Human rights

Different standards for the wealthy

By Di, February 21 2019

In the US, the widespread belief that the poor are simply lazy has led many states to impose work requirements on aid recipients—even those who have been medically classified as disabled. Limiting aid programs in this way has been shown to shorten recipients’ lives, creating a difference of more than 20 years in life expectancy between the rich and the poor.

When the wealthy are revealed to be drug addicts, philanderers, or work-shy, the response is at most a collective shrug. At the same time, behaviors indulged in the rich are not just condemned in the poor, but are used as a justification to punish them, denying them access to resources that keep them alive, such as healthcare and food assistance.

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The bad behavior of the richest: what I learned from wealth managers

Trump praises attack on journalist

By Di, February 14 2019

The British government has joined press freedom advocates and journalists in expressing dismay and disgust with Donald Trump's remarks at a rally, where he praised the unprovoked assault on a Guardian US journalist by the state's congressman, Greg Gianforte.

Trump fondly reminisced about the physical assault that occurred on 24 May 2017 when Jacobs, the Guardian's political correspondent, asked Gianforte a question about healthcare policy in the course of a special congressional election in Montana.

In a statement, PEN America, a nonprofit organization that works to defend and celebrate free expression, said Trump's "Explicit praise" for Gianforte's assault "marks a startling new low in terms of the White House's open hostility toward the press".

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UK joins chorus of disapproval after Trump praises assault on Guardian reporter