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Stuart Suplick

Millions of Poor Are Left Uncovered by Health Law - NYTimes.com - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...t-uncovered-by-health-law.html

Obamacare uncovered race irony

shared by Stuart Suplick on 08 Oct 13 - No Cached
Kay Bradley liked it
    • Stuart Suplick
      Stuart Suplick on 08 Oct 13
       
      For some states, it appears the expansion of Medicaid would be more burdensome than beneficial, perhaps through increases in taxes
  • Poor people excluded from the Medicaid expansion will not be subject to fines for lacking coverage.
  • Mississippi has the largest percentage of poor and uninsured people in the country — 13 percent. Willie Charles Carter, an unemployed 53-year-old whose most recent job was as a maintenance worker at a public school, has had problems with his leg since surgery last year. His income is below Mississippi’s ceiling for Medicaid — which is about $3,000 a year — but he has no dependent children, so he does not qualify. And his income is too low to make him eligible for subsidies on the federal health exchange. “You got to be almost dead before you can get Medicaid in Mississippi,” he said.
  • ...3 more annotations...
    • Stuart Suplick
      Stuart Suplick on 08 Oct 13
       
      An example of how healthcare eligibility can be hard to come by in some states--for instance, Mr. Carter cannot qualify for Mississippi's Medicaid because he has no dependents, yet his income isn't high enough to qualify him for subsidies.
  • Dr. Aaron Shirley, a physician who has worked for better health care for blacks in Mississippi, said that the history of segregation and violence against blacks still informs the way people see one another, particularly in the South, making some whites reluctant to support programs that they believe benefit blacks. That is compounded by the country’s rapidly changing demographics, Dr. Geiger said, in which minorities will eventually become a majority, a pattern that has produced a profound cultural unease, particularly when it has collided with economic insecurity. Dr. Shirley said: “If you look at the history of Mississippi, politicians have used race to oppose minimum wage, Head Start, all these social programs. It’s a tactic that appeals to people who would rather suffer themselves than see a black person benefit.” Opponents of the expansion bristled at the suggestion that race had anything to do with their position. State Senator Giles Ward of Mississippi, a Republican, called the idea that race was a factor “preposterous,” and said that with the demographics of the South — large shares of poor people and, in particular, poor blacks — “you can argue pretty much any way you want.”
    • Stuart Suplick
      Stuart Suplick on 08 Oct 13
       
      How does one determine the role race plays, consciously or subconsciously, in policy making?
  • Stuart Suplick on 08 Oct 13
     
    https://diigo.com/016s4p I found it particularly shocking how over half the states have rejected the ACA, and so jeopardize the health of "68 percent of poor, uninsured blacks and single mothers. About 60 percent of the country's uninsured working poor are in those states". Many of the states are in the South, and while the states' congressmen insist their opposition is solely economic, and not racial, it raises some serious questions. Also in question is whether cases like Mr. Carter's are anomalies, or whether they will snowball into significant rallying-cries for these 26 states to accept Medicare expansion, or introduce policy to solve eligibility issues.
olivialum

Mental Health Care in West Africa Is Often a Product of Luck - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...s-often-a-product-of-luck.html

shared by olivialum on 12 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • A growing number of innovative groups have begun experimenting with a similar approach in Africa and Asia: providing therapy without clinics or doctors, relying instead on mobile nurses, cheap generic drugs and community support systems.
  • In impoverished parts of the world where psychiatry is virtually nonexistent, they say, it is the only way to begin reaching the millions of people in need.
  • “Here, if we had to wait for a psychiatrist, the people who desperately need treatment would never get it,”
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • slash rates of premature death from mental disorders by a third by 2030.
  • By one analysis, which includes Western countries and developing regions like West Africa, depression, drug abuse and schizophrenia are on track to be the three leading causes of lost economic output by 2030.
  • Among the successes have been group therapy for rape victims in the Democratic Republic of Congo, family and individual counseling for survivors of torture in Myanmar, and talk therapy and medication for people with depression in rural India.
  • But without reliable support, follow-up and medical supplies — particularly psychiatric drugs when needed — interventions can quickly lose traction, no matter how well trained and devoted the workers are.
  • One moment, she was dozing off during a rest period; the next, she felt the presence of strange men coming after her. She screamed at them to stop. “My shouting didn’t stop the men; they kept coming for me,” she said. “So, what did I do? I ripped off my school uniform and ran.”
  • The medical staff had little training in how to handle a psychotic break: the hallucinations and delusions characteristic of schizophrenia. They sent her home, where the sensation of being hunted seeped back into her thoughts.
  • Sometimes, she ran out onto the open savanna to escape the demons pursuing her.
  • Family members took turns keeping watch and exhausted traditional methods of healing. Precious animals were sacrificed to drive away the spirits disturbing her. Healers administered herbal powders, and one applied a pale dye to her face and body in an effort to purge demons.
  • Mental illness is a source of shame here, as in most of the world, and families do not advertise its presence. Yet each community has a chief or subchief responsible for keeping an eye out for the sick.
  • One is known as task sharing.
  • The second is community self-help.
  • The third is raising awareness
  • The evidence that a combination of these services can lead to lasting improvement for people with severe mental illnesses is thin, but a foundation is being laid.
  • “The key thing is that it’s not simply home-based care for people with schizophrenia,” Laura Asher, who is running the study, said by email. “It also involves awareness raising and community mobilization.”
  • the cost of these programs is minute compared with the cost of standard psychiatry
  • $8 per client per month on average, according to Peter Yaro, its executive director. In the United States, it costs $200 to $700 for a single appointment with a psychiatrist, depending on the provider, the type of care and the location.
  • In global cost-benefit terms, economists typically rate health care programs by the amount of disability they reduce per dollar. Historically, mental health interventions have scored poorly compared with efforts that save young lives, like neonatal care or treatment of diarrhea. A new analysis of mental health strategies in Ethiopia, for instance, found that treating schizophrenia with generic medications was about as cost-effective as treating heart disease with a combination of drugs, like aspirin and a statin — and much less cost-effective than treating depression or epilepsy. The findings, though preliminary, suggest that treating psychosis is relatively costly.
  • the studies do not take into account the effect of chronic psychosis on an entire family. “The person with psychosis becomes a full-time job for someone else in the family, and depending on how aggressive the person is, maybe more than one person,” said Dr. Simliwa Kolou Valentin Dassa, a psychiatrist in neighboring Togo
  • And if the disorder is seen as a result of a curse on the family, carried down through generations — a common interpretation here — the entire clan comes under suspicion.
Kay Bradley

