Insecurity and Poverty

Abstract

This chapter notes the disconnect between the treatment of those responsible for the 2008 crisis who were largely insulated from its effects, and those who were the victims of it and whose degree of already meagre insulation from market turbulence was much reduced. This is evidenced through changes in household poverty and insecurity (personal debt), labour market precarity (workers' rights, youth), housing insecurity, food insecurity, and diminished voice (advocacy). Furthermore, vulnerable populations and communities were to be much more affected by the COVID-19 pandemic than other groups. The chapter surveys the situation as it affects young people, women and migrants, and outlines how poverty manifests in housing and food insecurity. In many countries, commodification, individualization, and privatization were intensified over the crisis period in the name of reducing the budget deficit. For significant sectors of the population, this has engendered various forms of often overlapping and mutually reinforcing poverty.