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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.
Kay Bradley

Police Reform Is Necessary. But How Do We Do It? - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...police-reform.html

shared by Kay Bradley on 27 Aug 20 - No Cached
  • The United States spends more on public safety than almost all its peer countries and much less, relatively speaking, on social services
  • Now we’re having a conversation that’s not just about how black communities are policed, and what reforms are required, but also about why we’ve invested exclusively in a criminalization model for public safety, instead of investing in housing, jobs, health care, education for black communities and fighting structural inequality.
  • Budgets are moral documents, reflecting priorities and values.
  • ...21 more annotations...
  • Garza: In 2018 and 2019, my organization, Black Futures Lab, did what we believe is the largest survey of black communities in America. It’s called the Black Census Project. We asked more than 30,000 black people across America what we experience, what we want to see happen instead and what we long for, for our futures.
  • the No.1 issue facing them, and keeping them up at night, is that their wages are too low to support a family.
  • Imagine that you have a tool chest for solving social problems. It gives you options. Then you lose the tool of mental-health resources. You lose the tool of public education. They take out the tool of job placement. And then all you’ve got left is this one rusty hammer. That’s policing.
  • Simply defunding the police cannot be a legacy of this moment. I want to hear about investing in black communities more than I want to hear about defunding.
  • There has been such a massive disinvestment in the social safety net that should exist to give black communities an opportunity to thrive, whether it’s access to health care or housing or education or jobs.
  • They cause others to be armed, out of fear, who shouldn’t have to worry about defending themselves
  • A tiny percentage of people are the ones destabilizing communities
  • In many cities, the police spend a lot of time “on traffic and motor-vehicle issues, on false burglar alarms, on noise complaints and on problems with animals,”
  • When a police report leads to criminal charges — only a subset of the whole — about 80 percent of them are for misdemeanors. Friedman argues that we should hand off some of what the police do to people who are better trained for it.
  • The dispatcher would route calls that aren’t about crimes or a risk of harm to social workers, mediators and others.
  • There are a host of things that the police are currently responding to that they have no business responding to.
  • If you have a car accident, why is somebody with a gun coming to the scene?
  • Or answering a complaint about someone like George Floyd, who the store clerk said bought a pack of cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill?
  • Similarly, if you have a homeless man panhandling at a red light and you say to a cop, “Go fix it,” he’ll arrest the man. And now he has a $250 ticket. And how does he pay that? And what does any of this accomplish?
  • domestic disputes. They’re the subject of 15 to more than 50 percent of calls to the police
  • But might we get further in the long run if someone with other skills — in social work or mediation — actually handled the incident?
  • The women were deeply wary of the police in general, but 33 of them had called them at least once, often for help with a teenager. “Calling the police on family members deepens the reach of penal control,” Bell wrote. But the mothers in her study have scant options.
  • hey knew that if they called the police that real harm could come, and they didn’t want that.
  • When I did investigations for the Justice Department, I would hear police officers say: “I didn’t sign up to the police force to be a social worker. I don’t have that training.” They know they’re stuck handling things because there is a complete lack of investment in other approaches and responses.
  • In Eugene, Ore., some 911 calls are routed to a crisis-intervention service called Cahoots, which responds to things like homelessness, substance abuse and mental illness. Houston routes some mental-health calls to a counselor if they’re not emergencies. New Orleans is hiring people who are not police officers to go to traffic collisions and write reports, as long as there are no injuries or concerns about drunken driving. I’m borrowing these examples from Barry Friedman’s article. The point is that some cities are beginning to reduce the traditional scope of police work.
  • One of the most interesting studies about policing is a randomized comparison of different strategies for dealing with areas of Lowell, Mass., that were hot spots for crime. One was aggressive patrols, which included stop-and-frisk encounters and arrests on misdemeanor charges, like drug possession. A second was social-service interventions, like mental-health help or taking homeless people to shelters. A third involved physical upkeep: knocking down vacant buildings, cleaning vacant lots, putting in streetlights and video cameras. The most effective in reducing crime was the third strategy.
Kay Bradley

