We’re in the midst of a hot, dry summer. While you’re thinking
about how you’ll cool off, consider this: four times more
Californians than the entire population of Flint, Michigan do not
get clean, safe water from the tap in their homes. They live
where water must be trucked in for drinking and cooking. Where
they wait in line to shower in public trailers. And where they’ve
been living like this for a long time.
HILLARY CLINTON’S presidential campaign is premised, at least
implicitly, on the idea that if you liked her husband Bill
Clinton’s presidency, you’ll love hers. That’s understandable,
given that the period between 1993 and 2001 saw economic growth,
balanced budgets and declining crime. At the same time, it was
inevitable, and also fair, that her opponents in 2016 would
challenge this upbeat narrative.
What a job looks like has changed for many people since the
recession. In general, things are looking up: Both
unemployment and jobless claims are falling. But a good
chunk of job creation has come
at the highest and lowest ends of the
spectrum, a trend that has only recently started to
change with gains for middle-wage earners. Many people who lost
well-paying jobs have found work, but for less money, doing
hourly retail and food services jobs.
If US presidential candidate Donald Trump wants an immigration
system that works for Americans, he might want to consider one
with far fewer restrictions than he’s proposing.
Immigrants don’t cause high unemployment. In fact, a century
of data suggests Trump has both his chronology and his causation
reversed—it shows that a thriving US job market causes
immigration to rise.
Where in California has the gap between rich and poor grown most
since the recession? The Bay Area, home of some of the most
expensive ZIP codes in the country, seems like a logical answer.
Where in California has the gap between rich and poor grown most
since the Great Recession?
The Bay Area, home of your Zuckerbergs and Steyers and some of
the most expensive zip codes in the country, seems like
a logical answer. Over the past decade, what other part of
California has minted as many members of the “1 percent” as
Silicon Valley?
With no air conditioning on a brutally hot summer afternoon,
19-year-old Breeze Bunch is sitting on the front porch with a
half-empty Pepsi and a bottle of sunscreen.
“Why don’t you go splash in the water?” Bunch tells her
2-year-old daughter, who waddles off toward an inflatable kiddie
pool under a shade tree beside the house.
More discussion about this week’s US Supreme Court ruling on
abortion: The debate around this case includes many controversial
topics though the Texas law in question specifically addressed
regulations for abortion clinics.
Presidents are usually effusive, grandiose, and triumphant when
they sign major legislation that will form a huge part of their
legacy. In 1996, Bill Clinton’s announcement that he’d
sign a bill ending “welfare as we know it” was not that.
HILLARY CLINTON’S presidential campaign is premised, at least
implicitly, on the idea that if you liked her husband Bill
Clinton’s presidency, you’ll love hers. That’s understandable,
given that the period between 1993 and 2001 saw economic growth,
balanced budgets and declining crime. At the same time, it was
inevitable, and also fair, that her opponents in 2016 would
challenge this upbeat narrative.
A day after Alex Gustafson’s wife gave birth to their daughter in
December, he officially began the 12 weeks of fully paid family
leave offered by Automattic Inc., the San Francisco tech company
where he works.
Anthony Goytia of La Puente wishes he had that option. When his
wife gave birth to their daughter in April, they lost about $550
of monthly income. So Goytia started working a second job at
Macy’s to supplement his early shift unloading trucks at UPS.
California’s wealthiest taxpayers are the state’s only group
experiencing rising incomes, a reflection of a broader national
problem of growing wage inequality.
There are several ways to save money on, say, a roll of toilet
paper. You can reach for the cheaper version: the store brand, or
the singly-ply TP, or the stuff that feels like packing paper. Or
you can buy in bulk, saving on each roll per unit. Or you
can stock up when the deal is good, like when the
corner store offers two packs for the price of one.
nald Trump’s economic message is loud and clear: Misguided
Washington policymakers have allowed foreign countries to steal
American jobs, and uncontrolled immigration is driving wages
down.
Marcos Murillo was lured by the American dream. When he left
Chiapas, Mexico he promised his five siblings and his mom, who
were living in a single room shack without electricity, that he’d
send money from the other side of the U.S. border.