The Story of American Flags: Made in China! on Vimeo - 3 views

www.vimeo.com/17385512

shared by Kay Bradley on 03 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • Curtis Serrano on 03 Dec 10
     
    I think its interesting that piracy is increasing throughout the world. Personally, I feel that its good that other countries are working to counter this threat.
  • ...9 more comments...
  • Catherine Binder on 03 Dec 10
     
    It's funny that an organization (The Association of American Flag Manufacturers) had to be created because of the threat of Chinese manufacturers. I can't believe the irony - what our flag is supposed to represent, and the reality of how and where it is created.
  • Harrison Lee on 05 Dec 10
     
    I completely agree with Catherine on the irony of the Association of American Flag Manufacturers and of the contrast between the symbolism of our flag and the reality of its source. America, which proclaims itself to be the bellwether in freedom and democracy, is responsible for the suffering of workers internationally and domestically, even to the point of the country's icon, the flag. We boast thousands of these in parades and protests, like the many that I've seen in the news over the past few years, particularly those demanding better working conditions and benefits. And yet, the very purchase of these flags is counterproductive to their goals, as it funds this market that has contributed to their suffering.
  • Samantha Bishop on 05 Dec 10
     
    I don't even understand how we came to the point where our patriotic symbol (the flag) has to be made in China. I agree that it is much cheaper mainly because of the cheap labor, but this is absurd. American's aren't even making the American flag. I had the same thought as the quote at the beginning of the video, "Thank heavens Betsey Ross isn't here to see [this]."
  • Arshia Surti on 05 Dec 10
     
    The US flag is certainly a symbol of what America has come to represent - a consumerist, exploitative world power - far from its ideals of equality and justice. And the worst part, as Harrison said, is the ignorant hypocrisy with which we proudly wave our flags.
  • Amara Plaza-Jennings on 05 Dec 10
     
    One thing that I found myself wondering as I was watching the video was how the workers in China feel about producing the US flags. Do they not care and just feel releived to have a job? Or does it feel odd to them making an American flag, expecially if they have harsh feeling towards the US? I also found it intersting that the demand for flags increased so much after 9/11, really showing the effect that this event had on the American psyche. Again the irony that the other people commented about comes into play. The people who bought these flags were trying to show their patriotism and support for American, when the flags really represent our dependence on China and go to support Chinese factories.
  • Nick Petru on 06 Dec 10
     
    Impressively thorough, Matthew. Two parts stood out for me: the Chinese military involvement and your point that our flags indirectly harm the welfare of people in other countries, particularly China. Well done
  • larkin smith on 06 Dec 10
     
    This video was ridiculously long & in depth. I love the juxtaposition of the idea of the american flag & all that it stands for and the fact that the flag is really made in China.
  • anonymous on 06 Dec 10
     
    When I was watching the video, I had to wonder: are there any flags made in the USA? There was a quote somewhere in the video saying that there are, but they're of poorer quality. I would think, though, that the vast market of flags made in China would make any american made flag companies go out of business. I also wondered if most countries have their flags made in China, or if there are some that produce their own.
  • Gregory Freiberg on 06 Dec 10
     
    I had the same sentiments as Amara. When we were watching China Blue and the chinese workers were making Jeans which they knew were presumably heading for the United States I wondered how they must feel that they are slaving over something for another country. Then, this movie (which was very well done) shows that American Flags are made in China and i was trying to put myself in the shoes of a chinese factory worker slaving over constructing an American Flag. I am curious as to what they think about making them. Very good job at bringing out the irony in the situation too Matthew
  • Heather Anderson on 07 Dec 10
     
    I found it interesting that American-made American flags are lower quality than those made in China. It struck me as very similar to the situation faced by the speaker who came to talk to us about her bag business: how she had to outsource because she couldn't find a quality producer in the U.S. Something that bothered me is that many of the flags are synthetic; if the government is going to hand our hundreds of free flags that might just get thrown away, it seems as though it would be better to at least make them out of renewable materials like wood and cotton. However, I suppose that may be more expensive... Also, I visited the Jinteng factory website because I was curious if they specialized in a certain type of flag or not. It turns out that they make all different types of flags depending on the order, just as the jeans we saw in China Blue varied order by order. I suspect that although some workers feel frustrated making other countries' flags, their catalog indicates that they make flags for many countries, not just one, so any anger would perhaps be less likely to be directed toward a specific country due to constantly producing their flag.
  • Rebecca Heller on 07 Dec 10
     