If Bernie Sanders wants free college, he ought to check out Australia - Wharton Magazine - 0 views

magazine.wharton.upenn.edu/...e-ought-to-check-out-australia

shared by Kay Bradley on 27 Oct 22 - No Cached
  • Higher Education Contribution Scheme
  • comparable with those in-state students are charged at American public colleges and universities
  • The problems with truly free higher education — perpetual students, rising budget deficits, upper middle class welfare — led Australia to replace the system I studied under with HECS 25 years ago.
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • “zero cash up front” for admitted students.
  • with a bigger debt for degrees that tend to lead to higher paying jobs like business and law and less debt for priorities areas like STEM.
  • Australian students only begin to repay their HECS debt when their salary reaches a threshold figure that is close to median household income.
  • This automatic and there is no possibility of non-payment or partial payment. The reason is that the government treats HECS payments as a tax line in your pay check.
  • Repayment schedules are progressive — the more you earn after graduation, the more quickly you pay the government back what you owe for your education. If your salary just meets the threshold, you are “taxed” 4% of your income each year until you pay off all your debt, which could take well over a decade. If you earn twice as much, the annual repayment is 8%
  • If your income never reaches the national median, your education is free and you never have to pay it back.
  • t is a “rort” in Australian vernacular (what Americans might call a scam) if you don’t enter the workforce for other reasons — such as coming from a rich family or having a high income spouse.
  • You can also avoid HECS by leaving Australia because then you don’t have to pay Australian taxes.
  • That is far better than the estimated 40% of American student loans at default risk.
  • there is a big obstacle to overcome.
  • In Australia, you only pay one tax bill, to the federal government, which also runs higher education. The financing of higher education is a fully federal responsibility. In the U.S., we pay federal and state taxes, and public universities are run by states not by Washington.
  • The U.S. is unique in having a vibrant private not-for-profit higher education sector sitting alongside the public colleges and universities. One big difference: the privates don’t receive any direct state or federal funding. As a result, they tend to rely more heavily on tuition than the public ones do.
  • The clear ethos is that the most talented students should be able to get an Ivy League education, not just those with the ability to pay.
  • Charge the full tuition price to those who can afford it. Offer very generous f
Kay Bradley

How to Read in 2013 - NYTimes.com - 3 views

www.nytimes.com/...uthat-how-to-read-in-2013.html

shared by Kay Bradley on 07 Jan 13 - No Cached
Kay Bradley

Candidates and the Truth About America - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...d-the-truth-about-america.html

america exceptionalism statistics world rank nytimes com

shared by Kay Bradley on 21 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • dismal statistics on child poverty, declaring it an outrage that of the 35 most economically advanced countries, the United States ranks 34th, edging out only Romania
  • educational achievement, noting that this country comes in only 28th in the percentage of 4-year-olds enrolled in preschool
  • 14th in the percentage of 25-to-34-year-olds with a higher education
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • infant mortality, where the United States ranks worse than 48 other countries and territories,
  • the United States trails most of Europe, Australia and Canada in social mobility.
  • America is indeed No. 1, he might declare — in locking its citizens up, with an incarceration rate far higher than that of the likes of Russia, Cuba, Iran or China
  • in obesity, easily outweighing second-place Mexico and with nearly 10 times the rate of Japan
  • in energy use per person, with double the consumption of prosperous Germany.
  • This national characteristic, often labeled American exceptionalism, may inspire some people and politicians to perform heroically, rising to the level of our self-image
  • Democrats are more loath than Republicans to look squarely at the government debt crisis indisputably looming with the aging of baby boomers and the ballooning cost of Medicare
  • the self-censorship it produces in politicians is bipartisan, even if it is more pronounced on the left for some issues and the right for others.
  • epublicans are more reluctant than Democrats to acknowledge the rise of global temperatures and its causes and consequences.
  • An American politician who speaks too candidly about the country’s faults, she went on to say, risks being labeled with that most devastating of epithets: un-American.
sophiabrakeman

To End Poverty, Give Everyone the Chance to Learn - 6 views

www.worldbank.org/...e-everyone-the-chance-to-learn

poverty equality learn

shared by sophiabrakeman on 03 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • sophiabrakeman on 03 Nov 16
     