He says he thought, “I’m going to be rich, I’m going to be
sweeping money out of the floor.”
In light of President Barack Obama declaring a state of
emergency over the polluted water supply in Flint, Michigan,
should obesity be a concern in Flint? What does safe drinking
water have to do with obesity, you may ask? Efforts to improve
water supplies and to curb obesity have been historically
separate. However, might a shortage of good drinking water
be a factor in the rise of obesity?
The first day back from winter break can be restless.
Many children are still coming down from the excitement of the
holidays. Two unstructured weeks away from school — with strange
food, rituals and relatives — can be overwhelming for many
children, especially when it grinds to a halt after the new year
and normality resumes.
But for students whose families are struggling in poverty, time
away from school isn’t an exciting blip on an otherwise calm
school year. For them, it can be a crippling time of insecurity
when it comes to food and shelter.
UC Davis faculty and researchers have offered up some predictions
for the new year in their particular fields of research and
expertise. Their forecasts appear here by topic.
People in California who earn a career technical education (CTE)
degree or certificate from a community college earn more money —
an average increase in income of 33 percent or 13 to 22 percent
overall, respectively. Those are two findings from a research
project undertaken by the Center for Poverty Research at the
University of California, Davis.
Community college programs in career and technical education —
especially in health professions — lead to significant financial
returns, especially for women, according to a new policy brief by
the UC Davis Center for Poverty Research.
Within the popular American conscience—arguably a close
reflection of the mainstream media—there are two favored focal
points for discussing the problem of poverty. The first is within
the urban, inner city context—often conflated with black
poverty—which has held a critical role in American political and
cultural discourse throughout most of the past century. The
second is the poverty of the Global South: Sub-Saharan Africa,
Latin America, South Asia, and the rest of the developing world.
In recent years, UC Davis, with the support of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, has taken on a crucial
role in the fight against domestic poverty.
Every Monday, the National Bureau of Economic Research, a
nonprofit organization made up of some of North America’s most
respected economists, releases its latest batch of working
papers. The papers aren’t peer-reviewed, so their conclusions are
preliminary (and occasionally flat-out wrong). But they offer an
early peek into some of the research that will shape economic
thinking in the years ahead. Here are a few of this week’s most
interesting papers.
Imagine you’re a 37-year-old woman, three months pregnant, living
in the Arden-Arcade area, taking the bus to your job at Burger
King, where every week you work 40 hours but only earn $9.25 for
each.
UC Davis economics professor and director of the Center for
Poverty Research Ann Huff Stevens says that when people are
“talking about moving $9 an hour to $15 an hour, we know
virtually nothing” about how that will impact employment or small
businesses. “We really don’t know, and so there’s a risk.”
A presidential budget is more than an expression of policy. It’s
also an exercise in political brand management. It aims to
project the president and his administration favorably. This is
certainly true of President Obama’s fiscal 2016 budget, whose
proposals are cast as instruments of “middle-class economics.”
The government is your partner. It will protect your middle-class
status — or help you retrieve it, if it’s been lost.
In his State of the City speech Thursday night, Sacramento Mayor
Kevin Johnson said he wanted to put together a task force to look
at raising the minimum wage in the capital city.
Currently, the city’s minimum wage is the same as California’s
state minimum wage — $9 per hour. In 2016, it will increase to
$10 per hour. But some cities across the nation, such as San
Francisco and Seattle, have sought higher minimum wages for their
workers.
When our three new undergraduates arrived last January to start
their Public Policy Fellowships at the Center for Poverty
Research, they had no idea what they were getting into, and only
a vague sense of what they would accomplish by summer. All they
had was potential and an interest in poverty policy.
President Obama’s proposal to make community colleges free is a
valiant effort to address the rising demand for skilled workers
throughout the nation and to improve college access for
low-income students. As states consider his proposal, they would
be wise to look to California. Our research in the state suggests
that low tuition can put higher education within reach for many
low-income students, but it is no panacea. Even with high
participation levels and nearly free community college, many
California students do not complete degrees.
