@davidaugust@mastodon.online"SNAP benefits reduced the depth and severity of poverty experienced by recipient households, especially among children, who experience higher poverty rates than the population at large."
But the gop would rather have kids in poverty.
https://www.
@mgorny@social.treehouse.systems"""
Traditional politics of assistance and the repression of unemployment were now called into question. The need for reform became urgent.
Poverty was gradually separated from the old moral confusions. Economic crises had shown that unemployment could not be confused with indolence, as indigence and enforced idleness spread throughout the countryside, to precisely the places that had previously been considered home to the purest and most immediate forms of moral life. This demonstrated that poverty did not solely fall under the order of the fault: ‘Begging is the fruit of poverty, which in turn is the consequence of accidents in the production of the earth or in the output of factories, of a rise in the price of basic foodstuffs, or of growth of the population, etc.’ Indigence became a matter of economics.
But it was not contingent, nor was it destined to be suppressed forever. There would always be a certain quantity of poverty that could never be effaced, a sort of fatal indigence that would accompany all forms of society until the end of time, even in places where all the idle were employed: ‘The only paupers in a well governed state must be those born in indigence, or those who fall into it by accident.’ This backdrop of poverty was somehow inalienable: whether by birth or accident, it formed an inevitable part of society. The state of lack was so firmly entrenched in the destiny of man and the structure of society that for a long time the idea of a state without paupers remained inconceivable: in the thought of philosophers, property, work and indigence were terms linked right up until the nineteenth century.
This portion of poverty was necessary because it could not be suppressed; but it was equally necessary in that it made wealth possible. Because they worked but consumed little, a class of people in need allowed a nation to become rich, to release the value of its fields, colonies and mines, making products that could be sold throughout the world. An impoverished people, in short, was a people that had no poor. Indigence became an indispensable element in the state. It hid the secret but most real life of society. The poor were the seat and the glory of nations. And their noble misery, for which there was no cure, was to be exalted:
«My intention is solely to invite the authorities to turn part of their vigilant attention to considering the portion of the People who suffer … the assistance that we owe them is linked to the honour and prosperity of the Empire, of which the Poor are the firmest bulwark, for no sovereign can maintain and extend his domain without favouring the population, and cultivating the Land, Commerce and the Arts; and the Poor are the necessary agents for the great powers that reveal the true force of a People.»
What we see here is a moral rehabilitation of the figure of the Pauper, bringing about the fundamental economic and social reintegration of his person. Paupers had no place in a mercantilist economy, as they were neither producers nor consumers, and they were idle, vagabond or unemployed, deserving nothing better than confinement, a measure that extracted and exiled them from society. But with the arrival of the industrial economy and its thirst for manpower, paupers were once again a part of the body of the nation.
"""
(Michel Foucault, History of Madness)
@servelan@newsie.socialThe Real Gaetz Story Is Less About Sex Trafficking, More About Poverty | Dame Magazine
https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/12/03/the-real-gaetz-story-is-less-about-sex-trafficking-more-about-poverty/
@cheryanne@aus.socialCould? This has been happening for a long, long time. It's not a new phenomenon!
@… - Older Australian women could retire in poverty, new report says http…
@cdarwin@c.imChina has brought millions out of poverty.
The US has not – by choice
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/23/china-us-poverty-income-inequality?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
@memeorandum@universeodon.comA shocking new warning about global poverty should unsettle everyone (Bryan Walsh/Vox)
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/470491/extreme-poverty-sub-saharan-africa-world-bank-conflict-climate-change
http://www.memeorandum.com/251130/p15#a251130p15
@markhburton@mstdn.social"Kerala to become first Indian state to eliminate extreme poverty this weekend"
#Kerala has for many years had Communist-led, Left Front governments. Even when I was there in 1980 the lower level of extreme poverty, compared to neighbouring states, was noticeable.