    This article not only suggests that education in excellent public schools is beneficial to end poverty, but learning comes in the form of new ideas in jobs. Workers are able to learn on the job and apply these skills to an even better, more qualified job. Furthermore, the article says that equality is another key to economic success.
  • Kay Bradley on 03 Nov 16
     
    Terrific article, Sophia. Did you watch the accompanying video? Pretty darn inspiring!
Kay Bradley

Video of Taliban Flogging Rattles Pakistan - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...04swat.html

Pakistan

shared by Kay Bradley on 30 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Kay Bradley on 30 Aug 10
     
    Pakistan woman public flogging
Njeri Kamau-Devers

Wall Street Protesters Divided Over Occupy Movement's Demands - 2 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...wall-street-protesters-divided

Occupy Wall Street Public Works Program

shared by Njeri Kamau-Devers on 19 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • Njeri Kamau-Devers on 19 Oct 11
     
    This article is about how the protesters are experiencing a divide between those who want to work on consensus building versus those who would like to have majority "winner takes all" vote. The current issue is about how to vote for a massive public works program funded by ceasing America's overseas military operations.
mary goglio

Fast, faster, fastest: high-speed intercity passenger rail is gaining momentum in the U... - 0 views

go.galegroup.com/...i.do

rail u.s. high-speed rail

shared by mary goglio on 18 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • mary goglio on 18 Oct 11
     
    Fast, faster, fastest: high-speed intercity passenger rail is gaining momentum in the United States. But are fast trains a smart public investment? Good overview article
Katie Despain

2011 Attacks Public Opinion - 0 views

www.dagbladet.no/...18499197

shared by Katie Despain on 14 Nov 14 - No Cached
  • Katie Despain on 14 Nov 14
     
    Norwegian public opinion after 2011 attacks.
marleyg2021

Coronavirus: 396 more cases as public is urged to help protect 'older and vulnerable' - 0 views

www.irishtimes.com/...older-and-vulnerable-1.4359834

shared by marleyg2021 on 20 Sep 20 - No Cached
  • marleyg2021 on 20 Sep 20
     
    With coronavirus cases rising in Ireland with the majority of cases in their capital city, Dublin, health and medical professionals are encouraging all citizens to wear masks, practice social distancing, and stay inside as much a s possible.
arjunk2022

Bolsonaro should face charges for COVID pandemic: Senate inquiry - 0 views

www.aljazeera.com/...icide-charge-over-covid-report

COVID-19 Brazil

shared by arjunk2022 on 26 Oct 21 - No Cached
  • arjunk2022 on 26 Oct 21
     
    We mentioned this in class, but it seems the president of Brazil might be prosecuted for incompetence in handling the pandemic in Brazil. The question in my mind, though, is whether he's being prosecuted for incompetence or malicious intent. If it's the former, what's the line between reasonable and criminal incompetence for public officials? They do also mention, however, that he likely won't be charged because of the government's structure: "Any charges against Bolsonaro, however, would have to be brought by Brazil's prosecutor - a general appointed by Bolsonaro, making it highly unlikely that he will face trial."
  • Kay Bradley on 26 Oct 21
     
    Arjun, you commented, "The question in my mind, though, is whether he's being prosecuted for incompetence or malicious intent. If it's the former, what's the line between reasonable and criminal incompetence for public officials?" That is SUCH a good question??? Not sure that criminal incompetence exists. . . anyone know?
lauran5556555

Gunman Pleads Guilty in Parkland School Shooting - The New York Times - 3 views

www.nytimes.com/...oting-guilty-nikolas-cruz.html

shared by lauran5556555 on 20 Oct 21 - No Cached
  • “Counts 1 through 17 of the indictment charged you with murder in the first degree. These are life felonies. They are punishable — they’re capital felonies
  • He responded with “guilty” 34 times as Judge Elizabeth Scherer read each charge — including each victim’s name — and asked how he wanted to plea.
  • Armed with a legally purchased semiautomatic rifle,
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • The Parkland case will be the rare instance of a mass shooter who lives to see any sort of trial, since many of them end up dying in their attacks.
  • the top prosecutor in Broward County at the time of the attack, Michael J. Satz, said he would pursue the death penalty
  • fight a battle that you might win — and that’s the sentencing battl
  • In Florida, judges can only sentence a defendant to death if a jury unanimously recommends the death penalty, and even then, judges can override the jury and sentence a defendant to life in prison, though they rarely do so.
  • Mr. Cruz had a history of mental health and behavior problems, many of them documented by the public school district
  • Victims’ families recently reached a $25 million settlement with Broward County Public Schools over the shooting.
  • lauran5556555 on 20 Oct 21
     
