Left Out of the Bailout: The Poor

A volunteer sorts collection bins of donated food at a food bank operated by Northwest Harvest

Signs of the recession's impact on America's impoverished are increasingly apparent, Greenstein said, pointing to a dramatic rise in food stamp caseloads in recent months. The number of people using food stamps has risen 9.6%, or roughly 2.6 million people, between August 2007 and August 2008, the last period for which data are available. Food banks around the country are reporting longer lines even as donations are falling. Full Story »

Posted by Kaizar Campwala

See All Reviews »

To:


Separate email addresses with commas.
25 recipients max.

Note:

Review

N1812091_2834_thumb
3.0
by Derek Hawkins - Nov. 25, 2008

This article is missing an important piece of information: an explanation of why, historically or otherwise, the numbers of those living in poverty grow during a recession. It's easy to intuit the cause of this -- layoffs, increase in goods prices, wage cuts, pension cuts -- but there's no reason not to spell it out here. But this story presents data on poverty in a virtual vacuum, with inadequate context. The kicker to this story is also aggravating. All opinions aside, the $700 billion bailout was not designed to address the needs of the nation's poorest. Last sentence is tacky.

(11 answers)

Derek's Rating

Overall
3.0

Average
from 11 answers
Quality
3.0
Facts
4.0
Fairness
3.0
Information
3.0
Sourcing
2.0
Style
3.0
Context
3.0
Depth
3.0
Enterprise
2.0
Popularity
3.0
Recommendation
3.0
Credibility
3.0
More How our ratings work »