queens....

Among American workers, poll finds unprecedented anxiety about jobs, economy
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Caught in unemployment’s revolving door
On a cold October morning, just after the federal government shutdown came to an end, Jenner Barrington-Ward headed into court in Boston to declare bankruptcy....

Blighted cities prefer razing to rebuilding. Half of the nation’s 20 largest cities in 1950 have lost at least one-third of their populations
BALTIMORE — Shivihah Smith’s East Baltimore neighborhood, where he lives with his mother and grandmother, is disappearing. The block one over is gone. A dozen rowhouses on an adjacent block were removed one afternoon last year. And on the corner a few weeks ago, a pair of houses that were damage...
Too much of too little: A diet fueled by food stamps is making South Texans obese but leaving them hungry
McAllen, Tex. — They were already running late for a doctor’s appointment, but first the Salas family hurried into their kitchen for another breakfast paid for by the federal government. The 4-year-old grabbed a bag of cheddar-flavored potato chips and a granola bar. The 9-year-old filled a bowl...
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World Hunger News
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