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Category Archives: Poverty

One Of The More Powerful Critical Pieces On America I’ve Read In A Long Time

Charlie Pierce has written an extremely powerful piece, “The Cynic and Senator Obama,” in this month’s Esquire. Whatever you may think of it - it’s an important criticism, made more moving by Pierce’s love for an America lost (and feared forever lost). I got there via Ezra Klein’s post, which is also well […]

Posted 18 May 2008 † Hiram Wurf § Big Picture § Bush Administration § Civil Liberties § Civil Rights § Court System § Crime § Democratic Change § Democratic Party § Ethics § Foreign Policy § Gay Politics § Intelligence § Iraq War § Media Watch § Middle Class § Political Communication § Presidential Election 08 § Privatization § Religion § Republican Party § Technology § Terrorism § Torture § Veterans § Working Hard - Living In Poverty ‡ Comments (0) °

Money Can’t Buy Me Love, But Happiness…?

Pay me more and I’ll let you know.
Money and happiness may not have a super-strong relationship - but it’s enough to be bad news for the Bush economy, where Americans have been earning less over the years. Perhaps depressed wages have contributed to depressing people with an overwhelming majority of Americans believing […]

Posted 16 April 2008 † Hiram Wurf § Bush Administration § Dollars and Social Sense § DuPage Politics § Economic Development § Economy § Illinois Politics § Middle Class § Political Communication ‡ Comments (0) °

Poverty And Economic Thought - Charles Karelis

[Hat tip to Matt Yglesias]
I haven’t read Charles Karelis’ recent book (nor had I heard of him for that matter) but what struck me about his argument that poverty traps people because they have too many “problems to be alleviated” was that it sounds reasonable, compelling and not that surprising. The first thing I […]

Posted 02 April 2008 † Hiram Wurf § Dollars and Social Sense § Economic Development § Political Communication § Working Hard - Living In Poverty ‡ Comments (3) °

Iraq Economic Expansion On Pace To Dwarf China

Iraqi shopkeeper Mahmoud Ghali of Sadr City remembers when things were bad in spring 2006. “There was one month when all I sold was three bars of soap and one bottle of shampoo.” Now things have changed for the better. Last month Ghali sold nineteen bars of soap, ten bottles of shampoo, […]

Posted 17 January 2008 † Hiram Wurf § Bush Administration § Economic Development § Economy § Iraq War § Satire ‡ Comments (0) °

Jotham Stein Video On Child Hunger And Health Care - The Problem Isn’t The Effort

My sense of Democrat Jotham Stein’s campaign in the 14th Congressional District is that he has put a tremendous amount of effort into it. He was the first in the race (both sides) to announce, he strenuously has attempted to attend events, big and small, and at times Jotham has been the only Democratic […]

Posted 15 January 2008 † Hiram Wurf § Democratic Party § DuPage Political Campaigns § DuPage Politics § Healthcare § IL - 14th Congressional District § Illinois Political Campaigns § Illinois Politics § Political Communication § Youth ‡ Comments (0) °

Lucky Dube 1964-2007

I was far from South African reggae star Lucky Dube’s biggest fan, only having a couple of his albums, but I liked what I heard. Perhaps most memorable for me were the lyrics in his title song “Prisoner” - “They won’t build no schools anymore/They won’t build no hospitals(x2)/All they’ll build will be prison, […]

Posted 10 November 2007 † Hiram Wurf § Crime § Music § Political Communication ‡ Comments (0) °

Horror In Japan - The Words Of A Starving Man

This tale of Japanese starvation was on the front page of yesterday’s New York Times and it both horrified me and made me sad.
“In a thin notebook discovered along with a man’s partly mummified corpse this summer was a detailed account of his last days, recording his hunger pangs, his drop in weight and, above […]

Posted 13 October 2007 † Hiram Wurf § Economy ‡ Comments (0) °