@curiouscat@fosstodon.orgSome of my 2025 donations
Trickle Up https://trickleup.org/
Develop Africa https://www.developafrica.org/
Southern P…
@mgorny@social.treehouse.systems"""
[…] Paradoxically, the more a population grew, the more precious it became, as it offered a supply of cheap labour, and by lowering costs allowed a greater expansion of production and trade. In this infinitely open labour market, the ‘fundamental price’, which for Turgot meant a subsistence level for workers, and the price determined by supply and demand ended up as the same thing. A country was all the more commercially competitive for having at its disposal the virtual wealth that a large population represented.
Confinement was therefore a clumsy error, and an economic one at that: there was no sense in trying to suppress poverty by taking it out of the economic circuit and providing for a poor population by charitable means. To do that was merely to hide poverty, and suppress an important section of the population, which was always a given wealth. Rather than helping the poor escape their provisionally indigent situation, charity condemned them to it, and dangerously so, by putting a brake on the labour market in a period of crisis. What was required was to palliate the high cost of products with cheaper labour, and to make up for their scarcity by a new industrial and agricultural effort. The only reasonable remedy was to reinsert the population in the circuit of production, being sure to place labour in areas where manpower was most scarce. The use of paupers, vagabonds, exiles and émigrés of any description was one of the secrets of wealth in the competition between nations. […]
Confinement was to be criticised because of the effects it had on the labour market, but also because like all other traditional forms of charity, it constituted a dangerous form of finance. As had been the case in the Middle Ages, the classical era had constantly attempted to look after the needs of the poor by a system of foundations. This implied that a section of the land capital and revenues were out of circulation. In a definitive manner too, as the concern was to avoid the commercialisation of assistance to the poor, so judicial measures had been taken to ensure that this wealth never went back into circulation. But as time passed, their usefulness diminished: the economic situation changed, and so did the nature of poverty.
«Society does not always have the same needs. The nature and distribution of property, the divisions between the different orders of the people, opinions, customs, the occupations of the majority of the population, the climate itself, diseases and all the other accidents of human life are in constant change. New needs come into being, and old ones disappear.» [Turgot, Encyclopédie]
The definitive character of a foundation was in contradiction with the variable and changing nature of the accidental needs to which it was designed to respond. The wealth that it immobilised was never put back into circulation, but more wealth was to be created as new needs appeared. The result was that the proportion of funds and revenues removed from circulation constantly increased, while that of production fell in consequence. The only possible result was increased poverty, and a need for more foundations. The process could continue indefinitely, and the fear was that one day ‘the ever increasing number of foundations might absorb all private funds and all private property’. When closely examined, classical forms of assistance were a cause of poverty, bringing a progressive immobilisation that was like the slow death of productive wealth:
«If all the men who have ever lived had been given a tomb, sooner or later some of those sterile monuments would have been dug up in order to find land to cultivate, and it would have become necessary to stir the ashes of the dead in order to feed the living.» [Turgot, Lettre Š Trudaine sur le Limousin]
"""
(Michel Foucault, History of Madness)
@paulwermer@sfba.social"The poverty threshold in the Bay Area is $28,081 annual income for one adult and $52,715 for a family of four, according to Tipping Point Community. The near poverty benchmark is $42,122 for one adult and $79,073 for a family of four."
As reference, San Francisco's minimum wage is $18.57, or $37,140/year (50x40hr weeks) At present the average rent for a studio is about $2300, low rent about maybe $1500 (Zumper website data). At the low rent studio, the rent burden is …
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot"Poverty ... is a most necessary and indispensable ingredient in society, without which nations and communities could not exist in a state of civilisation. It is the lot of man – it is the source of wealth, since without poverty there would be no labour, and without labour there could be no riches, no refinement, no comfort, and no benefit to those who may be possessed of wealth" — Patrick Colquhoun, quoted by @…
@kexpmusicbot@mastodonapp.uk🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #AfternoonShow
Gang of Four:
🎵 To Hell With Poverty (Gay Marvine Edit)
#GangofFour
https://gangoffour.bandcamp.com/track/to-hell-with-poverty
https://open.spotify.com/track/5meAeH2xj8CkB5ZUahQJQ6
@hex@kolektiva.socialIt's also easy to imagine that Trump is sending his military to Portland. People forget that the military is actually really big and pretty complex.
