"While Americans Preach about Nonsense, China Lifts People Out of Poverty" | Steve Keen

August 15, 2026

Growing Up in Peru, I Thought I Knew Poverty. America Surprised Me.

THE NEW YORK TIMES — OPINION: Every year I choose a university student to accompany me on my win-a-trip journey, which is meant to highlight issues that deserve more attention. My 2026 winner is Brunella Tipismana, a recent Yale University graduate and budding journalist — and with that, I’m handing the rest of the column over to her.

By Brunella Tipismana, reporting from Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma

I thought I knew what poverty looked like. I grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Lima, Peru, in a family of former agricultural workers who remembered what it was like to live in thatched-roof houses. So when I drove through Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma, meeting Americans in some of the poorest ZIP codes in the nation, my first reaction was one I’m not particularly proud of.

The people we met drove cars, lived in houses with air-conditioning, owned washing machines and bought groceries with electronic benefits cards. I found it hard to empathize with their circumstances: They reminded me less of my neighbors in Lima than of my country’s comfortable middle class.

As our 1,000-mile road trip went on, though, the people I met and the stories they told convinced me their poverty was more complicated than it appeared: the young people in deindustrialized towns who told us they felt left behind and terrified about their futures, the woman in Arkansas trying to raise six children on $13.40 an hour, the grandmother in eastern Kentucky who told me that I wouldn’t find a single family in her town whose lives hadn’t been touched by addiction — a sentiment I heard again and again as we drove through similar towns in Arkansas and Oklahoma.

The Americans I met were financially better off than many of their counterparts in the developing world. But as anyone who has been poor knows, poverty is about much more than money. Many working-class Americans I met are troubled by addiction, loneliness and contempt to a degree that poor people where I’m from are often spared. » | Nicholas Kristof | Opinion Columnist | Saturday, August 8, 2026

How Millionaires Want to Help Fight Poverty in the UK | DW Reporter

August 9, 2026 | Many Brits are struggling to get by, while the wealthy get richer and richer.

A group of millionaires want to change this – by paying more taxes. The United Kingdom is one of the richest countries of the word. But for millions of Brits, life feels more expensive by the day. Around a fifth of people in the country live in poverty, while the cost of living continues to increase.

Many families are cutting back on food, heating. or electricity usage. At the same time, the country as a whole has grown wealthier.

The total number of millionaires in Britain has grown drastically since the mid-1990s. In London, especially in neighborhoods like Mayfair, this wealth is on full display. But only a few kilometers away, there are people who live in social housing that struggle with broken pipes, water damage, and ever-climbing rents.

An unusual solution to the inequality problem has come from the wealthy themselves: the Patriotic Millionaires are calling for a wealth tax on the super-rich. The idea is to tax all wealth over 10 Million pounds at a rate of 2 percent. According to the group, this could save the country around 24 billion pounds annually, around 28 billion euros. More money that could be spent on public services, social housing, and infrastructure.



Thatcher and Reagan started all this sh**! They made the poor even poorer and started destroying the middle class. I was taken in by her. I am sure many of you were too. That woman encouraged GREED and destroyed COMMUNITY SPIRIT. — © Mark Alexander

Argentina’s Economy in Crisis, Soup Kitchens Struggle after Government Spending Cuts

Sep 13, 2024 | Argentina's economic crisis has led to widespread poverty, affecting over half of the population. Soup kitchens, essential to many struggling families, are facing shortages after the government halted a food distribution program in December as part of a major cost cutting effort. President Javier Milei is being urged to reinstate the program to address the urgent needs of the country's most vulnerable citizens. The situation is deteriorating, with many families relying solely on soup kitchens for their meals. Inflation, high unemployment, and budget cuts continue to exacerbate the hardship.

Javier Milei is another unfeeling, cruel clown who wants to “fix” the economy even if half of the population of Argentina has to starve to death for him to achieve his desired results! The secret of running a successful economy is to get good economic results with the minimum of hardship and suffering.

I recently watched a documentary on Milei’s anarcho-capitalistic policies and what Argentinians thought of them. It was very clear to me that the people who thought his policies were good were all well-heeled individuals living in beautiful homes. When the government’s policies have minimal impact on your lifestyle, it is easy to be uncritical of them. But for those who are dependent on assistance, for those who are suffering shortages, it’s a different story.