    This is good that the families will get a closure, but I wonder how it will influence the gun control laws and mental health awareness in the US.
agnesg22

Exxon Knew about Climate Change Almost 40 Years Ago - Scientific American - 1 views

www.scientificamerican.com/...ate-change-almost-40-years-ago

ClimateChange Exxon

shared by agnesg22 on 02 Nov 21 - No Cached
  • agnesg22 on 02 Nov 21
     
    "A new investigation shows the oil company understood the science before it became a public issue and spent millions to promote misinformation"
Kay Bradley

COP26: Key Outcomes From the UN Climate Talks in Glasgow  | World Resources I... - 0 views

www.wri.org/...comes-un-climate-talks-glasgow

shared by Kay Bradley on 01 Dec 21 - No Cached
  • The world still remains off track to beat back the climate crisis.  
  • ministers from all over the world agreed that countries should come back next year to submit stronger 2030 emissions reduction targets with the aim of closing the gap to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees
  • Ministers also agreed that developed countries should urgently deliver more resources to help climate-vulnerable countries adapt to the dangerous and costly consequences of climate change that they are feeling already —
  • ...46 more annotations...
  • curb methane emissions,
  • halt and reverse forest loss,
  • align the finance sector with net-zero by 2050
  • ditch the internal combustion engine
  • accelerate the phase-out of coal,
  • end international financing for fossil fuels,
  • “Not nearly enough” to the first question, “yes” to the second. 
  • 151 countries had submitted new climate plans (known as nationally determined contributions, or NDCs)
  • To keep the goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C within reach, we need to cut global emissions in half by the end of this decade.
  • these plans, as they stand, put the world on track for 2.5 degrees C of warming by the end of the century.
  • If you take into account countries’ commitments to reach net-zero emissions by around mid-century, analysis shows temperature rise could be kept to around 1.8 or 1.9 degrees C.
  • some major emitters’ 2030 targets are so weak (particularly those from Australia, China, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Russia) that they don’t offer credible pathways to achieve their net-zero targets.
  • a major “credibility gap”
  • To fix this problem, these countries’ must strengthen their 2030 emissions reduction targets to at least align with their net-zero commitments. 
  • as well as ramping up ambition
  • the pact asks nations to consider further actions to curb potent non-CO2 gases, such as methane, and includes language emphasizing the need to “phase down unabated coal” and “phase-out fossil fuel subsidies.”
  • This marked the first time negotiators have explicitly referenced shifting away from coal and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies in COP decision text.  
  • this COP finally recognized the importance of nature for both reducing emissions and building resilience to the impacts of climate change,
  • Did Developing Countries Get the Finance and Support They Need? 
  • In 2009, rich nations committed to mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 and through 2025 to support climate efforts in developing countries
  • developed countries failed to meet that goal in 2020 (recent OECD estimates show that total climate finance reached $79.6 billion in 2019).
  • The Adaptation Fund reached unprecedented levels of contributions, with new pledges for $356 million that represent almost three times its mobilization target for 2022. The Least Developed Countries Fund, which supports climate change adaptation in the world’s least developed countries, also received a record $413 million in new contributions.
  • COP26 also took steps to help developing countries access good quality finance options.
  • For example, encouraging multilateral institutions to further consider the links between climate vulnerabilities and the need for concessional financial resources for developing countries — such as securing grants rather than loans to avoid increasing their debt burden. 
  • COP26 finally put the critical issue of loss and damage squarely on the main stage
  • Climate change is already causing devastating losses of lives, land and livelihoods. Some damages are permanent — from communities that are wiped out, to islands disappearing beneath the waves, to water resources that are drying up.
  • Countries also agreed to operationalize and fund the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage, established at COP25 in Madrid, and to catalyze the technical assistance developing countries need to address loss and damage in a robust and effective manner.  