Most people join the military because they want to get out of poverty. Some people join because they believe in it. A lot of people are just too young to have any kind of politics, but some of them do develop politics in the military... and some of those folks become anarchists.
There are Nazis in the military. It's a big problem. But there are also anarchists who signed up before they developed a critique of the state, and now they're kind of stuck for a few years until they can get out.
It's also worth recognizing that a lot of people join after they graduate. Basic training is like 22 weeks. So, assuming a random selection, there really aren't a lot of folks who would be deploying to PDX who would have joined under Trump. That's just assuming a random selection, and there may be other things at play that I'm not aware of, but the majority of the types of folks who would get deployed now would have joined under Biden.
The troops who will deploy (if they do deploy) may very much not want to be there. These are also not monsters wanting to kill (like Trump wishes them to be). They're kids from nearby towns. That's not awesome, most of Oregon has absolute shit politics. But joining the National Guard doesn't necessarily mean that a person has any politics at all. All of this is worth remembering.
@arXiv_statME_bot@mastoxiv.pageMultidimensional Poverty Mapping for Small Areas
Soumojit Das, Dilshanie Deepawansa, Partha Lahiri
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.08898 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2…
@shellheim@social.linux.pizzaIt's absolute insanity that the recruiting arm of the US army is just the violence of poverty.
@tezoatlipoca@mas.to
@adamhotep@infosec.exchangeAn investor has calculated a poverty line of $137k/y "for a family of four to afford housing, health care, child care and other necessities", which is four times the current line. While I think location matters here, this national figure is still a good reminder of American wealth inequality.
https://wapo.st/44ymv6f
@cowboys@darktundra.xyz“Poverty unserious team” “Trade for Micah parsons”: NFL fans react as Cowboys get shut down on Maxx Crosby and Trey Hendrickson trade calls https://www.sportskeeda.com/nfl/news-poverty-unseriou…
@primonatura@mstdn.social"How Spain’s community solar revolution is helping families power up and costs go down"
#Spain #SolarPower #Energy
@arXiv_econGN_bot@mastoxiv.pagePoverty and Perceptions of Electoral Integrity in the U.S
Douglas Cumming, Sofia Johan, Ikenna Uzuegbunam
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.15343 https://arxiv.or…
@Dragofix@mastodontti.fiKöyhyyden poistaminen on halvempaa kuin sen ylläpitäminen.
it's cheaper to end poverty than to maintain it. The Social Dividend. An Actuarial Case for Higher Income Support https://mandalapartners.com/uploads/the-social-dividend.pdf
@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot"In 1990, 943 million people [in China] lived on less than $3 a day measured in 2021 dollars – 83% of the population, according to the World Bank. By 2019, the number was brought down to zero. Unfortunately, the United States was not as successful. More than 4 million Americans – 1.25% of the population – must make ends meet with less than $3 a day, more than three times as many as 35 years ago."
@cdarwin@c.im"Voters are disgusted by what they’re seeing from the right;
-- a political movement so detached from basic humanity that they think hunger, poverty, and suffering are punchlines,"
Michael Cohen wrote.
https://www.rawstory.com/michael-cohen-2674257947/
@servelan@newsie.socialLouisiana’s child poverty rate increase leads US: study • Louisiana Illuminator
https://lailluminator.com/briefs/louisianas-child-poverty-rate-increase-leads-us-study/
@Erikmitk@mastodon.gamedev.placeI read the Bill Gates memo and it makes sense to me?! Am I missing something here? Or is the problem that the outrage machine of the far right and anti-climate-change lobby is misconstruing what he is calling for?
He's clearly saying that getting emissions down is still a priority that's already on track! In contrast global health and poverty are issues that appear to be slowing down or on hold and need more focused attention *now*. Therefore we need a shift in funding!
@tokensane@mastodon.me.ukYes, it's a higher wage bill for businesses, but it also means more money for people to spend, which means more revenue for those same businesses. And less poverty means a lower benefits bill for the government.
