Thanks to new and old friends alike, I now have plenty of food here to get me by for a while, thank you ❤️

I do have one more ask if I may though. I have 3 little niblings I'd love to be able to get something small each for Christmas but I cant afford to do so. It's not a priority so I'm ok with not being able to do it. If you can spare a couple of dollars though it would mean a lot.

Thank you friends 💓

https://paypal.me/JadziaBenntley?country.x=AU&locale.x=en_AU

@kristin8x

Hey Kristen, sorry to bother you but I was looking at the ACOSS 2022 poverty report and I had some questions.

1/ If 3.3 Million people (1/8 Australians) are in poverty by the fairly conservative ACOSS number how many would be under the Henderson Poverty Line (HPL)?

2/ Given the number ACOSS uses is tied to median income, doesn't it become increasingly irrelevant to material conditions during a joint wage stagnation and inflation crisis?

If wages aren't moving, but are losing their value in real terms due to inflation wouldn't that push more people into poverty conditions without changing the median income or people's position relative to it?

3/ If all of this is correct, why do large think tanks continue to use the deeply flawed median income model? Do they understand that they can use whatever metric is best given their only role is pushing media narratives (apologies to people who haven't worked out that Government does whatever it wants regardless of public opinion or "expert" advice?

4/ Does the HPL take into account the fact the cost of housing is increasing above inflation or is that also a reasonably flawed metric (obviously more aligned with reality than the median income model)?

I'm struggling to figure out how to approach this website! For now I'll try summarising my thoughts on topics moving more quickly in other online spaces. Here goes my first attempt!

Topic: so-called Centrelink debts

This week many folks have closely followed the Robodebt Royal Commission. An enormous amount has been learned, far too much to cover here. If you're interested in knowing what's happened at the hearings I highly recommend checking out this Not My Debt Twitter list (https://twitter.com/i/lists/1587314309751017473?s=20), which includes observations from lawyers, journalists & activists, or reporting by Luke Henrique-Gomes & Rick Morton.

WHY I'M LOSING MY MIND ABOUT THE ROBODEBT ROYAL COMMISSION

The RC is important & a sign of the incredible success of activists who campaigned against #robodebt for years. But much of the commentary misses the point about why the scheme was so harmful. Hint: it isn't an algorithm, or even its unlawful nature.

The problem with raising illegal debts against poor people is that poor people can't afford to pay debt, full stop. We can't afford to repay "real" debts – mostly the result of confusing rules, admin quirks or Centrelink errors – any more than we can pay false ones. This is what leads to debt spirals, suicide deaths, etc

As the RC continues it goes unmentioned that Bill Shorten is overseeing a new aggressive "debt" raising program.

Read this Antipoverty Centre update for more:
https://apcentre.substack.com/p/antipoverty-centre-condemns-labors

I didn’t realize that the Dutch fought for their bike lanes. There’s a lot of history within this that I’m currently naive about but excited to learn!

Here’s the article I’m starting with — How the Dutch got Their Cycle Paths: https://www.pps.org/article/how-the-dutch-got-their-cycle-paths

#bikes #urbanism