I said from the very start that this experiment will end in tears. I still believe it will. I stand by my original assessment. – © Mark Alexander

Argentina Collapses into Poverty

Oct 28, 2024

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Peter Stefanovic: Millions of People Are Living in Poverty, Destitution & Using Food Banks - It’s Barely Mentioned

Oct 24, 2024

Sir Michael Marmot on 'Grim Reality' of Poverty in Britain | LBC

Jan 23, 2024 | Professor Sir Michael Marmot joins Andrew Marr to discuss alarming data from the NHS, which suggests a signifiant increase in Victorian-era diseases, such as scurvy and rickets, during Rishi Sunak's premiership. Marmot attributes the return of these diseases to poverty and malnutrition and emphasises the 'grim' reality of Britain in 2024.

Millions in UK Need to Double Income to Escape Poverty | Channel 4 News

Jan 23, 2024 | When the cost of everything is spiralling, from housing to fuel and food, millions of ordinary people are facing an ever greater struggle to get by.

Now a new report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says millions of people in the UK would need to double their income to escape poverty. Their damning report reveals the extent of hardship and desperation across the country - describing it as "social failure, at scale".

UK ‘in Violation of International Law’ over Poverty Levels, Says UN Envoy

GUARDIAN INTERNATIONAL: Exclusive: Special rapporteur Olivier De Schutter to urge ministers to increase welfare spending on visit to country this week

Poverty levels in the UK are “simply not acceptable” and the government is violating international law, the United Nations’ poverty envoy has said ahead of a visit to the country this week, when he will urge ministers to increase welfare spending.

Olivier De Schutter, the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, cited research showing universal credit payments of £85 a week for single adults over 25 were “grossly insufficient” and described the UK’s main welfare system as “a leaking bucket”.

In an interview with the Guardian five years after his predecessor, Philip Alston, angered the Conservative government by accusing it of the “systematic immiseration of a significant part of the British population”, the Belgian lawyer risked a fresh confrontation by saying: “Things have got worse.” » | Robert Booth, Social affairs correspondent | Sunday, November 5, 2023

UK's welfare system is cruel and misogynistic, says UN expert after damning report on poverty: Britain’s welfare system is so sexist it may as well have been compiled by “a group of misogynists in a room,” a UN expert has claimed. / Philip Alston, the UN’s rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, warned that poverty in the UK is a “political choice” and that compassion and concern had been “outsourced” in favour of tax cuts for the rich. / In a damning 24-page report he brands levels of child poverty “not just a disgrace, but a social calamity and an economic disaster” and said that limiting benefit payments to two children was as “forced and physical” as China’s one-child policy. »

The Rise of Poverty in Europe | Documentary

Oct 18, 2023 | The Rise of Poverty in Europe | ENDEVR Documentary from 2017

119 million people in Europe live under the breadline today. How could this happen? The reality of deprived children, unemployed young adults, and indigent workers spreads all around the Union. What does Europe do for them? Visiting young unemployed people in Ireland, Italy and Portugal, this film investigates beyond the social and economic aspects and outlines how this situation impacts the politics.

ENDEVR explains the world we live in through high-class documentaries, special investigations, explainers videos and animations. We cover topics related to business, economics, geopolitics, social issues and everything in between that we think are interesting.

Bangladesh: Children Hit by Global Cost of Living Crisis - BBC News

September 6, 2023 | The global cost of living crisis and the impact of the war in Ukraine on food prices has hit families around the world. None more so than in Bangladesh, which last year hiked fuel prices by 50% overnight. It led to a steep rise in the cost of basic food items like rice and vegetables.

Lebanon in Free-fall: 'For Me, the Country Now Is a Large Jail'

Lebanon is undergoing financial and economic collapse.

The country's currency has lost around 85% of its value and the majority of the population could soon face acute poverty.

The BBC met one nurse who explains what the disintegration of the country means to him

More Than 3 Million Lebanese Face Poverty

More than three million Lebanese - almost half the population - are facing a tough Ramadan. The monthly cost of iftar, or the meal to break their fast, now costs 2.5 times the minimum wage. The World Bank says food prices there have become the highest in the region. Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr has more from Beirut, Lebanon.

