Archive for the ‘Income and poverty’ Category

Healthcare in the USA

Wednesday, June 29th, 2005

In today's Daily Illini there's another installment in their series on binge-drinking among students. Right on the front page of the newspaper there's a quote from a student:Paramedics tested Siah's blood alcohol content and said that he needed to go to the hospital for alcohol poisoning. Before they could get ...

EU Parliament salaries reformed

Thursday, June 23rd, 2005

The EU Parliament has finally voted to reform the salary scale and expenses system for MEPs. Up to now MEPs have had salaries equivalent to those of national representatives in their countries, which has meant extremely wide variances in pay levels. In order, in part, to alleviate this MEPs have ...

EU sugar subsidies to be cut? No one happy?

Thursday, June 23rd, 2005

For those of us with only a passing understanding of the EU's agricultural subsidies the current furore over sugar subsidies is confusing. The EU has announced plans for a radical 'reform' of these subsidies, reducing them substantially. Where it becomes complicated is that the changes are expected not only to wipe ...

Incomes in the European Union

Wednesday, June 1st, 2005

Via the EU Observer, a new report on incomes in industry and services across the EU. As usual I'm interested in pulling specific points - especially those involving Ireland - into relief rather than the headline figures. Ireland has the fourth highest average income (in the areas covered) in the EU, ...

Women’s rights in Turkey

Saturday, May 21st, 2005

"These programmes touch a raw nerve", said the RTUK's head, Fatih Karaca, in support of the closures. "They discuss family, children, marital relations - sensitive topics to Turks - in an indecently open way."If you're interested in the public/private sphere division, women's rights or the role of talk shows in ...

What the presidency does to your income

Monday, May 9th, 2005

Regular readers will know that I'm fascinated by economic statistics, the ones that pull trends out of masses of data. The Atlantic Monthly has a short piece on the economic impact of Democratic and Republican presidents across income. Interestingly, Democrats are generally better (in terms of income growth) for everyone ...

US Federal spending

Friday, April 15th, 2005

It's Tax Day in the United States - I'm beginning to get used to having to file each year, though I'm not yet ready to file before the deadline - and to make me feel even better ZNet has published a breakdown of where federal tax dollars go: 30% military, ...

Dermot Ahern to promote UN reform plan

Monday, April 4th, 2005

So it seems that Dermot Ahern, the Irish minister for Foreign Affairs, has been appointed by Kofi Annan as one of four 'special envoys for UN reform' who will:travel around the world and engage political leaders, civil society representatives, academics and the media. They will present the broad package of ...

Progress in Ireland

Thursday, March 31st, 2005

There's a very interesting new report out from Ireland's Central Statistics Office. Called 'Measuring Ireland's Progress 2004' it examines Ireland's economy and society on over 100 issues, comparing them in many cases to statistics across the EU (and beyond, including Norway, Iceland and candidates for EU membership Bulgaria and Romania). There ...

Extending free travel to Irish emigrants

Tuesday, March 15th, 2005

It's a slightly out-of-the-way issue, but one I'm glad the Labour Party is addressing. Irish pensioners have a right to free travel on public transport, but people who have emigrated - and in particular those thousands who emigrated through economic necessity in the 1950s and earlier - are not eligible. ...