    I thought that it is sad (and ironic) that, as Matthew said, our symbols of freedom and patriotism are being paid for with people's rights (in China). I had never considered how 9/11 would have caused a drastic increase in demand for American flags, and though it shouldn't have, it surprised me that the low price of American flags from retailers such as Wal-Mart does not cover the production costs of the flags. Like Larkin, I found the juxtaposition of the symbols of the flag and where it is actually made notable. I also had the same question as Alison about whether any flags are actually made in the United States. I thought that Matthew did a nice job pointing out the odd juxtaposition and talking about the production cycle of the flag.
Kay Bradley

Dependency Theory and Import Subsitution explained - 0 views

www.pbs.org/...ess_dependencia.html

Commanding Heights dependency economics

shared by Kay Bradley on 23 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • Kay Bradley on 23 Sep 11
     
    Excerpt from book Commanding Heights
Kay Bradley

Moaning Moguls | The New Yorker - 0 views

www.newyorker.com/...moaning-moguls

wealth inequality taxes inequality tax

shared by Kay Bradley on 21 Jan 21 - No Cached
  • In the past year, the venture capitalist Tom Perkins and Kenneth Langone, the co-founder of Home Depot, both compared populist attacks on the wealthy to the Nazis’ attacks on the Jews.
  • recent work by the economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty showed that ninety-five per cent of income gains in the first three years of the recovery went to the top one per cent—a lot of them believe that they’re a persecuted minority.
  • Business leaders were upset at the criticism that followed the financial crisis and, for many of them, it’s an article of faith that people succeed or fail because that’s what they deserve.
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  • If you believe that net worth is a reflection of merit, then any attempt to curb inequality looks unfair.
  • as a classic analysis by the historian James Weinstein showed, the reforms were intended to co-opt public pressure and avert more radical measures
  • they sprang from a pragmatic belief that the robustness of capitalism as a whole depended on wide distribution of the fruits of the system.
  • Committee for Economic Development, which played a central role in the forging of postwar consensus politics, accepting strong unions, bigger government, and the rise of the welfare state.
  • The C.E.D. called for tax increases to pay for the Korean War and it supported some of L.B.J.’s Great Society
  • As Mizruchi put it, “They believed that in order to maintain their privileges, they had to insure that ordinary Americans were having their needs met
  • That all changed beginning in the seventies, when the business community, wrestling with shrinking profits and tougher foreign competition, lurched to the right
  • Today, there are no centrist business organizations with any real political clout, and the only business lobbies that matter in Washington are those pushing an agenda of lower taxes and less regulation. Corporate profits and C.E.O. salaries have in recent years reached record levels, but there’s no sign of a return to the corporate statesmanship of the past (the occasional outlier like Warren Buffett notwithstanding)
  • In the postwar years, American companies depended largely on American consumers. Globalization has changed that—foreign sales account for almost half the revenue of the S&P 500—as has the rise of financial services (where the most important clients are the wealthy and other corporations). The well-being of the American middle class just doesn’t matter as much to companies’ bottom lines
  • Early in the past century, there was a true socialist movement in the United States, and in the postwar years the Soviet Union seemed to offer the possibility of a meaningful alternative to capitalism. Small wonder that the tycoons of those days were so eager to channel populist agitation into reform
  • Today, by contrast, corporate chieftains have little to fear, other than mildly higher taxes and the complaints of people who have read Thomas Piketty. Moguls complain about their feelings because that’s all anyone can really threaten
Kay Bradley

Opinion | Impeach and Convict Trump. Right Now. - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...impeach-trump.html

shared by Kay Bradley on 09 Jan 21 - No Cached
  • Kay Bradley on 09 Jan 21
     
    "Above all there is the president, not complicit but wholly, undeniably and unforgivably responsible. For five years, Republicans let him degrade political culture by normalizing his behavior. For five years, they let him wage war on democratic norms and institutions. For five years, they treated his nonstop mendacity as a quirk of character, not a disqualification for office. For five years, they treated his rallies as carnivals of democracy, not as training grounds for mob rule. For five years, they thought this was costless. On Wednesday - forgive the cliché, but it's apt here - their chickens came home to roost. Every decent society depends for its survival on its ability to be shocked - and stay shocked - by genuinely shocking behavior. Donald Trump's entire presidency has been an assault on that idea."
mayas2021

Why Does the Coronavirus Hit Men Harder? A New Clue - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...coronavirus-men-immune.html

#coronavirus

shared by mayas2021 on 27 Aug 20 - No Cached
  • mayas2021 on 27 Aug 20
     
    Researchers have found that men produce weaker immune responses to the corona virus than women, and that men over 60 may need to depend of a vaccine more than others. These findings suggest that vaccine dosing may vary depending on the sex of the patient, and the FDA has asked companies pursuing vaccines to release data analyzed by participants' sex.
  • theos2022 on 29 Aug 20
     