Almost 700,000 Driven into Poverty by Covid Crisis in UK, Study Finds

THE GUARDIAN: Total includes 120,000 children, according to thinktank that is calling for anti-poverty strategy

Almost 700,000 people in the UK, including 120,000 children, have been plunged into poverty as a result of the Covid economic crisis, according to a thinktank analysis.

The Legatum Institute also said an additional 700,000 people had been prevented from falling below the breadline by the chancellor’s temporary £20-a-week boost to universal credit, introduced in April to help claimants cope with the extra costs of the pandemic.

Overall, the pandemic has pushed the total number of people in the UK living in poverty to more than 15 million – 23% of the population – according to the institute, which uses poverty measures developed by the independent Social Metrics Commission. » | Patrick Butler, Social policy editor | Monday, November 30, 2020

Extreme Poverty 'Will Double by Christmas' in UK because of Covid-19

THE GUARDIAN: End of coronavirus job and income support expected to spark 61% rise in food bank use

Britain’s largest food bank network has warned that UK destitution rates will double by Christmas alongside an explosion in demand for charity food parcels, as coronavirus job and income support schemes are wound down.

The Trussell Trust predicts that at least 670,000 extra people will become destitute in the last three months of the year – a level of poverty that leaves them unable to meet basic food, shelter or clothing needs – if the government withdraws Covid support for low-income households.

Despite unprecedented demand for charity food since lockdown – 100,000 people used food banks for the first time between April and June – the trust said ending furlough in October would trigger a rise in food bank use of at least 61% – equivalent to a year-on-year increase of 300,000 parcels. » | Patrick Butler, Social policy editor | Monday, September 14, 2020

Poverty Keeps Millenials from Middle Class

Millenials are being held back by extreme poverty and having trouble getting into the middle class, what will this do to our country?

A whole generation is being pushed out of the middle class and it could have devasting effects on our country, years of reaganomics have added so much debt that Millenials no longer feel like they can get to the middle class.

How Poor People Survive in the USA | DW Documentary

Homelessness, hunger and shame: poverty is rampant in the richest country in the world. Over 40 million people in the United States live below the poverty line, twice as many as it was fifty years ago. It can happen very quickly.

Many people in the United States fall through the social safety net. In the structurally weak mining region of the Appalachians, it has become almost normal for people to go shopping with food stamps. And those who lose their home often have no choice but to live in a car. There are so many homeless people in Los Angeles that relief organizations have started to build small wooden huts to provide them with a roof over their heads. The number of homeless children has also risen dramatically, reaching 1.5 million, three times more than during the Great Depression the 1930s. A documentary about the fate of the poor in the United States today.

UN Report Compares Tory Welfare Policies to Creation of Workhouses

THE GUARDIAN: Ministers in denial about impact of austerity since 2010, says poverty expert

A leading United Nations poverty expert has compared Conservative welfare policies to the creation of 19th-century workhouses and warned that unless austerity is ended, the UK’s poorest people face lives that are “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”.

In his final report on the impact of austerity on human rights in the UK, Philip Alston, the UN rapporteur on extreme poverty, accused ministers of being in a state of denial about the impact of policies, including the rollout of universal credit, since 2010. He accused them of the “systematic immiseration of a significant part of the British population” and warned that worse could be yet to come for the most vulnerable, who face “a major adverse impact” if Brexit proceeds. He said leaving the EU was “a tragic distraction from the social and economic policies shaping a Britain that it’s hard to believe any political parties really want”. » | Robert Booth, Social affairs correspondent | Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Mapping Poverty in America | The Economist

America is the richest country in the world, but it also has one of the biggest divides between rich and poor. What can a zip code reveal about inequality?

The Line: Poverty in America

Poverty in America is probably not what you think. Emmy Award-winning producer Linda Midgett shows us in this groundbreaking documentary a new face of poverty in America. About 50 million people in the United States live below the poverty line (In 2014- $23,850 for a family of 4) and one in four American children lives in poverty. But what is poverty in America? What defines “the line” and how can the church and community make a difference?