A lack of access to clean drinking water in rural California farm
communities is leading residents to turn to sugary drinks and
soda, contributing to obesity and Type 2 diabetes, researchers
said in a new policy paper. The report, from the University
of California Davis Center for Poverty Research, finds that many
agricultural immigrant communities in California’s Central Valley
have difficulty obtaining clean, drinkable water.
Latino Americans suffer from disproportionately high rates of
obesity—especially children, who are 51 percent more likely to be
obese than their white counterparts. Unhealthy advertising from
food companies, a lack of access to safe and adequate
recreational areas, and poor snack and beverage options at
schools have all been cited as major contributors to this
early-life epidemic.
On the face of it, then, the War on Poverty seems to have
accomplished nothing. Critics of Johnson’s programs may also add
that the War on Poverty resulted in billions of dollars spent on
the poor. Why has there been no return on that investment?
The simple answer is that there have been improvements—but the
way we measure poverty hasn’t, until recently, accounted for
them.
The fundamental rights of millions of Texas women are at stake in
a case in which the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral
arguments on Wednesday. The case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Lakey,
will determine the constitutionality of a Texas law that imposes
ambulatory surgical center regulations on abortion providers. The
judges will essentially decide if women living outside the
state’s major metropolitan areas, and who therefore must travel
considerable distances to reach the few abortion providers able
to comply, are constitutionally relevant.
US President Barack Obama angered many – and pleased few – when
he announced plans last week to reform parts of the US
immigration system without Congressional approval.
But one potential impact of his plan – the boost it will provide
to the US economy – could help sway many Americans who are still
primarily concerned with the sluggish pace of the recovery.
It is an understatement to say that the welfare reforms of the
1990s were intended to give a little spring to the social safety
net.
The intention was much more radical. The reforms involved a major
make-over of income support, and turning what was imagined as a
net ensnarling many Americans behind a welfare wall, into a
springboard that would incentivize work and allow them to ride a
wave of prosperity to higher incomes that would lift their
children out of poverty.
Deported parents face no good solutions to the dilemma of forced
separation from their children: Either they remove their children
from their country of citizenship, or deportees return to rejoin
their children, facing harsh penalties if caught.
Many in Houston regularly face the terrible prospect.
peakers from Solano County Health and Social Services and UC
Davis Center for Poverty Research will discuss the structure of
poverty in the United States and Solano County and address ways
to approach local resources and services in the community, making
them available to women and children.
Capping the number of visas issued to foreign-born tech workers
restricts the number of U.S-born workers that firms could hire -
and the Bay Area is feeling the brunt of that impact, according
to a new study.
“As the company becomes more productive because of the
contributions of these (foreign-born) people and grows, then it
will demand more workers – workers who are there (in the U.S.)
will participate in the growth of the company,” Peri said
Thursday.
Low-wage workers know they have to enhance their skills to escape
low-wage jobs, but long hours and multiple jobs make
skill-building and education nearly impossible, according to a
new policy brief released by the Center for Poverty Research at
the University of California, Davis. Joining us to talk more
about the research are the authors of the brief, Victoria Smith,
a UC Davis professor of sociology and a faculty affiliate
for the Center for Poverty Research, and Brian Halpin, a graduate
student in sociology at UC Davis.
THE immediate impact of the recession — widespread buyouts and
layoffs — may be fading, but the fear of losing a job hangs over
workplaces like a cloud of worry.
“There’s a myth that in the 1950s, everyone was very loyal to
companies and companies were very loyal to people,” said Ann Huff
Stevens, a professor of economics at the University of
California, Davis. “But we always had a contingent work force
that could be laid off at any time. They were called women.”
Low-wage workers wanting to enhance their skills and move into
higher-paying jobs are blocked by working long hours and multiple
jobs that make skill-building and education nearly impossible,
according to a new policy brief released by the Center for
Poverty Research at the University of California, Davis.
In the ongoing study, Victoria Smith, a UCD professor of
sociology and a faculty affiliate for the research center, and
co-author Brian Halpin, a UCD graduate student in sociology,
conducted interviews with 25 low-wage workers in the Napa/Sonoma
area in the fall of 2012.