    This was very interesting. A closer look suggests that older men have a much weaker activation of T cells which directly correlates to their poor responses to the disease. Even very old women aged 90 years old have a "decent immune response".
  • sashajlu on 01 Sep 20
     
    Hi Maya! This is such an interesting topic. I had always just assumed that everyone would get the same amount of vaccines. I am concerned how this will impact minorities. In the past, doctors and researchers have mostly examined only how sex (not race, ability, ect) plays a role in dosage (which has caused problems for minority populations). I am curious if researchers will examine how these other factors play a role in dosage rather than just sex.
Kay Bradley

Venezuela: The Rise and Fall of a Petrostate | Council on Foreign Relations - 0 views

www.cfr.org/...venezuela-crisis

petroleum petrostate Latin America

shared by Kay Bradley on 15 Nov 21 - No Cached
  • Punto Fijo pact, which guaranteed that state jobs and, notably, oil rents would be parceled out to the three parties in proportion to voting results. While the pact sought to guard against dictatorship and usher in democratic stability, it ensured that oil profits would be concentrated in the state.
  • OPEC. V
  • OPEC embargo on countries backing Israel in the Yom Kippur War quadrupled oil prices and made Venezuela the country with the highest per-capita income in Latin America.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • mismanagement. Analysts estimate that as much as $100 billion was embezzled between 1972 and 1997 alone.
  • A country that discovers a resource after it has formed robust democratic institutions is usually better able to avoid the resource curse, analysts say. For example, strong institutions in Norway have helped the country enjoy steady economic growth since the 1960s, when vast oil reserves were discovered in the North Sea,
  • Strong democracies with an independent press and judiciary help curtail classic petrostate problems.
  • Many countries with vast resource wealth, such as Norway and Saudi Arabia, have established sovereign wealth funds (SWF) to manage their investments
  • climate change.  
  • Analysts anticipate that a global shift from fossil fuel energy to renewables such as solar and wind will force petrostates to diversify their economies. Nearly two hundred countries, including Venezuela, have joined the Paris Agreement, a binding treaty that requires states to make specific commitments to mitigate
  • Summary Venezuela is an example of a decaying petrostate, where the government is highly dependent on income from fossil fuels, power is concentrated in an elite minority, and corruption is widespread.  Petrostates are vulnerable to what economists call Dutch disease, a dynamic in which a government develops an unhealthy dependence on natural resource exports, and other important industrial sectors are deprived of investment. Venezuela has descended into economic and political turmoil under President Nicolas Maduro, as its once-substantial oil outflows have slowed to a trickle. Absent a power transition, analysts say the country’s prospects are grim.
  • Jeffrey Sachs,
Robert Giesler

U.S. Suspects Iran Was Behind a Wave of Cyberattacks - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...nd-a-wave-of-cyberattacks.html

Iran cyberattacks

shared by Robert Giesler on 14 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • Robert Giesler on 14 Oct 12
     
    This article is about cyberattacks on the various companies, specifically Saudi Aramco, an oil company. Apparently Iran is behind the attacks. I find it interesting how cyber warfare might become an even bigger part of conflicts today. It's also interesting how the US and Israel have both been attacking companies from Iran, which isn't scrutinized, yet as soon as Iran does it, it's a huge issue.
  • ...1 more comment...
  • Elizabeth Sundsmo on 15 Oct 12
     
    I also find the difference of who is scrutinized (and who is not) interesting. The dependency on technology and computers in the global economy in light of this article makes me wonder if this is not just becoming a bigger part of conflicts, but perhaps the main conflict in countries fighting for an economic or even global edge. To me it seems a bit reminiscent of the Cold War because countries will race to develop malicious and protective software in order to feel safe, much like the US and Russia did with nuclear warheads to deter the other (although all it would really take is one warhead sent from each country to insure mutual destruction). "...the United States might redefine defense in cyberspace as requiring the capacity to reach forward over computer networks if an attack was detected or anticipated, and take pre-emptive action.... For now, officials have decided to hold back. "The countries who need to know we have it already know," the senior intelligence official said."
  • Adam Pease on 15 Oct 12
     
    I think the relationship between nuclear security and cyber attacks is interesting. The US does not receive much criticism for deploying Stuxnet (designed to damage Iran's nuclear program), but Iran is criticized for deploying computer viruses aimed at other elements of US defense. This raises interesting questions about whether or not Western states have a right to deny non-Western states nuclear acquisition.
  • Kay Bradley on 15 Oct 12
     
    Great point in your post about emphasis of investigations, Robert
anishakaul

Few in Venezuela Want Bolívars, but No One Can Spare a Dime - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...t-no-one-can-spare-a-dime.html

shared by anishakaul on 18 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • Venezuelans have lost faith in their economy and in the ability of their government to find a way out of the mess
  • domestic confidence in the economy has crashed
  • the government has refused for months to release basic economic data like the inflation rate or the gross domestic product
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • A movie ticket costs about 380 bolívars. Calculated at the government rate, that is $60. At the black-market rate, it is just $0.54. Want a large popcorn and soda with that? Depending on how you calculate it, that is either $1.15 or $128.The minimum wage is 7,421 bolívars a month. That is either a decent $1,178 a month or a miserable $10.60.
    • anishakaul
      anishakaul on 18 Oct 15
       
