KB+Memo+-+Shifts+in+Sign+Systems


 * giving to nonprofit health care institutions in the U.S. during 2013 fiscal year increased more than 3% compared to 2012 and more than 20% since the low point of the recession (4 years ago)
 * $9.217 billion for U.S. nonprofit hospitals, medical centers, health care systems and related facilities
 * o $276 million more than the $8.941 billion last year
 * o generosity of donors


 * Doctors Without Borders established first treatment center for Ebola in March 2014


 * poverty rate dropped from 15% to 14.5% in 2013
 * relatively minor improvements – economic recovery hasn’t done much to lift living standards of most poor and middle-income households
 * increasing disconnect between economic growth and economic wellbeing of most Americans – policies that ignore goal of shared prosperity complicit in lack of recovery for most of country


 * child poverty rate down from 21.8% to 19.9% as of 2013 (first significant decline in child poverty since 2000)
 * possibly due to change sin labor market – globalization and technological change make it harder to quickly replace jobs that disappear in a recession
 * income inequality contributes to lingering of poverty