“People find themselves very caught up, just treading water. The
fact that they often are supporting other people heightens their
need to take extra hours when they can get them,” Smith said.
For the long-term unemployed, finding a job is hard — but keeping
one may be even harder.
…Negron’s experience echoed prescient research conducted nearly
two decades ago by economist Ann Stevens, now at the University
of California at Davis. She looked at data tracking workers from
1968 to 1988 and found that 41 percent who lost their job once
were unemployed at least once more during that period. Almost all
of the subsequent job losses occurred within five years of the
first one.
Stevens’s study did not explore the fate of the long-term
unemployed. Still, she found that multiple spells of unemployment
depressed workers’ wages by 9 percent even after several years.
“I think of the unemployment issue as another form of
inequality,” she said in an interview. “In some sense, it’s the
same people experiencing repeated unemployment and repeated job
losses.”
In America’s new normal, plenty of Americans will tumble into
poverty at some point – but few will be stuck there forever.
Nearly one in three Americans experienced a stint of poverty
between 2009 and 2011, a new Census Bureau report finds, but only
a fraction of those people were stuck below the poverty line for
the entire three-year period.
“There’s a lot of movement in and out of poverty,” said Ann
Stevens, director of the Center for Poverty Research at UC Davis.
California, the state renowned for Beverly Hills mansions,
glittery Hollywood stars, Malibu beaches, palm trees, and the
stunning Golden Gate Bridge, hides a deep, dark secret – it has
the nation’s highest poverty rate.
“Housing costs in Nevada or Florida… are nowhere near this
extreme,” said Ann Huff Stevens, director of the Center for
Poverty Research at University of California-Davis, in an
interview. “It is important to note that California is a
very expensive state, but it is also important to keep in mind
that this is the main factor that makes our poverty rate jump
from slightly higher than the national average in the official
measure to number 1 in the supplemental measures.”
When President Lyndon Johnson declared an “unconditional war on
poverty” in his State of the Union address, 50 years ago this
week, the official poverty rate was 19 percent.
Last year, it stood at 15 percent. And so the war goes on.
What that official measure of poverty fails to capture are other,
harder-to-quantify successes, according to Ann Huff Stevens,
economics professor and director of the UC Davis Center for
Poverty Research.
“Because we now provide a substantial number of low-income
families with Medicaid, with health insurance for their children,
with food stamp nutrition support, with school lunch, we see
improvement in the health of the poor people,” Stevens said.
In the 50 years since Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson declared “an
unconditional war on poverty,” the United States has gained
ground in some areas of the fight and lost in others. Income
disparity between rich and poor Americans has increased, while
programs like food stamps and unemployment insurance have made a
huge difference in reducing poverty rates.
One of the initiatives signed by Johnson during his presidency is
the School Breakfast Program. While it isn’t responsible for
decreases in poverty, it has successfully fed hungry children and
increased learning in poor areas of America. Joining us with an
evaluation of the School Breakfast Program is Assistant Professor
in the Department of Economics at the University of Iowa David
Frisvold, who is speaking at a UC Davis “War on Poverty”
conference Thursday.
During the tail end of the recession and its aftermath, nearly a
third of Americans suffered bouts of poverty lasting two months
or more, the U.S. Census Bureau found in a newly released report.
“The fact that someone comes out of poverty for a few months
should not lead us to conclude that poverty is not chronic,” said
Ann Stevens, director of the UC Davis Center for Poverty
Research. Though only 3.5% of Americans were poor throughout the
entire period from 2009 to 2011, Stevens said, other research
suggests many more bobbed in and out of poverty.
50 years ago today, then-President Lyndon B. Johnson announced
the war on poverty. This “war” was meant to help the nearly 1 in
5 Americans who were poor.
Half a century later, after the country’s great recession, the
number of people living below the line hasn’t gone down by much.
That reality is also reflected here, where Californians tend to
struggle more than the rest of the country.
For more we’re joined by Ann Huff Stevens, director of the Center
for Poverty Research at UC-Davis.
