Skip to main content

ON THE MATTER OF POVERTY

            From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

  DAY   USA  WORLD    Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82
July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572
Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130
Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82
Oct     21      1225      6849         571        703       85
Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118
Dec    30       3880    14748       1224       299      465
Jan     14       4142      15512        1151        189      712
Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398
Mar      2       1989     9490        1726       110      194
April     6        906    11787         4211       631       37
May     4        853     13667        3025      3786     59 
June    1        287    10637         2346      3205      95
 July    7         251      8440        1595        817      411
Aug     4         656    10120        1118        532      423 
Sept   22      2228      9326          839       279     124
Oct      6       2102      8255          543       315       59
Nov    3        1436      7830         186        458       23
Dec     1       1633      8475          266        477       28
Jan     7        2025      6729         148         285     140
Feb     2        2990   12012          946        991      175
Mar     2        1778     7756          335         173       28 
Apr     1         439      4056         290         52        12
May    5         225      2404        151            ?        64 
June    2        216      1413          130          10        31 
July    7         320       1958        297          38         9 
Aug   4         311        2138          258          70         ? 
         11         290       1994         173          49         ?
        18          264      1950         202           ?         ?
        25          245      1909         197          68        ?
        31          403      1989         115           37        ? 
Sep    1          272       1732          39            ?         ? 
          8          287       1676          99          13        ? 
        14           314       1536        122          34        ?

Summary:
  • The USA had by far the most COVID new deaths yesterday, 314.  With 4% the world population we had more than 20% of the world deaths.
  • Japan and South Korea are finally recovering, but still had the most new cases.
    • #1  S. Korea  93,904
    • #2  Japan  78,701
    • #3  USA  55,398
    • #4  Russia  51,735
    • #5  Taiwan  49,643
  • Interesting that Hong Kong had around 1000 new cases/million yesterday, while China had 0.2 new cases/million.
    • Taiwan 2076
    • USA  165

From the New York Times:

When President Bill Clinton signed a bipartisan bill tightening the rules around welfare eligibility in 1996 — and making many benefits conditional on work — critics on the political left (Democrats) predicted terrible effects.

So what happened?

A comprehensive new analysis shows that child poverty has fallen 59 percent since 1993, with need receding on nearly every front. Child poverty has fallen in every state, and it has fallen by about the same degree among children who are white, Black, Hispanic and Asian, living with one parent or two, and in native or immigrant households.

But how did this happen?

  • Poor single mothers somehow found and held better paying jobs.
  • There was an expansion of government aid for low-income workers, food stamps, higher minimum wages, etc.
So why is reducing poverty good?  No one should live at the level.  More so, children who are in poverty in time earn less money and are not as healthy.

Why hasn't this form of progress made headline news?  Media specialists focus more on negative reporting than positive.  Good news generally come off as Polyannaish.  As rewarding as progress has been, remember that there remain 20 million Americans still in the poor category.

At the international level?

“We’re in a worse place than I expected”: David Wallace-Wells interviewed Bill Gates about the progress on poverty, hunger and climate.

World poverty ranking, by the CIA.

  • #1      Syria  82.5%
  • #2      South Sudan  76.4%
  • #3      Madagascar  70.7%
  • #23    Honduras  48.3%
  • #32    Mexico  41/9%
  • #35    Micronesia  41.2%
  • #46    Bolivia  37.2%
  • #50    Argentina  35.5%
  • #60    U.S. Virgin Islands  28.9%
  • #73    Bangladesh  24.3%
  • #74    Pakistan  24.3%
  • #75    Bulgari  23.8%
  • #83    Guam  23.0%
  • #88    Israel  22.0%
  • #89    India  21.9%
  • #96    Spain  20.7%
  • #100  Italy  20.1%
  • #102  Hong Kong  19.9%
  • #106  Botswana  19.3%
  • #107  Iran  18.7%
  • #108  UK  18.6%
  • #117  Sweden  17.1%
  • #110  Philippines  16.7%
  • #111  Cambodia  16.5%
  • #112  Greenland  16.2%
  • #113  Japan  16.1%
  • #114  Switzerland  16.0%
  • #115  Jordan  15.7%
  • #116  Poland  15.4%
  • #117  Tunisia  15.2%
  • #118  USA  15.1%
  • #119  Germany  14.8%
  • #120  Belgium  14.8%
  • #121  Turkey  14.4%
  • #122  South Korea  14.4%
  • #129  Russia  12.6%
  • #138  Thailand  9.9%
  • #139  European Union  9.8%
  • #140  Indonesia  9.4%
  • #141  Canada  9.4%
  • #144  Chile  8.6%
  • #145  Bhutan  8.2%
  • #148  Vietnam  6.7%
  • #149  Malaysia  5.6%
  • #154  Kazakhstan  4.3%
  • #155  Brazil  4.2%
  • #156  Taiwan  1.5%
  • #157  Ukraine  1.1%
  • #158  China  0.6%
  • #159  Turkmenistan  0.2%
That above list is fascinating.
  • Israel and India have around the same level of poverty, 22% and 21.9%.
  • Hong Kong is #102 with 19.9%, while China is #158 at 0.6% (note the difference above also in COVID cases and deaths)
  • Japan and Switzerland at #113 and #114 have around the same poverty rate, but Jordan has a lower rate at #115.
  • Tunisia is about tied with the USA at numbers #117 and #118, 15.2% and 15.1%, while Germany is #119 with 14.8%
  • Russia is #129 at 12.6%, heck of a lot lower than the USA, but not as good as Thailand at 9.9%.  I've been to Thailand many times, and I would swear their poverty rate had to be at least twice that of the USA.
  • The war has of course made a difference, but in 2019 Ukraine was #157 at 1.1%, a poverty rate 15 times lower than the USA.
  • Kazakhstan is #154 at 4.3% and #159 is Turkmenistan at 0.2%.  I thought those former Soviet countries were poor.
On the sports front, there is an NFL game tonight:  Chargers vs Chiefs at 8:30 PM EDT.  You need to subscribe to the Prime channel to watch.
If you were wondering where the PGA went the past couple of weeks, they're back today for the Fortinet Championship in Napa, California.  Next week is the President's Cup, Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Beluga and football:

Typhoon Muifa did make landfall over Shanghai yesterday as a Category 2.  Some flooding, but nothing particularly serious.  Is now a tropical storm.

After meandering around for a while, Nanmadol suddenly became a hurricane yesterday, is now up to 100 MPH and predicted to reach Category 4 strength of 140 MPH as early as tomorrow.  All signs point to a track that will make landfall over southern Kyushu on late Sunday or Monday, and move right across Japan as a hurricane.  This one could become a real problem.

-


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases.  Very few are aware that a new one,   BA.4.6,  is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples .  However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6.  Here is a  reference  as to what this means.  A series of two injections is involved.  Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab  co-packaged with  cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on  subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome.  This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics.  Thursday was my pandemic day for years.  Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments.  All these  subvariants  derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms.  One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell.  From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant,  BA.2.86,  also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to  lose hair  for several months.  This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota.  Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north.  Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge.  If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic.  Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing.  The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University.  Caught a bus. Was called the  Century 21 Exposition .  Also the Seattle World's Fair.  10 million joined me on a six-month run.  My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been