BBC News - Minimum wage to rise again from April to £12.71 for over-21s - BBC News
https://www.bbc.c…
@lilmikesf@c.ima moment of recognition of the passing of the great #reggae vocalist Jimmy Cliff at age 81..a remarkable talented man whose dynamic performances and voice that emerged from Jamaican poverty brought joy & inspiration to millions around the globe. His international career breakthru came with starring role in the film The Harder They Come in 1972, but he'd already had a greatest hits album out 2 years …
@servelan@newsie.socialMusk: Robots Will End Poverty And Make Work Optional - Joe.My.God.
https://www.joemygod.com/2025/11/musk-robots-will-end-poverty-and-make-work-optional/
@andres4ny@social.ridetrans.itI like when the #NYPost says the quiet part out loud. See, ending illegal labor practices and paying workers a living wage is "anti-capitalist." Being in favor of #capitalism means being happy crushing your workers and driving them into poverty.
If only they said that more…
@pre@boing.worldDespite much opinion to the contrary, the government money we use is crappy.
I'm at bitfest in Manchester to find out if Bitcoin could be a better money.
It could hardly be worse.
The mood is still good, people are joking about recent devaluation rather than crying. Those who aren't all in are trying to buy more at the discount.
After an introduction by Mad Bitcoins, Joe Bryan explains the problem with government money.
He imagines an island on which two types of money are tried, with a dividing wall between them.
When economic problems hit, government can just print more money on the fiat side. Everyone now using money which is worth less. Distorting prices, inflating asset prices, making the rich (who hold assets) richer and the poor (who have to pay inflated prices) poorer. Driving wealth inequality.
On the hard money side, government must tax properly. Take in more from the rich rather than inflating to take it from the poor. Reducing wealth inequality.
On the government money side, the wealthy monitize houses, stocks, resources. Saving in money is impossible, its inflated away. So they save in assets and hording resources. Capital is misallocated. The youth can't afford houses. Poverty traps are caused. The only way out is printing more for benefits. Making it all worse. More economic crises, more printing. More government debt.
Eventually, the wall is broken. Government money people can save in the hard money instead. It reduces the value of government money further. More printing. More inflation.
Eventually, war. Funded by printed money.
The dollar is the best of a bad bunch all other government money is falling in value even faster.
I wonder, is bitcoin really this better money though? It's limited, hard, and can't be printed without energy investment.
I'm still unsure that fixing money fixes the world.
--
Note: "crypto" is mostly more like government money than bitcoin. It can be printed indefinitely by it's makers, does not cost it's makers to print. Crypto is usually just a scam people to get more bitcoin. Bitcoin is not crypto.
#bitfest #bitcoin
@seeingwithsound@mas.toThe psychology of collective abandonment https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/harnessing-hybrid-intelligence/202511/the-psychology-of-collective-abandonment Why we choose
@BBC6MusicBot@mastodonapp.uk🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #BBC6Music's #ChrisHawkins
Gang of Four:
🎵 To Hell With Poverty
#GangofFour
https://gangoffour.bandcamp.com/track/to-hell-with-poverty
https://open.spotify.com/track/5meAeH2xj8CkB5ZUahQJQ6
@curiouscat@fosstodon.orgI donated to Develop Africa to support students in Sierra Leone.
https://www.developafrica.org/about-develop-africa
"we provide education, child sponsorship, leadership development, workforce empowerment, and more to poverty-stricken African communities. We aid in br…
@theodric@social.linux.pizzaDesperation and crushing poverty are powerful motivators
@peterhoneyman@a2mi.socialyes, that was me on the corner of jackson & stadium holding up my POWER to the PEOPLE sign, flashing peace signs to enthusiastic supporters in passing cars, filled with hope and inspiration from the crowd and the noise
power to the homeless, to the refugees, to the victims of racism and poverty, of oppression and injustice, power to the people right now
@joxean@mastodon.social
@T3chD0g@social.linux.pizza"Poverty exists, not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich."
- Unknown or Martin M. McLaughlin with the Overseas Development Council. In June of 1980.
@crell@phpc.socialRock on, New Mexico! If we can't unfuck our healthcare system for everyone, at least unfuck it for children.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/09/new-mexico-free-universal-childcare
@barijaona@mastodon.mgThere is an error in this Associated Press article (dated October 3th) : CAPSAT is not an elite military unit.
