Poverty

Poverty Clockwise from top-left: a homeless man in Toronto, Canada; a man begging in the streets of Beijing,   ; waste pickers in ,   India; a mother with her malnourished child in a clinic near Dadaab,   Kenya.  [Source]

Background

Poverty is the state of not having enough material possessions or income for a person's basic needs. Poverty can have diverse social,   economic,  and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in statistics or economics there are two main measures.

Statistically, as of 2019, most people on the planet live in poverty: (in Purchasing Power Parity dollars) 85% live on less than $30 per day, two-thirds live on less than $10 per day, and 10% live on less than $1.90 per day (extreme poverty). Even when countries experience economic development, the poorest citizens of middle-income countries frequently do not gain an adequate share of their countries' increased wealth to leave poverty. The international policy frameworks for poverty alleviation is summarized in Sustainable Development Goal 1: "No Poverty".

Social forces, such as a gender,   disability or race or ethnicity, can exacerbate issues of poverty -- with women, children and minorities frequently bearing unequal burdens of poverty. Moreover, impoverished individuals are more vulnerable to the effects of other social issues, such as the environmental effects of industry, or the impacts of climate change or other natural disasters or extreme weather events. Poverty can also make other social problems worse, economic pressures on impoverished communities frequently play a part in deforestation,   biodiversity loss, and ethnic conflict. For this reason, the Sustainable Development Goals and other international policy programs, such as the international recovery from COVID-19, emphasize the connection of poverty alleviation with other societal goals.

Additional Reading

Newly released federal data shows the Canadian federal government has brought in well over a hundred million dollars in revenue from "interest on Canada student loans" since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020-03. [Canada] Federal Public Accounts documents, posted in late 2021-12 by the Public Services and Procurement Canada, report that the Trudeau government [29th Canadian Ministry] brought in $169 million in "revenue" from interest payments on Canada student loans from 2020-03.

As PressProgress   reported previously, while the Trudeau government initially paused student loan repayments and the accumulation of interest at the beginning of the pandemic, the pause for both ended in 2020-09. While the federal government reintroduced a new freeze on interest accumulation in 2021-04, the repayment freeze has not come back. As well, students can have their assets seized if they miss student loan payments.

Justin Trudeau says he'll pause interest on student loans. But he doesn't mention students could still face stiff penalties or have their assets seized if they miss payments. https://t.co/LT3llb8wnU  |  #cdnpoli  |  #canlab

The Canadian Federation of Students, which represents half a million postsecondary students across Canada, says students are being put in a difficult position. "High tuition fees have a discriminatory impact on students from middle- and low-income households, who are more likely to need loans to fund their education," Canadian Federation of Students spokesperson Candice Pinto  [LinkedIn: local copy] told PressProgress. "Because provinces like Ontario charge interest rates on student loans on top of federal interest rates, those from middle- and low-income backgrounds end up paying more than students who can afford to pay the sticker price." Pinto said that the "moratorium on interest fees between 2020 and 2021 was poorly managed and overturned far too quickly as we witnessed in 2020-09, just six months after the pandemic began, only to then be reinstated in 2021-04." "We know that the pandemic has had an impact on every single one of us, but it has only exacerbated the challenges facing the most marginalized within the post-secondary education system."

From 2019-03 to 2020-03, the Canadian federal government brought in over $754 million in student loan interest revenue, adding up to nearly $1 billion over two years. Although the federal government has pocketed $169 million in interest from students since the beginning of the pandemic, a spokesperson for Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion   Carla Qualtrough told PressProgress they "know that the pandemic was particularly challenging for young people." Qualtrough added:

"Our government firmly believes that no one should be deterred from pursuing an education because interest costs make it unaffordable. That's exactly why the Prime Minister has given Minister Qualtrough a mandate to eliminate the federal interest on Canada Student Loans  [Student financial aid (Canada)] and Canada Apprentice Loans going forward. This will benefit over 1 million student loan borrowers and save an average borrower more than $3,000 over the lifetime of their loan."

While that has not yet been done, The Financial Post   recently noted those with variable rate student loans can expect to pay more in the coming months - with interest rates likely to rise further. During the year 2019-20 - the most recent for which data is available - data shows 8% of Canada's 1.8 million borrowers were in default.

In 2006, a Harvard Law School bankruptcy professor named Elizabeth Warren went on 60 Minutes to talk about a student loan company called Sallie Mae. ... Warren's interview about Sallie Mae's student debt servicing business, which spun off and rebranded as Navient in 2013, marked a definitive moment in what would become the senator's multidecade crusade against the predatory business models of student lenders and servicers, and their painful effects on the millions of Americans buried in debt. Over the last few months, that crusade has come to something of an apex as Navient - one of the largest student debt servicers in the country - and two other debt servicers announced that they would no longer handle federal loans. These moves come amid a barrage of lawsuits calling out their bad practices, as well as a looming crackdown on servicers by a Warren protégé who is now in charge of overseeing them at the Education Department. ...

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