poverty

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Budget 2016 – F for Fail

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, May 27th, 2016 - 31 comments

budget-quote
— Deborah Russell

The Government thinks that poverty is the fault of the poor, and some budget advisers

Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, May 25th, 2016 - 121 comments

The Government is planning to change funding for budgeting services and to require providers to become “financial mentors” rather than “budgeting advisers” as if this will improve things.

Bennett admits she was wrong

Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, May 25th, 2016 - 18 comments

Paula Bennett has basically apologised to Parliament for claiming that National would create 3,000 new social housing beds when all that it was doing is funding existing beds to make sure they did not disappear.

In the middle of a housing crisis Housing Corp is selling state houses

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, May 20th, 2016 - 49 comments

John Campbell is covering the homeless crisis with stories that highlight the personal tragedies that are occurring and the complete indifference of the Government to their plight.

Homeless coverage goes international

Written By: - Date published: 2:52 pm, May 17th, 2016 - 97 comments

Coverage of Auckland’s homeless goes international. The working poor are now the working homeless.

TV3 – The Hui – Special report on poverty

Written By: - Date published: 11:13 am, May 15th, 2016 - 43 comments

TV3’s excellent current affairs show, The Hui (Mihingarangi Forbes) just screened a special report on poverty. What happens to people who are kicked off a benefit?

NZ exporting poverty

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, May 9th, 2016 - 15 comments

By enabling tax evasion for the rich in other (notably South American) countries NZ is exporting poverty. It’s all perfectly legal. And that’s exactly the problem.

Saving the town

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, April 19th, 2016 - 78 comments

What do you do for a town when the company that provides all the jobs shuts down?

Towards a new economic order

Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, April 17th, 2016 - 222 comments

George Monbiot in the Guardian gives a precise and accurate description of neoliberalism and asks the question why has the left not come up with a modern alternative?

The Divide (Spirit Level – The Movie)

Written By: - Date published: 11:18 am, April 13th, 2016 - 5 comments

Based on the breakthrough book The Spirit Level, just released film The Divide puts a human face on low wage hell. “Why aren’t we earning enough to live?”

Justin Lester: begging is a social issue, not a crime

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, April 9th, 2016 - 50 comments

The Auckland local government race isn’t the only one where begging is becoming a top issue.

Shameful tactics on beneficiaries

Written By: - Date published: 7:40 am, April 8th, 2016 - 43 comments

Why does it take a volunteer organisation like Auckland Action Against Poverty to help people get the benefits that they are entitled to?

Postcard from the “brighter” future

Written By: - Date published: 11:27 am, March 30th, 2016 - 31 comments

Evidence of growing poverty hitting “mid-decile” schools.

Global elite plan their escape from “pleb masses”

Written By: - Date published: 11:03 am, March 29th, 2016 - 35 comments

So, Key has now come out and revealed to us how afraid the global oligarch class (and their well paid professional enablers) are. They appear to have no plans to reverse their activites to make things better for us.

Glasses and Brick Walls (& woods and trees).

Written By: - Date published: 9:41 pm, March 21st, 2016 - 47 comments

The thing about not having great sight is that sometimes you don’t really see things coming.

Intergenerational theft

Written By: - Date published: 10:23 am, March 10th, 2016 - 86 comments

The Guardian has an excellent piece on “the 30-year economic betrayal dragging down Generation Y’s income”.

The Butcher’s Apron or the Tea Towel

Written By: - Date published: 10:04 am, February 28th, 2016 - 159 comments

Next week the voting on part two of the Key Legacy Project © begins. We’re being given a choice between the outdated and the bland. The Butcher’s Apron or the Tea Towel. Do you care?

the Global Death Economy

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, February 25th, 2016 - 141 comments

A new edition of “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” has been released. It makes it clear that we are in the grip of a global “Death Economy” and a collective embrace of ‘Thanatos’, the death instinct.

Another poverty report to ignore

Written By: - Date published: 10:19 am, February 20th, 2016 - 72 comments

Another report on child poverty for the Nats to ignore.

Bob McCoskrie confuses correlation with causation

Written By: - Date published: 9:34 am, February 12th, 2016 - 49 comments

Family First’s Bob McCoskrie has released a research paper that essentially concludes that the anti smacking bill and not child poverty is responsible for the plight of children deteriorating over the past decade.

So, how would you spend $1.2B per year?

Written By: - Date published: 3:23 pm, February 1st, 2016 - 84 comments

A Kiwi Kids allowance for all under fives, with totally fee free public primary and secondary schools.

Postcards from the brighter future

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, January 31st, 2016 - 18 comments

Part of an occasional series.

The great big list of John Key’s big fat lies (UPDATED)

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, January 27th, 2016 - 79 comments

How many more lies will John Key tell today in his so-called State of the Nation address? Virtual chocolate fish to whomever guesses the closest number.

Another attempt to minimise the significance of poverty

Written By: - Date published: 7:06 am, January 21st, 2016 - 165 comments

A piece yesterday foreshadows a report on poverty from right-wing lobby group “The New Zealand Initiative”. It’s (surprise!) another attempt to minimise the significance of poverty in NZ – and it’s another big distraction…

62 vs 3.6 Billion

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, January 19th, 2016 - 155 comments

Ever widening inequality generates ever more astonishing statistics – suck up economics in action. The super-rich are laughing all the way to the bank.

What to do about poverty (and a suggestion to the media)

Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, January 16th, 2016 - 43 comments

An excellent piece on poverty by Lizzie Marvelly in The Herald this morning poses a question to which we already know the answer. (Plus some bonus rambling on the media.)

The problem with free market capitalism

Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, January 9th, 2016 - 249 comments

This morning’s Herald contains a story about a young man who with a family gift has managed to purchase eleven houses over the past five years and can afford to pay World of Warcraft all day.

Well this is awkward

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, January 8th, 2016 - 81 comments

Jamie Whyte yesterday wrote an article for the Herald claiming that child poverty does not exist in New Zealand. But he wrote essentially the same article in 2005 about child poverty in Great Britain.

The myth of drug dependancy and poverty

Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, January 2nd, 2016 - 306 comments

New research from Morgan Foundation suggests that poverty can be alleviated by increasing incomes and that the beneficiaries will be children of poor families not vendors of alcohol and cigarettes.

Summer break

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, December 19th, 2015 - 46 comments

Standardista authors are on summer break! There will be an Open Mike each day, but little or no other posting (unless an author feels particularly inspired). Here’s some summer reading suggestions – by all means add your own…

Child poverty has been monitored – now what?

Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, December 18th, 2015 - 104 comments

A guest post from McFlock on what we might do about poverty when the talking’s done.