      ???
  • country’s income has shrunk
  • the black market for dollars has soared
  • strict controls on prices and foreign exchange for imports
  • “It’s crazy,” he said. “We’re living a nightmare. There’s nothing to buy, and the money isn’t worth anything.”
  • “Necessity has a dog’s face,”
racheladams23

Q&A: 'Obamacare' health law - 1 views

diigo.com/016rj8

bbc health care

shared by racheladams23 on 07 Oct 13 - No Cached
Kay Bradley liked it
  • racheladams23 on 07 Oct 13
     
    This article explains the basics of the ACA: it requires all Americans to purchase health insurance ,and "requires business with more than 50 full-time employees to offer health coverage". It also gets rid of the problem of people being denied health care for pre-existing conditions. The article says that Republicans oppose the law because they think it "imposes too many costs on business", interferes in private affairs, and is a "job-killer".
  • Stuart Suplick on 08 Oct 13
     
    Yes, the ACA's "success [certainly] depends in large part on co-operation from state governments". And that's one of the root issues right now.
Tommy Cella

Researching India - 1 views

I learned that India has a rich history in agriculture, as Bronze Age farming technology has been found and a second century dam is still in use today. Currently, two thirds of the populace work in...

India agriculture crimes against women Mumbai

started by Tommy Cella on 25 Oct 13 no follow-up yet
Kako Ito

Public insurance and the least well-off | Lane Kenworthy - 6 views

lanekenworthy.net/surance-and-the-least-well-off

public insurance economics welfare poor nordic model universalism targeting redistribution income inequality

shared by Kako Ito on 27 Sep 15 - No Cached
  • Public insurance also boosts the living standards of the poor. It increases their income, and it provides them with services for which they bear relatively little of the cost.
  • Critics charge that public social programs tend to hurt the poor in the long run by reducing employment and economic growth. Are they correct?
  • Does public insurance erode self-reliance? Is a large private safety net as helpful to the least well-off as a large public one? Are universal programs more effective than targeted ones? Are income transfers the key, or are services important too?
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • Once again we see no indication that public insurance generosity has had a damaging effect
  • Note also that the employment rate increased in nearly all of the countries during this period. On average, it rose by nine percentage points between 1979 and 2013. That’s not what we would expect to see if generous public insurance programs were inducing large numbers of able adults to withdraw from the labor market
  • What we see in the chart is that countries with more generous public insurance programs tend to have less material deprivation.
  • With globalization, the advance of computers and robots, increased pressure from shareholders for short-run profit maximization, union weakening, and other shifts, wages have been under pressure. Couple this with the fact that many people at the low end of the income ladder have labor market disadvantages — disability, family constraint, geographic vulnerability to structural unemployment — and we have a recipe for stagnation in the market incomes of the poor.
  • here’s a good reason for these shifts: government provision offers economies of scale and scope, which reduces the cost of a good or service and thereby makes it available to many people who couldn’t or wouldn’t get it on their own.
  • Government provides more insurance now than it used to. All of us, not just some, are dependent on it. And life for almost everyone is better because of it
  • hese expenditures are encouraged by government tax advantages.22 But they do little to help people on the bottom of the ladder, who often work for employers that don’t provide retirement or health benefits.
  • To make them more affordable, the government claws back some of the benefit by taxing it as though it were regular income. All countries do this, including the United States, but the Nordic countries do it more extensively. Does that hurt their poor? Not much. The tax rates increase with household income, so much of the tax clawback hits middle- and upper-income households.
  • Another difference is that public services such as schooling, childcare, medical care, housing, and transportation are more plentiful and of better quality for the poor in the Nordic countries. Public services reduce deprivation and free up income to be spent on other needs. It’s difficult to measure the impact of services on living standards, but one indirect way is to look at indicators of material deprivation,
  • Targeted transfers are directed (sometimes disproportionately, sometimes exclusively) to those with low incomes and assets, whereas universal transfers are provided to most or all citizens.
  • Targeted programs are more efficient at reducing poverty; each dollar or euro or kroner transferred is more likely to go to the least well-off. Increased targeting therefore could be an effective way to maintain or enhance public insurance in the face of diminished resources.
  • “the more we target benefits to the poor … the less likely we are to reduce poverty and inequality.”
  • Korpi and Palme found that the pattern across eleven affluent nations supported the hypothesis that greater use of targeting in transfers yields less redistribution
  • The hypothesis that targeting in social policy reduces political support and thereby lessens redistributive effort is a sensible one. Yet the experience of the rich countries in recent decades suggests reason to question it. Targeting has drawbacks relative to universalism: more stigma for recipients, lower take-up rates, and possibly less social trust.44 But targeting is less expensive. As pressures to contain government expenditures mount, policy makers may therefore turn to greater use of targeting. That may not be a bad thing.
  • Public insurance programs boost the incomes of the least well-off and improve their material well-being. If such programs are too generous, this benefit could be offset by reduced employment or economic growth, but the comparative evidence suggests that the world’s rich nations haven’t reached or exceeded the tipping point.
  • Spending lots of money on social protection is not in and of itself helpful to the poor. Total social expenditures in the United States are greater than in Denmark and Sweden, because the US has a large private welfare state. But relatively little of America’s private social spending reaches the poor.
  • Public services are an important antipoverty tool. Their benefit doesn’t show up in income data, but they appear to play a key role in reducing material hardship. Services expand the sphere of consumption for which the cost is zero or minimal. And they help to boost the earnings and capabilities of the poor by enhancing human capital, assisting with job search and placement, and facilitating work-family balance.
  • Kako Ito on 27 Sep 15
     
