Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Poverty

November 12, 2015

Asking the Right Question about Poverty

Writing for a special New York Times section on giving, Alina Tugend looks at the knotty problem of how best to help those in need. She digs into things like the economics behind food pantries and how relief donations to those devastated by natural disasters often wind up making things worse. Continue Reading...
November 05, 2015

Housing Alone Doesn’t End Homelessness

Homelessness seems like it should be one of the most straightforward social problems to solve. The obvious solution would be to simply give people in need a place to live. Getting people off the street and into shelter is certainly be beneficial. Continue Reading...
October 26, 2015

Why Being Poor is Too Expensive

In the critically acclaimed, though rarely seen, movie Killer of Sheep (1978) there’s a scene that highlights why being poor can be so expensive. The film is about a black family living in the Watts section of Los Angeles in the 1970s. Continue Reading...
October 19, 2015

What’s the Real Problem with Payday Loans?

Since its inception in the 1990s, the payday lending industry has grown at an astonishing pace. Currently, there are about 22,000 payday lending locations—more than two for every Starbucks—that originate an estimated $27 billion in annual loan volume. Continue Reading...
October 13, 2015

Laudato Energy Abundance

While it has been pointed out repeatedly by your writer and others in this space that Pope Francis’ Laudato Si contains much to recommend it for the beauty, compassion and depth of spirituality contained within, there remains much that is problematic. Continue Reading...
October 05, 2015

How Cell Phones are Helping to End Extreme Poverty

For the first time in world history, less than 10 percent of the global population will be living in extreme poverty. According to World Bank projections, at the end of 2015 only about 702 million people, or 9.6 per cent of the global population, will still be living in extreme poverty. Continue Reading...