  • International Carbon Markets.
  • negotiators agreed to avoid double-counting, in which more than one country could claim the same emissions reductions as counting toward their own climate commitments.
  • his is critical to make real progress on reducing emissions.
  • Common Time Frames. In Glasgow, countries were encouraged to use common timeframes for their national climate commitments. This means that new NDCs that countries put forward in 2025 should have an end-date of 2035, in 2030 they will put forward commitments with a 2040 end-date, and so on.
  • Transparency. In Glasgow, all countries agreed to submit information about their emissions and financial, technological and capacity-building support using a common and standardized set of formats and tables.
  • 100 high-level announcements during the “World Leaders Summit"
  • including a bold commitment from India to reach net-zero emissions by 2070 that is backed up with near-term targets (including ambitious renewable energy targets for 2030), 109 countries signing up to the Global Methane Pledge to slash emissions by 30% by 2030, and a pledge by 141 countries (as of November 10) to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 (backed by $18 billion in funding, including $1.7 billion dedicated to support indigenous peoples).  
  • Glasgow Breakthroughs, a set of global targets meant to dramatically accelerate the innovation and use of clean technologies in five emissions-heavy sectors:
  • power, road transport, steel, hydrogen and agriculture.
  • 46 countries, including the U.K., Canada, Poland and Vietnam made commitments to phase out domestic coal,
  • 29 countries including the U.K., Canada, Germany and Italy committed to end new direct international public support for unabated fossil fuels by the end of 2022
  • Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, led by Costa Rica and Denmark — with core members France, Greenland, Ireland, Quebec, Sweden and Wales — pledged to end new licensing rounds for oil and gas exploration and production and set an end date that is aligned with Paris Agreement objectives
  • Efforts were also made to scale up solar investment
  • new Solar Investment Action Agenda by WRI, the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and Bloomberg Philanthropies that identifies high-impact opportunities to speed up investment and reach ISA’s goal of mobilizing $1 trillion in solar investment by 2030.
  • Non-state actors including investors, businesses, cities and subnational regions also joined collective action initiatives aimed at driving economic transformation.
  • Over 400 financial firms which control over $130 trillion in assets committed to aligning their portfolios to net-zero by 2030
  • banks, asset managers and asset owners fully recognize the business case for climate action and the significant risks of investing in the high-carbon, polluting economy of that past.
  • 11 major automakers agreed to work toward selling only zero-emission vehicles globally by 2040, and by no later than 2035 in leading markets.  
  • In the year ahead, major emitters need to ramp up their 2030 emissions reduction targets to align with 1.5 degrees C, more robust approaches are needed to hold all actors accountable for the many commitments made in Glasgow, and much more attention is needed on how to meet the urgent needs of climate-vulnerable countries to help them deal with climate impacts and transition to net-zero economies.
nicolek2023

North Koreans trapped in 'vicious cycle of deprivation, corruption, repression' and end... - 0 views

news.un.org/...1039251

shared by nicolek2023 on 30 Nov 22 - No Cached
  • nicolek2023 on 30 Nov 22
     
    The state run public distribution system collapsed in North Korea in the 90s, forcing people to work in informal markets such as bribery. Right now, reporters asses that bribery (typically to state officials) seems to be the number one way that people are accessing their food, healthcare, shelter, and work. Due to the constant threat of possible arrest, some state officials are able to extort extra money and favors as well. Women are also being found to be more vulnerable to abuse, brokers, and traffickers.
  • duncanc2023 on 01 Dec 22
     
    I'm not surprised at the amount of corruption that has been uncovered. I'm mainly interested in how they are able to control the public image of the government so well. I'd like to know more about how the information about all of the North Korean government's shortcomings is kept under wraps.
  • Kay Bradley on 04 Dec 22
     
    See this article from 2018: "Inside A North Korea That Is Changing - But At Its Own Pace" NPR https://www.npr.org/2018/10/01/652037944/photos-inside-a-north-korea-that-is-changing-but-at-its-own-pace
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