Economic inequality

Economic inequality shapes opportunity, health, and security for billions of people. This archive tracks real progress — policy wins, research breakthroughs, and community-driven solutions — that are narrowing gaps in wealth, wages, and access around the world.

Australian money, for article on student debt relief

Australia to slash $10 billion off student debt amid cost of living pressures

By / / Good News For Humankind

Australia just wiped roughly A$16 billion in student debt off the books, cutting loan balances by 20% for three million graduates in a single stroke. A typical borrower carrying the average A$27,600 loan will see A$5,520 vanish automatically, with no paperwork required. The law also lifts the income threshold for repayments to A$67,000, giving lower-paid workers in fields like early childhood education and the arts real breathing room. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made it the first bill of his new term, a clear nod to younger voters who showed up in record numbers. As similar income-based loan systems strain graduates in the UK and New Zealand, Australia’s move offers a glimpse of what’s possible when a generation’s frustration finally finds the ballot box.

Rows of students at graduation, for article on student loan forgiveness

U.S. President Biden announces additional $1.2 billion in student debt relief for 35,000 public-sector workers

By / / Good News For Humankind

Student debt relief just reached 35,000 more public servants — teachers, nurses, firefighters, and social workers who each spent a decade paying into a program that, for years, almost never paid out. Before 2021, only 7,000 people had ever successfully had their loans forgiven through Public Service Loan Forgiveness, despite hundreds of thousands believing they qualified. A temporary waiver fixed that, letting borrowers get credit for payments wrongly rejected on technicalities, and bringing total relief under this administration to $168 billion for nearly 4.8 million Americans. For people who chose lower-paying careers in service of their communities, this is a rare policy tool that honors the tradeoff directly — and a reminder that broken systems can, with enough will, be repaired.

American money, for article on IRS back taxes recovery

U.S. Internal Revenue Service collects milestone $1 billion in back taxes from high-wealth taxpayers

By / / Good News For Humankind

IRS back taxes recovery has crossed $1 billion, collected from roughly 1,600 wealthy Americans who each earn over $1 million a year and owed more than $250,000 in unpaid taxes. For years, the agency knew these debts existed but didn’t have the staff to chase them down. New funding changed that, letting the IRS hire auditors, answer about a million more taxpayer calls this season, and launch a free Direct File tool that 140,000 people used in its pilot year. It’s a hopeful reminder that fairness in tax systems isn’t really about willpower — it’s about whether governments invest in the basic capacity to make their own rules mean something.

Packages of diapers, for article on Medicaid diaper coverage

Tennessee to become the first U.S. state to provide some children’s diapers

By / / Good News For Humankind

Free diapers through Medicaid are coming to Tennessee this August, with families receiving 100 a month for every child under two. It’s the first program of its kind in the country, and advocates expect it to deliver close to 100 million diapers a year to families who need them. The need is real: the National Diaper Bank Network found that 92% of Tennessee families receiving diaper assistance are working parents who still can’t afford enough. Local diaper banks helped lay the groundwork, and they’ll keep serving families the program doesn’t reach. Tennessee’s approach offers a tested path other states can follow, turning a quiet daily struggle into something a community can actually solve together.

Technicians carrying photovoltaic solar module while installing solar panel system on roof of house, for article on Solar for All grants

U.S. President Joe Biden announces $7 billion in federal solar power grants

By / / Good News For Humankind

Solar for All, a new $7 billion federal program, is set to bring rooftop and community solar to more than 900,000 lower- and middle-income households across the United States. Sixty grants will flow to state projects, tribal nations, and multi-state efforts, with participating families expected to save a combined $350 million each year on their energy bills. Alongside the funding, nearly 2,000 American Climate Corps positions will train local workers — in partnership with building trades unions — to install and maintain these systems. For communities long left out of the clean energy boom, it’s a real shift: the people who’ve shouldered the heaviest costs of fossil fuels are finally being placed at the front of the transition.

Manhattan skyline, for article on medical debt relief

New York City plans to wipe out $2 billion in medical debt for 500,000 residents

By / / Good News For Humankind

Medical debt relief is coming to New York City in a big way: a new program will wipe out more than $2 billion in unpaid medical bills for as many as 500,000 residents, no application required. The city is spending $18 million over three years and partnering with the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt, which buys debt portfolios for pennies on the dollar and simply cancels them. Eligible families will just receive a letter letting them know their balance is gone. With roughly 100 million Americans carrying some form of health care debt, this kind of municipal action offers a hopeful template — one that treats medical debt not as private misfortune, but as something cities can actually help fix.

Pills spilling out of pill bottle, for article on march-in rights policy

U.S. sets policy to seize patents of government-funded drugs if price deemed too high

By / / Good News For Humankind

Drug patent seizures are back on the table for the first time in over 40 years, with the Biden administration releasing a draft roadmap that explicitly lets the federal government license out medicines to competitors when companies charge prices most Americans can’t afford. The power has existed since 1980 but was never used or even defined — until now. Price itself is now a factor: if a drug was built on taxpayer-funded research through agencies like the NIH, and the company sells it out of reach of ordinary patients, generics could be authorized. Even as a credible threat, this reframes who publicly funded science is really for — and could shift drug pricing fights well beyond U.S. borders.

German Bundestag

Germany approves global minimum corporate tax

By / / Good news links

In 2021 almost 140 countries agreed to an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development deal they are meant to implement from next year to prevent big companies from avoiding taxation by transferring profits to low-tax countries. Germany has now formally implemented that commitment.