The economic misery in the US is deep, pervasive and real

 

jeffrey st. clair >> 

+ In October, more than one-quarter of California households reported they couldn’t pay their utility bills. The economic misery in the US is deep, pervasive and real, no matter what the people who play with numbers for a living want to make you believe. The more Biden tries to tell people their pain isn’t real, the deeper he’s going to plummet in the polls.

 

+ Another factor in declining life expectancy in the US: unaffordable rents and evictions. According to a Princeton study published in Social Science and Medicine, someone paying 50% of their income on rent was 9% more likely to die in the next 20 years than someone paying 30% of their income on rent. This is especially true for black renters, over a third of whom now pay more than half their income on rent.

 

+ In 2022. at least 315 people died while experiencing homelessness in the Portland metro area. The mortality risk for people experiencing homelessness was nearly 6 times higher than the general population.

 

+ Researchers gave homeless people $750 per month for a year, no questions asked. The recipients spent the money on food, housing, transportation, clothing, and health care. And after six months, only 12% of those who received funds were still homeless.

 

+ This a country where tens of millions of people live off of payday loans and GoFundMe pages, while Democratic politicians are telling them they don’t realize how good they have i