According to recent IRS data, from 2000 to 2006 the income of the 400 richest Americans doubled, but their tax rate fell by a third to only 17.2 percent. The drop in the tax rate for the richest Americans is due mainly to ex-President Bush’s push to lower the capital gains tax to 15 percent […]
Author Archives: Scott Hughes
An Analogy of the Politics of World Poverty
In the discussion Food for Some, Not for All on the Philosophy Forums, I made this post. In that post, I argued that the problem in our society causing world hunger and poverty is that control over natural resources has been unfairly distributed through the use of deception and violence. It is generally another rendition […]
Women’s Pay Key to Child Poverty
Recent research in the UK has shown that women’s low pay has huge implications on child poverty. I think we can apply those findings to most countries. Throughout the world, women both tend to have most of the child raising responsibilities and tend to receive lower pay. For example, many single mothers work hard at […]
$30 Billion a Year Would Eradicate World Hunger
The ENS did a great job reporting about the opening of the High-level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy. In my opinion, the most noteworthy part is when Dr. Jacques Diouf, the director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, pointed out the shameful contrast between what we waste […]
Poverty Book of the Day: The Support Economy
Today’s poverty-related book of the day is The Support Economy: Why Corporations Are Failing Individuals and The Next Episode of Capitalism by James Maxmin and Shoshana Zuboff. Here is the overview: “Business is broken and can’t be fixed because today’s ‘managerial’ capitalism has grown hopelessly out of touch with the people it should be serving. […]
The Nature of the Current Food Crisis
I appreciate that the current food crisis has gained a lot of media coverage lately. Today, I want to clarify part of the nature of the current food crisis that I think some people may not realize. We do not actually have a shortage of land, food or other resources. As I often stress on […]