The Poverty Trap

Welcome to The Poverty Trap , a newsletter and podcast for people who are fed up with the inequality baked into America’s system and want to individually and collectively make change. A few poor choices and mistakes, combined with a lot of “No’s” on job applications contributed to the loss of my home and later, my unfortunate ability to meet the incredibly low income limits for both Medicaid and f...

* Welcome to The Poverty Trap , a newsletter and podcast for people who are fed up with the inequality baked into America’s system and want to individually and collectively make change. “ Public lands eligible for sale in the bill encompass over 250 million acres, including local recreation areas, wilderness study areas, inventoried roadless areas, critical wildlife habitat and big game migration...

Welcome to The Poverty Trap , a newsletter and podcast for people who are fed up with the inequality baked into America’s system and want to individually and collectively make change. The history of “we the people” protesting our government and its policies has been a strong and fairly successful one, steeped in the human desire to be free and to affect societal change. The U.S. is a representativ...

Welcome to The Poverty Trap , a newsletter and podcast for people who are fed up with the inequality baked into America’s system and want to individually and collectively make change. Enjoy this clip of Senator Joni Ernst (R Iowa), trying to explain to her constituents how they would be “protected” under President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”…that slashes Medicaid by over $700 billion. __________...

Welcome to The Poverty Trap , a newsletter and podcast for people who are fed up with the inequality baked into America’s system and want to individually and collectively make change. “In moments of candor, they [the founding fathers] acknowledged that it was simple avarice or greed to continue to exploit enslaved labor.” Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, Philad...

Welcome to The Poverty Trap , a newsletter and podcast for people who are fed up with the inequality baked into America’s system and want to individually and collectively make change. I put together an end-of-month, link round-up highlighting a few of my favorite Substacker’s recent posts, and one from The Poverty Trap published in September of last year. I believe there’s a common thread running...

Welcome to The Poverty Trap , a newsletter and podcast for people who are fed up with the inequality baked into America’s system and want to individually and collectively make change. I don’t believe the title of this post is the least bit dramatic. It is, unfortunately, simply factual. I’ve included below the full post I wrote in September of last year, after the first and only presidential debat...

Welcome to The Poverty Trap , a newsletter and podcast for people who are fed up with the inequality baked into America’s system and want to individually and collectively make change. An 18 minute clip from The Daily Show: Jon Stewart interviewing Mathew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Evicted , and most recently author of Poverty, By America. Well worth your time if you want to better u...

Welcome to The Poverty Trap , a newsletter and podcast for people who are fed up with the inequality baked into America’s system and want to collectively make change. __________________________________________ State Minimum Wages Play A Part: Millions of American Workers Are Not Earning Enough To Afford Any Kind Of Housing. “Twenty states have a minimum hourly wage of $7.25, the federal rate that...

Welcome to The Poverty Trap , a newsletter and podcast for people who are fed up with the inequality baked into America’s system and want to collectively make change. ____________________________________________ “Republicans and Democrats don’t need to come together, they need to come to the rescue.” Scott Galloway, CNN February 26, 2025 ____________________________________________ Still photo fro...

“Elon Musk and his fellow oligarchs believe government and laws are simply an impediment to their interests and what they are entitled to…” Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent, Vermont 2/10/25 Elon Musk @elonmusk CFPB RIP 4:41 PM · Feb 7, 2025 49.6M Views This is the communication a “special federal employee”, Elon Musk, used to let the world know he was going to unilaterally kill off a government...

This post goes out to both free and paid subscribers, but if you are not already a paid subscriber and value this effort and our growing community, please consider upgrading to a paid membership. Thank you! And a hearty “thank you” to my latest free and paid subscribers—I appreciate your support! Photo Credit: Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University....

This post goes out to both free and paid subscribers, but if you are not already a paid subscriber and value this effort and our growing community, please consider upgrading to a paid membership. Thank you! And a hearty “thank you” to my latest free and paid subscribers—I appreciate your support! UAW workers strike for “a fair shot” — Dec. 10, 1945: In Detroit, striking UAW members, carrying windb...

This post goes out to both free and paid subscribers, but if you are not already a paid subscriber and value this effort and our growing community, please consider upgrading to a paid membership for 2025. Thank you! Credit: Unsplash The Poverty Trap’s three most popular posts in 2024 have a common theme: By one method or another, America’s economic system is “rigged” in favor of the wealthy and ag...

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa and A Happy Holiday Season All Around! ‘The name Scrooge has become a synonym for a misanthrope. He treats his employee terribly, disdains those less fortunate than him and turns away those collecting donations for the poor. His sole concern is his own material enrichment.” The New York Times, Opinion , Roger Rosenblatt, December 24, 2024. Just imagin...

This post goes out to both free and paid subscribers, but if you are not already a paid subscriber and value this effort and our growing community, please consider upgrading to a paid membership. Thank you! Area on The National Mall and Memorial Parks , District of Columbia, late October 2024. Photo Credit: Joan DeMartin “For more than 200 years, the National Mall has symbolized our nation and its...

This post goes out to both free and paid subscribers, but if you are not already a paid subscriber and value this effort and our growing community, please consider upgrading to a paid membership. Thank you! “For many Americans, the middle class is a matter of identity, aspiration and lifestyle as much as it is about wealth.” NPR, July 7, 2016 . I wrote this post just about a year ago because I was...

This post goes out to both free and paid subscribers, but if you are not already a paid subscriber and value this effort and enjoy our growing community, please consider upgrading to a paid membership. Thanks in advance for your financial support of my work —it’s what allows me to keep researching and writing! Graph courtesy of Gallup, from its article titled: “Far Fewer in U.S. Regard Childhood V...

This post goes out to both free and paid subscribers, but if you are not already a paid subscriber and value this effort and our growing community, please consider upgrading to a paid membership. Thanks in advance for your financial support of my work —it’s what allows me to keep researching and writing! After the City of Springfield, Ohio received over thirty bomb threats requiring the evacuation...

This post goes out to both free and paid subscribers, but if you are not already a paid subscriber and value this effort and our growing community, please consider upgrading to a paid membership. Thanks in advance for your financial support of my work —it’s what allows me to keep researching and writing! “[Vice President Kamala Harris] understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace o...

I have been inspired by many of the speakers at the Democratic National Convention this week and was particularly taken with Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s discussion of inequality. The line that rang true for me and millions of others is likely to be remembered for a long time: Harris “understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward,” Obama said. “We will never...

“The more you pay in rent, the more likely you are to have bad health and die earlier, a recent study found…The study, called "The impacts of rent burden and eviction on mortality in the United States," was published in the journal "Social Science and Medicine" in January [2024] . To reach their findings, researchers studied 38 million eviction records from 2000 to 2019.” Columbus Dispatch, Februa...

The data on the color-coded map below is taken from the USDA which runs the EBT (food stamp) program, including the special, Summer EBT program implemented this year for the first time. The funds for this new program, that helps feed children in poverty during the summer months, comes from The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, signed by President Biden in late 2022, separately from the omni...

This post goes out to both free and paid subscribers, but if you are not already a paid subscriber and value this effort and our growing community, please consider upgrading to a paid membership. Thanks in advance for your financial support of my work —it’s what allows me to keep researching and writing! And a HUGE THANK-YOU to the flurry of new paid subscribers I’ve had recently! Your financial s...

“ALICE” is an acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, and represents the growing number of families who are unable to afford the basics of housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, and technology… The ALICE research quantifies and describes the number [four in ten] of households that are struggling financially…[and] raises awareness about a huge but hidden segment of...