Poverty

A growing number of people are concerned about the future of their Social Security amid all the changes in Washington under the Trump administration. Elon Musk is calling the program a "scam," and there are major staffing reductions— just as millions of baby boomers retire.

Poverty is big business in America. The federal government spends about $900 billion a year on programs that impact poor Americans, including antipoverty programs like Medicaid, affordable housing and subsidies. There is a vast web of entrenched companies that profit from regulating the lives of the poor with business models that depend on exploiting low-income Americans. The new book Poverty for Profit explains.

Vast economic inequality is actually a very old problem, and many of the world’s greatest thinkers have had something to say about it—including Jesus and Plato, Adam Smith, Thomas Hobbes, John Stuart Mill and others. They had ideas on how to take on the oligarchies of their time that we can learn from today. David Lay Williams discusses his new book "The Greatest of All Plagues."

Three of the nation’s top scholars known for tackling key mysteries about poverty in America turn their attention from the country’s poorest people to its poorest places.

The Kids Count report and data maps provide a deeper understanding of child well-being in Texas and identify opportunities to invest in Texas children.

San Antonio is the third poorest among the nation's ten most populous cities, after Philadelphia and Houston, according to the American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau.

50.4 million U.S. households are expected to be food insecure by the end of 2020, including an "unprecedented" number of children, and the pandemic is not over yet. What can be done move the needle toward a food-secure future?

The sheer scale of the other economic damage of the pandemic has led some to call for equally large-scale reforms. For instance, Universal Basic Income. Paul calls in San Antonio Express News financial columnist Michael Taylor to break down the pros and cons of Universal Basic Income. Small-scale studies show that providing cash directly to people impacted by disasters is efficient and effective. But critics of Alaska's long-running Permanent Fund Dividend, America's largest experiment in UBI, will attest to the unforeseen political challenge of balancing a state's budget around an annual cash giveaway. The permanent fund is the closest thing to UBI America has tried, and its been going on for nearly 40 years.

Approximately 43.5% of the U.S. population — 140 million people — are either living in poverty or are low income. But millions of them don’t vote and fall…

Women in Texas have come a long way, but they’re still trailing behind men economically. Dena L. Jackson is the chief operating officer of the Texas…