    Through this article I have gained a deeper insight in how public expenditures and public goods promote wealth equality in a society. "Public services are an important antipoverty tool."
  • ...2 more comments...
  • olivialum on 29 Sep 15
     
    This article really helped me deepen my understanding of redistributing wealth downwards. I never thought about it, but things like social security, affirmative action programs, and public education are actually insurances that attempt to provide everybody with more equality when it comes to living standards as well as basic human rights.
  • samoshay on 29 Sep 15
     
    Yeah, it is a very common argument to say that social expenditures disincentives workers; interesting analysis on how wealthy countries haven't reached the "tipping point." I am curious to see what happens to labor force participation and employment in the next decades as robots further divorce economic growth from labor supply/demand.
  • charlesleesohn on 29 Sep 15
     
    Cool theory in regards to "the tipping point". Interesting, and solid criticism of large social expenditures. Wonder how socialists view this, as opposed to free-market economists.
  • smowat on 29 Sep 15
     
    "Public services are an important antipoverty tool. Their benefit doesn't show up in income data, but they appear to play a key role in reducing material hardship." INteresting to see the statistics and how social expenditures help reduce poverty and the wealth gap.
Catherine Binder

Russia Asks Schwarzenegger to Help in a Tough Task - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...12russia.html

Russia

shared by Catherine Binder on 22 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Catherine Binder on 22 Oct 10
     
    There are intriguing ties forming between Russia and California - this article is about Medvedev requesting Gov. Schwarzenegger's guidance in making Russia the next Silicon Valley. Medvedev is trying to lead Russia toward modernization - the country is heavily investing in Skolkovo, a business school (that many consider Medvedev's vanity project). Russia is very dependent on its oil supply, so it will be interesting to see how successful Medvedev's attempts at modernization are.
  • Nick Petru on 22 Oct 10
     
    Very CoPo-esque, in terms of US relations- good find Catherine. Its entertaining that after the Cold War, a race of modernization, Russia is now going to the Terminator for help in modernizing Russia.
Gregory Freiberg

The cracks in China's engine - 0 views

theweek.com/...the-cracks-in-chinas-engine

China

shared by Gregory Freiberg on 22 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Gregory Freiberg on 22 Oct 10
     
    When I normally think of China's vast economic growth, I have a negative image ingrained in the back of my mind. This image surrounds the ideas of the environmental degradation, the unsafe working conditions, and the fact that they are by far surpassing the United States. However, China's economic prowess has lifted 500,000,000 people out of poverty. But, it is still not perfect: China's economy depends heavily on exports to global economies thus, when these markets experience recessions China is affected. The 2008 United States Recession had a significant impact on China's fiscal success. It is suggested that China is not yet stable. Because the Communist Party is largely in-control of the government, the nation is experiencing political, social and strain. The workers are also beginning to speak out. It is interesting to watch as China rapids morphs more and more of itself into a massive economic and industrial powerhouse.
dredd15

BBC New - Japan country profile - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-asia-pacific-14918801

shared by dredd15 on 14 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • dredd15 on 14 Nov 14
     
    Much of Japan's reputation abroad is still heavily impacted by its actions pre- and post-WWII. China and South Korea are still at odds with Japan because they believe Japanese school books overlook the heinous crimes committed by the Japanese military during WWII. Yet, many other countries grew dependent on Japan following WWII. Following WWII and Japan's adoption of a more democratic constitution, it quickly gained some respect as a global aid donor and its booming car and technology industries made it a source of capital and credit for countries all over. Japan was able to make such a quick leap to the top following WWII thanks to the market bubble it could find in the U.S.; Japan maintained this productivity through its traditional social and employment hierarchies that have lead many people to work the same job their entire life. However, Japan's economic growth began to go in the opposite direction in 1990's with growing debt that multiple governments have failed to curtail. Currently, the population of Japan is rapidly aging, but the few young who are around are pushing for more Westernization and the Japanese government is even attempting to find a solution for its debt; not to mention, the Japanese government has made movements to amend the constitution to gain more military power in recent years.
Kay Bradley

Opinion | Who Killed the Knapp Family? - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...deaths-despair-poverty.html