In fact, it is often seen in the army as a place of punishment, where people are sent to be forgotten.
No wonder it was a focal point of frustration in 2009 and 2025.
#Madagascar #GenZRevolution
@primonatura@mstdn.social"From $10bn for nature-based solutions to a new declaration on poverty: What happened on 10 November at COP30?"
#COP30 #ClimateSummit
@memeorandum@universeodon.comInflation Erased U.S. Income Gains Last Year (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/economy/consumers/census-income-insurance-poverty-2024-31d82ad0
http://www.memeorandum.com/250909/p167#a250909p167
@markhburton@mstdn.socialBlairism appeared as a "Third Way". Despite some advances on things like early years provision & child poverty, was soon revealed as militaristic Thatcherism lite.
Starmerism appeared as a pragmatic Corbynism, but soon, with hardly any redeeming factors, revealed itself as little better than social fascism 'lite', hand in glove with corporate, planet-wrecking, exploiting and extracting class interests.
History repeated itself, first as farce, then as traged…
@servelan@newsie.socialAsset Management Strategist Says It's Time To Rethink How We Measure Poverty | Crooks and Liars
https://crooksandliars.com/2025/11/asset-management-strategist-says-its-time
@arXiv_physicssocph_bot@mastoxiv.pageTrends in New Mexico School Districts Serving Low-Income Communities
Uloma E. Nelson, Onyedikachi J. Okeke
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.09993 https://arxiv.o…
@cdarwin@c.imI had a womens studies professor try to coax a class to understand
that it’s not ’wrong’ for an alcoholic homeless person
to take your change you tossed and spend it on alcohol.
People were livid lol.
It really changed my perspective on giving.
it's freeing to give without expectation.
-- @inthemidwest.bsky.social
@hippyjo@c.imIt's Word Press Accessibility Day!
A free online conference with global scope and participation.
I just saw a great session on accessibility and the "global south" which refers to a lot of places in rural USA as much as it does to South America and African countries.
Technological disparities including bandwidth, computer power, stable electric supply, and poverty-limited access to technology and software are still huge problems that affect business and societ…
@arXiv_csCY_bot@mastoxiv.pageFrom Pixels to Urban Policy-Intelligence: Recovering Legacy Effects of Redlining with a Multimodal LLM
Anthony Howell, Nancy Wu, Sharmistha Bagchi, Yushim Kim, Chayn Sun
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.15132
@relcfp@mastodon.socialIndia, Poverty, and Western Eyes
https://ift.tt/U8MleSp
updated: Wednesday, August 20, 2025 - 12:36pmfull name / name of organization: American Comparative…
via Input 4 RELCFP https://
@curiouscat@fosstodon.orgI donated to Give Directly https://www.givedirectly.org/
"GiveDirectly is a nonprofit that lets donors like you send money directly to the world's poorest households. In doing so, we aim to accelerate the end of extreme poverty globally."
Give Directly believes is data and facts over wi…
@cdarwin@c.imWhile trying to understand why the American middle class feels poorer each year despite healthy GDP growth and low unemployment,
I came across a sentence buried in a research paper:
“The U.S. poverty line is calculated as three times the cost of a minimum food diet in 1963, adjusted for inflation.”
I read it again.
Three times the minimum food budget.
I felt sick.
@relcfp@mastodon.socialIndia, Poverty, and Western Eyes
https://ift.tt/kgbG02H
updated: Wednesday, August 20, 2025 - 12:36pmfull name / name of organization: American Comparative…
via Input 4 RELCFP https://
@curiouscat@fosstodon.orgI donated again to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Due to the dire threats to the USA from the current administration and the Republican party I am double up on my donations to protect us from those threats to our way of life.
https://www.splcenter.org/
We still have so much racism injustice for the …
@arXiv_econGN_bot@mastoxiv.pageRethinking Cost-Sharing Policies: Enhancing Chronic Disease Management for Disadvantaged Populations
Jia Dan, Xu Pai
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.09223 https://
