The Poor

America's Poorest Are Getting Virtually No Assistance By Jared Bernstein, The Atlantic, September 6, 2015. [America's poor want work, not handouts. But there's no work for them to do.]

‘$2.00 a Day,’ by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer By William Julius Wilson, Sunday Book Review, The New York Times, September 2, 2015. [Review of "$2.00 A DAY: Living on Almost Nothing in America" By Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer.]

A Poverty-Buster That's No Liberal Fantasy By Cass Sunstein, BloombergView, August 14, 2015. [In praise of the Earned Income Tax Credit.]

Basic income: the world's simplest plan to end poverty, explained by Dylan Matthews on May 1, 2015. []

How Poor Are the Poor? By Thomas B. Edsall, The New York Times, March 25, 2015. [How much progress has there been in the War on Poverty?]

The War on Poverty: Was It Lost? By Christopher Jencks, The New York Review of Books, APRIL 2, 2015. [Review of "Legacies of the War on Poverty" by Martha J. Bailey and Sheldon Danziger (eds.).]

Fighting Poverty at Tax Time through the EITC By Elizabeth Kneebone and Natalie Holmes, The Avenue (blog), Brookings, December 16, 2014. []

Poverty's Vicious Cycle Can Affect Our Genes By Alison Gopnik, The Wall Street Journal, September 24, 2014. [Alison Gopnik on new epigenetics research that reveals genes' role in a vicious cycle.]

The Way to Beat Poverty By NICHOLAS KRISTOF and SHERYL WuDUNN, The New York Times, SEPT. 12, 2014. [Early childhood is what the focus should be on.]

What Makes People Poor? By THOMAS B. EDSALL, The New York Times, SEPT. 2, 2014. [Before we can get serious about inequality, the left, the right and the center need to realize that they have a lot to learn from each other.]

Poverty and the Tax Code By Jason Furman, Democracy, Issue #32, Spring 2014. [Tax credits have arguably done more to reduce poverty than programs have. It’s time to expand them once again.]

Low-Wage Workers Are Finding Poverty Harder to Escape By STEVEN GREENHOUSE, The New York Times, MARCH 16, 2014. ["Climbing above the poverty line has become more daunting in recent years."]

Want to end poverty? Brazil’s answer: Give people money BY HOWARD SCHNEIDER, Wonkblog (blog), The Washington Post, January 31, 2014. [Specifically, give them enough money to end their poverty.]

THE WAR ON POVERTY 50 YEARS LATER: A PROGRESS REPORT By The Council of Economic Advisers, January 2014. []

In the War on Poverty, a Dogged Adversary By EDUARDO PORTER, The New York Times, Published: December 17, 2013. [Despite continued efforts to help the poor, the poverty level remains close to what it was 50 years ago.]

The End of Poverty, Soon By JEFFREY D. SACHS, The New York Times, Published: September 24, 2013. [The evidence for eradication of poverty worldwide is on the side of optimists.]

New Way of Calculating Poverty Rate Faces Hurdles By Carl Bialik, The wall Street Journal, September 21, 2013. ["The official U.S. poverty measure, which turns 50 this year, isn't aging gracefully, economists say. But for reasons ranging from the practical to the political, it likely won't be changed or replaced soon." Also, here's a related blog entry by Carl Bialik.]

A College Kid, A Single Mom, And The Problem With The Poverty Line by PAM FESSLER, Morning Edition, NPR, August 26, 2013. [The U.S. government's formula for the measurement of poverty has some "fundamental flaws."]

Who Is Poor? By THOMAS B. EDSALL, Opinionator (blog), The New York Times, MARCH 13, 2013. []

Poor Are Still Getting Poorer, but Downturn’s Punch Varies, Census Data Show By JASON DePARLEand SABRINA TAVERNISE, The New York Times, September 15, 2011. [The Census Bureau’s poverty report is sure to be cited in coming months as lawmakers make difficult decisions about how to balance the competing goals of cutting deficits and preserving safety nets.]

U.S. Poverty Rate, at 15 Percent, Is the Highest Since 1993 By SABRINA TAVERNISE, The New York Times, September 13, 2011. [A Census Bureau report also found that median household incomes declined by 2.3 percent in 2010, in a sign of the toll the economic slump has taken. 46.2 million people now live in poverty in the United States, a record. Median household incomes adjusted for inflation was $49,400 in 2010, 7 percent less than the peak of $53,252 in 1999. The median annual income for a male full-time, year-round worker in 2010 — $47,715 — was virtually unchanged in 2010 dollars, from its level in 1973, when it was $49,065.]

Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010 (PDF), U.S. Census Bureau, September 13, 2011. See also the news release on this annual report.

Should We Stop Fooling Ourselves About Money? By THOMAS H. BENTON, The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 14, 2002.

Poor in Assets and Income By RAY BOSHARA, The New York Times, September 29, 2002.

Recession Cut Incomes and Swelled Poverty Rolls, U.S. Says By DAVID STOUT, The New York Times, September 24, 2002.

Welcome to the Working Class! By FELICIA R. LEE, The New York Times, July 13, 2002.

Falling Wages and Troubled Lives: Town Stumbles as Economy Shifts By PETER T. KILBORN, The New York Times, June 17, 2002.

Census Figures Show Poverty Dropped, Median Income Grew By KELLY K. SPORS, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, June 5, 2002.

The True Purpose of Welfare Reform By PETER EDELMAN, The New York Times, May 29, 2002.

Faculty Pay Is Up 3.8%, the Most in 11 Years By YILU ZHAO, The New York Times, April 13, 2002.

Defense System in Georgia Needs Overhaul, Lawyers Say By DAVID FIRESTONE, The New York Times, July 21, 2001.

How to Define Poverty? Let Us Count the Ways By LOUIS UCHITELLE, The New York Times, May 26, 2001.

Off the Shelf: A Humbling Tour of Entry-Level America By DIANA B. HENRIQUES, The New York Times, May 13, 2001.

Making Ends Meet: Barbara Ehrenreich travels across America to learn how people live on a minimum wage. By DOROTHY GALLAGHER, The New York Times, May 13, 2001.

Number of Poor People Diminishes as Household Income Rises, Census Bureau Says By STEVEN A. HOLMES, The New York Times, September 27, 1996.