shared by Kay Bradley on 10 Jan 20 - No Cached
  • The United States wrested power from labor and gave it to business, and it suppressed wages and cut taxes rather than invest in human capital, as our peer countries did. As other countries embraced universal health care, we did not; several counties in the United States have life expectancies shorter than those in Cambodia or Bangladesh.
  • A low-end worker may not have a high school diploma and is often barely literate or numerate while also struggling with a dependency; more than seven million Americans also have suspended driver’s licenses for failing to pay child support or court-related debt, meaning that they may not reliably show up at work.
  • If we’re going to obsess about personal responsibility, let’s also have a conversation about social responsibility.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • First, well-paying jobs disappeared, partly because of technology and globalization but also because of political pressure on unions and a general redistribution of power toward the wealthy and corporations.
  • Second, there was an explosion of drugs — oxycodone, meth, heroin, crack cocaine and fentanyl — aggravated by the reckless marketing of prescription painkillers by pharmaceutical companies.Third, the war on drugs sent fathers and mothers to jail, shattering families.
  • Both political parties embraced mass incarceration and the war on drugs, which was particularly devastating for black Americans, and ignored an education system that often consigned the poor — especially children of color — to failing schools. Since 1988, American schools have become increasingly segregated by race, and kids in poor districts perform on average four grade levels behind those in rich districts.
  • we should be able to agree on what doesn’t work: neglect and underinvestment in children.
  • Job training and retraining give people dignity as well as an economic lifeline. Such jobs programs are common in other countries.
  • The United States focused on money, providing extended unemployment benefits. Canada emphasized job retraining, rapidly steering workers into new jobs in fields like health care, and Canadian workers also did not have to worry about losing health insurance.
  • For instance, autoworkers were laid off during the 2008-9 economic crisis both in Detroit and across the Canadian border in nearby Windsor, Ontario.
  • Another successful strategy is investing not just in prisons but also in human capital to keep people out of prisons.
  • Women in Recovery has a recidivism rate after three years of only 4 percent, and consequently has saved Oklahoma $70 million in prison spending, according to the George Kaiser Family Foundation.
  • We need the government to step up and jump-start nationwide programs in early childhood education, job retraining, drug treatment and more.
  • Nicholas Kristof
jalene2021

Don't Mess With Ireland, Biden Warns Boris Johnson - The New York Times - 2 views

www.nytimes.com/...tain-brexit-biden-ireland.html

shared by jalene2021 on 18 Sep 20 - No Cached
  • jalene2021 on 18 Sep 20
     
    In response to Britain's prime minister, Boris Johnson, attempting to push a trade deal with the United States that could possibly undermine the Good Friday Agreement with Ireland, Joe Biden essentially said that he, along with congress, would oppose the bill if it ruptured the Good Friday Agreement and led to the return of a hard border with Ireland. This obviously created a lot of tension and, given that republicans generally support Brexit and have less loyalty to the Good Friday Agreement than Democrats, the future relationship between the US and UK could be dependent on how this year's presidential election goes.
  • theos2022 on 21 Sep 20
     
    Its super interesting to see that American politics will have such a great deal of influence on these international conflicts/affairs. I just looked at Taylor's post which was an opinion piece that criticized Joe Biden's involvement, so it is definitely worthwhile to look deeper into this subject.
  • stephens2021 on 22 Sep 20
     
    This is very interesting. I'd like to know a little more about why Joe Biden decided to become involved this situation other than, as the article mentions, his Irish heritage.
juliam814

Desperate Haitians suffocate under growing power of gangs - 0 views

apnews.com/...93b917718e5f67f27317e765c410aa

Haiti economy economics

shared by juliam814 on 01 Nov 21 - No Cached
  • Gang violence waxes and wanes depending on the state of Haiti’s economy, its political situation and, at one point, the presence of United Nations peacekeepers.
  • Experts believe much of this activity is driven by extreme poverty in a country where 60% of the population makes less than $2 a day and millions of people go hungry.
  • The country’s GDP dropped to -3.3% last year, the biggest decrease since the -5.7 drop that followed a devastating 2010 earthquake. In addition, the Haitian gourde depreciated more than 50% in the past year, and inflation remains above 10%, which has reduced purchasing power, said Haitian economist Enomy Germain.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Gangs also choke Haiti’s economy by blocking gas distribution terminals and major transportation routes — moves that prevent goods from flowing through the country. Many gas stations now remain closed for days at a time.
  • juliam814 on 01 Nov 21
     
    Haitians resort to participating in gangs due to extreme poverty.
Kay Bradley

Katharine Hayhoe - "Our future is still in our hands" | The On Being Project - The On B... - 0 views

