RWL #192 - poverty and poverty reduction
Greetings from the University of New Hampshire! Fall is coming - you could really feel it this week. It’s still warm, but the this morning when I went out to paddle, it was overcast and cool - probably low 60’s. I barely broke a sweat. The first leaves are beginning to change and the oaks that hang over my driveway are dropping their acorns all over the Adventure Van. It’s good it's something of a tank. We had a cheaper car, I won’t say what make, but it starts with Hyun and ends with dai, and that thing looked like it had been through a massive hail storm after the first year we lived here. You get what you pay for.
On a serious note, today is September 11th. It is hard to believe it has been 19 years since the brutal mass murders were perpetrated on our soil. God bless all the heroes of that day, and God bless all the families who lost loved ones.
Stay well and stay safe.
(Photo above is from a walk in the woods behind the Last Homely House)
Read
What: Washington Post, A pandemic, a motel without power and a potentially terrifying glimpse of Orlando’s future
Why: This article will break your heart, but you should read it. There is a population that exists on the fringe of society, living in motels. With COVID the people are less able to even afford that level and the motels are failing as well. Poverty is a complex and multi-dimensional problem, but it’s important to face the fact that children in the US are living in squalor that would make people in a 3rd world country cringe. The reasons those children are living there are complex, but such an environment becomes a trap. When I shared this article on Facebook, a long time friend who works in a program to keep poor children in school responded, “I work with these kids.” She told me in a private message that she delivered laptops to some of them this past week, all of whom were living in homeless shelters. She said the smell of urine and vomit at these places was overwhelming. How is a kid supposed to attend virtual schooling when they are surrounded by such an environment?
*
What: Der Spiegel, Longitudinal Study on Unconditional Basic Income Launches in Germany
Why: “How would life change if you were given 1,200 euros a month with no strings attached? A study launched last week in Germany to find out.” Universal Basic Income (UBI) is one solution proposed for some of the kinds of intractable poverty that is discussed in the WaPo article above. It’s hard to know if the pathologies that landed these people at the fringes would be helped by a direct cash infusion. That may sound callous, because some of it is just bad luck. But there is a lot of addiction and mental illness as the WaPo article notes in those environments. I’m not a fan of UBI without other reforms to the welfare system. There are some interesting studies and programs that focus on giving away cash rather than services or goods in kind, and cash seems to work pretty well. It will be interesting to see what comes of the experiment.
*
What: NYT, In a Wistful Age, Farmers Find a New Angle: Chore TV
Why: In order to not to be totally bleak this week, here is a story about a farmer who is not very good at raising his ducks, but is very good at making videos about not being very good at raising ducks. Modern agriculture is something of a miracle. Food costs even as recently as the 1950’s represented something close to half of the average American family’s income. Today it is closer to 5%. But that requires big, unromantic industrial farms. Small farms can’t compete, and so clever farmers are moving out of the commodity business. Some farmers are trying to brand their products in such a way as to make them differentiated. Others are realizing the experience is more valuable than the product. It’s a sign of our incredible wealth that we can watch videos about hapless farmers and laugh rather than cry.
Watch
What: TED, 4 Steps to Ending Extreme Poverty
Why: What is “ultrapoor”? It means to live on less than $2/day. Shameran Abed works with a poverty reduction program called BRAC. Abed says that most government poverty reduction programs are ineffective. His program has helped 2 million women pull themselves out of poverty. They work primarily with women because women are most likely to be poor and most likely to pull themselves (and their children) out of poverty. They use four steps:
Meet a woman’s basic needs (a sort of UBI)
Give an asset like livestock and training how to use it to earn a living
Train to save, budget, and invest new wealth
Integrate her socially
Unlike UBI that goes on forever, this program has an end date, and ultimately relies on capitalism and markets. The “real magic” is hope.
Listen
What: The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie, Ronald Bailey: The World Is Getting Cleaner, Richer, and Safer
Why: From the description: "In 1820," Bailey tells Nick Gillespie, "84 percent of the world's population lived on [the equivalent of] less than $1.90 a day. It took 160 years for that to get down to only 41 percent. But since then, it's now below 10 percent…and we'll probably be 5% or less by 2030."
That’s another bit of fabulous news to end this newsletter with. It is the liberal institutions coming out of the Enlightenment that have allowed this flourishing to happen.
“If improvements are so ubiquitous, why don't we recognize it more? Bailey argues that politicians and media outlets have vested interests in focusing on bad news and that humans have a "glitch" that leads us to take progress as a given. "We just take it for granted, he says. "What we're trying to do with this book is to not let people take it for granted and [remind them], this is what has happened. And look to the future. If we keep the same institutions that enabled this, then much more of it will happen in the future."”
Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line at mark.bonica@unh.edu , or you can tweet to me at @mbonica .
Also, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://tinyletter.com/markbonica
See you next Friday!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast: http://healthleaderforge.org
'It is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk, that keep the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love.' - Gandalf (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey)