NEW: SECOND EDITION. "Retiring in the Red" is part of the Borrowing to Make Ends Meet Briefing Paper Series. Reports an 89% average increase in credit card debt among America's seniors from 1992 to 2001. Key Findings:
This brief examines the relationship between criminal justice practices that disproportionately target people of color, and disenfranchisement laws that deprive citizens convicted of felonies of their right to vote.
Voter registration is intended to ensure that voters who are eligible to vote are able to do so, and that non-eligible individuals cannot cast ballots. A voter registration list enables election workers to authenticate eligible voters at the polls. Voter registration also serves to provide lists of persons (i.e., registered voters) who should receive notices informing them when elections are forthcoming, and where they should go to vote.
As policymakers, election officials, and the public consider whether New York should change the way in which voters are allowed to register to participate in elections, and bring New York State election law into compliance with the Help America Vote Act, we provide an analysis of the potential impact of election day registration (EDR) in New York. The current system of registration is one in which citizens must register 25 days before election day in order to be eligible to vote.1 Under EDR this advance registration barrier would be eliminated as citizens could register on election day.
As policymakers, election officials, and the public consider whether New York should change the way in which voters are allowed to register to participate in elections, and bring New York State election law into compliance with the Help America Vote Act, the following report provides an analysis of the potential impact of election day registration (EDR) in New York.
EDR in New York has the potential to increase voter participation for New Yorkers by as much as:
An exploration of the importance of social trust in U.S. society and troubling ways in which rising economic inequality since the 1970s has helped to decrease trust between Americans.
Executive Summary
Americans face twin crises of social solidarity. The first is a crisis of declining trust. The second is one of increasing inequality. This working paper explores how these two problems are part of the same syndrome.
In November 2004, California will vote on Proposition 62: “The Voter-Choice Open Primary Act.” Currently, voters may vote for the nominees of only one political party. Proposition 62 would replace this “modified-closed” system of party primaries with one in which all candidates for state or federal offices (except for presidential electors) run in a single primary election and only the top-two vote recipients are allowed to run in the general election.
While Florida’s purges of felons from voter rolls in 2000 have received national attention, little is known about the procedures other states use. To shed some light on these procedures, we surveyed the purge processes of 15 states.
How Maine can use deposits of state tax revenue to tilt the economic playing field back toward Main Street businesses, our community banks, and long-term job growth.
This report reveals the extent of credit information “mission creep,” examines troubling shortcomings in the for-profit credit reporting industry, and recommends common sense steps to reform the credit reporting system.
The fear of poverty and outliving one's resources is an increasingly common experience among today's senior citizens. For millions of American seniors this fear is justified. In only four years, the number of seniors at risk of outliving their resources increased by nearly 2 million households. Using the Senior Financial Stability Index, economic insecurity among senior households increased by one-third, rising from 27 percent to 36 percent from 2004 to 2008. This steady and dramatic increase occurred even before the full force of the Great Recession hit.
Research
Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University
Even before the full impact of the Great Recession hit, seniors were seeing their retirement security steadily and rapidly destroyed. The elimination of secure pensions for most Americans combined with rising costs of basic expenses has resulted in a dramatic rise in senior economic insecurity.
Almost half of single women over the age of 65 face the real crisis of outliving their financial resources. Most have very limited resources and are forced to make daily trade- offs between paying bills, forgoing home maintenance or medical needs. New research shows that economic insecurity among single senior women is on the rise. Between 2004 and 2008—even before the full impact of the Great Recession had been felt—economic insecurity among this population subgroup increased by one-third, from 35 percent to 47 percent.
These stories are a cross section of the experiences of young people entering adulthood in a time of uncertainty, as relayed to Young Invincibles by the young people themselves.
These stories reach through the data to reveal the real, human impact of recent economic trends. Their voices express both the challenges faced by this generation and their opportunities and constraints for facing these challenges head-on to build a solid foundation for their adult lives.
Doing an internship while in college has become a near prerequisite for obtaining a good job. Yet internships are often out of reach for low-income students because most of them are unpaid. This report outlines the limitations of the current college internship system, and proposes the creation of subsidies for low-income college students to pursue internships at non-profit organizations or government agencies.