onbeing.org/...r-future-is-still-in-our-hands

climate climate change environment faith action

shared by Kay Bradley on 15 Nov 21 - No Cached
  • I was talking with a pastor just recently, and he asked me very genuinely, he said, “How do I talk to people about climate change, when the only solutions that we are told that there are to climate change is to stop eating meat” — which is a very big deal in Texas, with those barbecues, it really is. It’s an identity issue. I’m not saying this facetiously; it is literally an identity issue — “and stop driving trucks, also an identity issue, stop traveling, stop having children, which is also an identity issue — basically, stop all these things that actually we often see as defining who we are?” And he said, “How am I supposed to tell people that we’re supposed to do this, when it’s as if I’m telling them, you know, we have to just” — and I think these were my words — “return to the Stone Age, unplug everything, and all the solutions are bad”?
  • And sadly, the way our human psychology is built, psychologists have shown that we, as humans, are much more averse to losing what we have than gaining something new.
  • I think there are some very smart people who have put those pieces together and deliberately communicated a message to us that we’re going to lose all we hold dear, instead of messaging the truth, which is, don’t you want to be more energy independent, rather than less? Don’t you want to have a car that is faster, that you never have to go to the gas station again — especially in the days of COVID — than the one that you have today, and that doesn’t produce air pollution that’s responsible for almost 9 million deaths a year? Don’t you want to grow food in a way that is healthy and good for the soil and for people and for the animals, too? Don’t you want to invest in nature, so it can protect us by purifying our air and our water and protecting our coastlines and providing habitat for animals and preventing zoonosis? When we actually start talking about real solutions  — and that’s the Yale survey that you referred to that I talk about in the book — when we ask people about real solutions, everybody’s on board. Everybody says, heck yes, I would love to do that. And so that is where we can directly address the fear, head-on.
  • ...21 more annotations...
  • what you’ve been saying. “What we need to fix this thing is rational hope.” How do you instill rational hope? And I mean, how do you do that, right, when you’re out there?
  • And then the second thing is recognizing that we are already moving towards a better future. Now, it might not seem like that, because all the headlines are full of doom and gloom and bad news. But when we start to look for hopeful news — and sadly, we have to go out and look for it, because if you just go — I did an experiment the other day, where I went to the website of a major news organization, and I just paged down through 35 headlines. And about seven or eight were very neutral; like, they didn’t evoke any emotion in me. They were just neutral, factual headlines. And every single other headline was negative — every one. So when we go and we look, though, for the hopeful stories of people who are making a difference, that imbues us with a sense of efficacy, that, wow, there’s somebody over there who’s doing something.
  • And you’re talking about what I refer to as a muscular hope.
  • Nobody in Texas knows that we have the biggest army base by land area, in the U.S., Fort Hood, that is 43 percent powered by clean energy.
  • Nobody knows that the Dallas Fort Worth airport was the first large carbon-neutral airport in North America.
  • Nobody knows that the city of Houston, which is home to, of course, most of the headquarters of many large, multinational oil and gas corporations, that the city of Houston has — is going to be meeting its Paris targets, in terms of reducing its carbon emissions.
  • we think of climate action as a giant boulder sitting at the bottom of an incredibly steep hill, and it’s only got a few hands on it. It’s got, you know, Al Gore’s hands are on it, and maybe Jane Goodall, and maybe a couple other hands, but nobody else. And so there’s just no way we’re going to make it up that hill. Like, just forget it. Why even waste my time? That’s sort of mentally how we think.
  • But the reality is, when we start to look around and see that 90 percent of new energy installed last year, during COVID, was clean energy, and we start to see that cities all over the world are taking action on climate change, and big businesses, like Microsoft and Apple and AT&T — you know, they’re building the biggest solar farm in the U.S., outside of Dallas, to supply major corporations with clean energy. So really, that giant boulder, it is already at the top of the hill, and it’s already rolling down the hill in the right direction, and it already has millions of hands on it. It just doesn’t have enough to get it going faster. And when we think, well, maybe I could add my hand to that, because I could get it going just a little bit faster, that’s totally different than if we think it’s at the bottom of the hill, not budging even an inch. So I find tremendous hope from that.
  • Texas, if Texas were its own country, it would be the seventh-most prolific emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, it’s the number one emitter in the U.S. — and Texas leads the nation in wind generation, for example.
  • that, honestly, and here’s the crazy thing. When you look at how the world has changed before — and it has changed. I mean, you know, 200 years ago it was somehow completely socially acceptable to have other human beings in slavery. And 150 years ago, it was entirely acceptable to say that women’s brains were too small and too fragile to be educated, because they would overheat.
  • It is the verse in Timothy where it talks about fear, where it says, “God has not given you a spirit of fear.”
  • that verse goes on to say, is a spirit of power, which is kind of an old-fashioned word, but in modern parlance it means to be empowered; to be able to act.
  • Or “agency.”
  • Yes, agency. Exactly — a spirit of agency. I like that.
  • And that’s the opposite of being paralyzed by fear. And we also have a spirit of love, which means we can be thinking of and considering others, not just ourselves and our own needs
  • So caring about this issue and acting on it is not only consistent with who we are, but it enables us to more genuinely express what we truly care about
  • It’s about acknowledging that, to care about climate change, you only have to be one thing, and that one thing is a human, living on planet Earth.
  • But talk about why it matters to you. Talk about how you both ski, or you’re both parents and you’re worried about your kids and the playground being too hot for them, or the fact that you fish and you’ve noticed that the fish populations are changing, or the fact that your basement got flooded last time it rained. Talk about something that matters to you and to the person that you’re talking with, and then do your research, to learn about what real climate solutions look like, and share that information with people.
  • do you know what our city is doing? Find out what your city’s doing. Tell people. Do you know what your state’s doing? Do you know what your church is doing? And if you don’t know, ask, and then if they’re not doing anything, say, hey, here are some things that you could be doing. And I even have a list on my website, because people often ask me that. So I’ve got a list of, you know, what could your church do, what can you do at school — all of these different things you can do.
  • hope begins with fear or despair or anxiety, it begins, as the bible says in the Book of Romans, it begins with suffering. And that suffering produces perseverance, and that perseverance produces character, and the character produces hope
  • in the middle of the century, it was somehow acceptable to say that, depending on the color of your skin, you could or couldn’t enter certain buildings or sit in a place on the bus. So the world has absolutely changed before, and how did it change? It was when ordinary people of no particular wealth or fame decided that the world could and should be different, and they decided to not only take personal action, but to use their voices to talk about why it mattered, what could be done, and to advocate for change in every sphere in which they were.
  • Kay Bradley on 15 Nov 21
     
    "Well, we live, today, in a country, the United States, that is more politically polarized than it's been in either of our lifetimes, ever. And that just seems to be getting worse by the day." What Hayhoe and others are pointing to is another way of communicating about climate change.
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