When talking about homeless people, many people do not realize that most homeless people are not bums. Most homeless people have jobs or are actively seeking employment. They are generally families made up of a single mother and her children. However, there are bums. And the problem with them is very different than with other […]
Author Archives: Scott Hughes
Short-Term Education
An important part of helping people avoid or escape poverty is short-term education. People may not have enough money to go to school for a long time, and they need the education to make more money. It’s a catch 22. http://www.sbcleveland.com/ is the website of a private college in Cleveland that offers short-term training programs. […]
Defining Poverty
I think those of us who work for poverty alleviation would benefit from trying harder to define poverty. Common misconceptions about poverty hinder the social movement to eradicate poverty. I think we can often trace the misconceptions to a misunderstanding of what the word poverty means in the socioeconomic context. I think finding a accurate […]
President Bush Mentions Poverty
I watched the State of the Union address earlier tonight. First and foremost, Bush talked about his tax cuts and urged Congress not to let his “tax relief” expire. But, as I pointed out in my last post, his unfair tax cuts mean the working class has to pay more in taxes. Basically, changing the […]
Bob Edgar Stresses Poverty
I just read an interesting interview with Bob Edgar, president of Common Cause. For the sake of remaining bipartisan, he does not take positions on presidents. But he does make some good points about issues. Internationally, he wants the next U.S. president to focus on ending secret prisons, torture and pre-emptive war. Domestically, he stressed […]
Bill Gates Suggests Creative Capitalism To Alleviate Poverty
At the World Economic Forum, Bill Gates said that we need to revise capitalism so that it also serves poor people, which he calls creative capitalism. I usually avoid suggesting “capitalism” as a way to alleviate poverty, because so many people have such different interpretations of what the word means, and because “capitalism” usually seems […]