Hacker News with Generative AI: Poverty

Connecticut DMV Allows Tow Companies to Sell People's Cars (propublica.org)
A law intended to deal with abandoned vehicles is making it hard for low-income people to get their cars back after they’re towed. The consequences can extend far beyond the cost of the car.

Legal Issues, Government, Poverty, Transportation

18 points by OutOfHere 12 days ago | 3 comments

TB rates plunge when families living in poverty get a monthly cash payout (npr.org)
What if the best medicine isn't a pill or vaccine — but it's cold cash?

Public Health, Poverty, Economics, Social Welfare

5 points by toomuchtodo 13 days ago | 0 comments

'Living proof that you can spend money on the poor': Utopia comes to Mexico City (theguardian.com)
A visionary mayor has harnessed her imagination to promote health, wellbeing and culture in one of the Mexican capital’s most impoverished neighbourhoods

Social Impact, Urban Planning, Mexico, Poverty, Government

18 points by spoonfeeder006 21 days ago | 0 comments

Low-income Americans are struggling. It could get worse (cnn.com)

Economics, Poverty, United States

8 points by paulpauper 24 days ago | 2 comments

New research suggests that Walmart makes the communities it operates in poorer (theatlantic.com)
New research suggests that the company makes the communities it operates in poorer—even taking into account its famous low prices.

Economics, Walmart, Social Impact, Poverty

75 points by Ozarkian 25 days ago | 128 comments

A federal policy change in the 1980s created the modern food desert (theatlantic.com)
The concept of the food desert has been around long enough that it feels almost like a fact of nature. Tens of millions of Americans live in low-income communities with no easy access to fresh groceries, and the general consensus is that these places just don’t have what it takes to attract and sustain a supermarket. They’re either too poor or too sparsely populated to generate sufficient spending on groceries, or they can’t overcome a racist pattern of corporate redlining.

Food Deserts, Poverty, Policy, Sociology, Urban Planning

94 points by zdw 46 days ago | 116 comments

Homeless people to be given cash in first major UK trial to reduce poverty (theguardian.com)
Researchers are conducting the UK’s first major scientific trials to establish whether giving homeless people cash is a more effective way of reducing poverty than traditional forms of help.

Homelessness, Poverty, Social Experiments, UK, Government Programs

22 points by helsinkiandrew 55 days ago | 80 comments

Was the global decline of extreme poverty only due to China? – Our World in Data (ourworldindata.org)
The share of the world population living in extreme poverty has never declined as rapidly as in the past three decades.

Poverty, Global Economics, China, Data Visualization

42 points by janandonly 94 days ago | 13 comments

What if you can't afford to flee a hurricane? (vox.com)
Even when a life-threatening hurricane is headed your way, there are many reasons why you might stay put. You might have dependent family members who can’t leave due to disabilities or other health-related reasons; you might not have reliable transportation to get to a safer area, and what’s more, no gas to get there. Sometimes, you simply refuse to leave your home and everything you own behind.

Hurricanes, Natural Disasters, Social Issues, Poverty

21 points by lr0 98 days ago | 24 comments

America keeps choosing poverty – but it doesn't have to (vox.com)
America has gone through many ups and downs since the civil rights era, but one thing has remained remarkably constant: In 1970, 12.6 percent of Americans were considered poor; in 2023, that number was 11.1 percent — or 36.8 million people. “To graph the share of Americans living in poverty over the past half-century amounts to drawing a line that resembles gently rolling hills,” the sociologist Matthew Desmond wrote last year.

Poverty, Sociology, United States

4 points by thunderbong 110 days ago | 0 comments

L.A. pilot guaranteeing families $1k/month shows 'transformative' results: study (latimes.com)
Some of L.A.’s poorest families received cash assistance of $1,000 a month as part of a 12-month pilot project launched nearly three years ago. There were no strings attached and they could use the money however they saw fit.

Social Programs, Economics, Los Angeles, Poverty

51 points by toomanyrichies 111 days ago | 73 comments

Poverty in Argentina soars to over 50% as Milei's austerity measures hit hard (theguardian.com)
Argentina’s poverty rate has soared to almost 53% in the first six months of Javier Milei’s presidency, offering the first hard evidence of the far-right libertarian’s tough austerity measures are hitting the population.

Argentina, Economics, Poverty, Politics, Austerity

25 points by fpierfed 112 days ago | 12 comments

Argentina's poverty rate soars above 50% under Javier Milei (ft.com)
Argentina’s poverty rate soars above 50% under Javier Milei

Argentina, Poverty, Economics, Politics

8 points by todoesverso 112 days ago | 1 comments

In defense of the washing machine (vox.com)
Rich people debate washing machines for fun. But for billions of poor people, the debate really matters.

Home Appliances, Poverty, Economics, Social Class

33 points by lr0 113 days ago | 68 comments

Being Raised by the Internet (jimmyhmiller.github.io)
I grew up relatively poor. I was fortunate enough to have a roof over my head, clean water, electricity, a computer, internet, and cable tv. But food was often harder to come by. This may seem like a contradiction, but when your mom has left to marry her uncle and your dad has schizophrenia, you aren’t really in charge of how the money is spent.

Personal Experiences, Poverty, Internet Culture

837 points by DamonHD 115 days ago | 312 comments

Being Raised by the Internet (jimmyhmiller.github.io)
I grew up relatively poor. I was fortunate enough to have a roof over my head, clean water, electricity, a computer, internet, and cable tv. But food was often harder to come by. This may seem like a contradiction, but when your mom has left to marry her uncle and your dad has schizophrenia, you aren’t really in charge of how the money is spent.

Childhood, Poverty, Technology, Internet

15 points by jimmyhmiller 115 days ago | 2 comments

Cash alone proves inadequate to solve the problems of the poor (washingtonpost.com)

Poverty, Economics, Social Issues

7 points by petethomas 137 days ago | 13 comments

Dollar General warns poorer US consumers are running out of money (ft.com)

Economy, Consumer Spending, Retail, Poverty

16 points by paulpauper 141 days ago | 9 comments

Why Opening Grocery Stores Alone Doesn't Solve Food Deserts Deserts (propublica.org)

Food Deserts, Urban Planning, Social Issues, Poverty

8 points by isaacfrond 157 days ago | 3 comments

The Gov't Spends Millions on Grocery Stores in Food Deserts–Many Don't Survive (propublica.org)