Hard work is often touted as the key American virtue that leads to success and opportunity. And there’s lots of evidence to suggest that workers buy into the belief: For example, a recent study found that Americans work 25 percent more hours than Europeans, and that U.S. workers tend to take fewer vacation days and retire later in life. But for many, simply working hard doesn’t actually lead to a better life.

Recent college graduates who borrow are leaving school with an average of $34,000 in student loans. That’s up from $20,000 just 10 years ago, according to a new analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In that report, out this week, the New York Fed took a careful look at the relationship between debt and homeownership. For people aged 30 to 36, the analysis shows having any student debt significantly hurts your chances of buying a home, compared to college graduates with no debt. The cliche of “good debt” notwithstanding, the consequences of borrowing are real, and they are lasting.

There are more than two million women veterans in the U.S. today, and women veterans who are homeless are the fastest-growing group of veteran homeless. Yet if you ask the average American — even the average veteran — to describe a homeless veteran, you’ll quickly hear an almost universal description. The picture most of us seem to carry in our minds is of a grizzled older white male who served in Vietnam, has chronic mental health and/or substance abuse issues, and can be seen panhandling at an intersection with a cardboard sign. The trouble with that picture, besides the fact that it’s become a cliché, is anyone who doesn’t present that way — specifically, women veterans who are homeless — are increasingly left out of the picture.

When people talk about the poor, especially people who haven’t experienced poverty, it’s often without context or compassion. President Trump’s budget, which thankfully faces steep resistance from Congress, says a lot about what he thinks of struggling Americans. The poor don’t work hard enough.

Fewer Americans sought unemployment benefits last week, evidence that the U.S. job market remains healthy. The Labor Department says weekly applications for unemployment aid dropped 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 258,000. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose to 254,250.

Down on skid row, the doctor was talking to the social worker about the people they’ve lost, and about who was next in line for a free ride to the graveyard. “It’s heartbreaking,” said the doctor, who has spent years bringing street medicine to Santa Monica, Hollywood and skid row. “When Barbara died, I said, ‘Julianne’s going to be next.’”

Federal food assistance benefits don’t go far enough and efforts to prohibit able-bodied adults without dependents from getting any are probably ill-advised, witnesses told a House nutrition panel Tuesday. Democratic members of the House subcommittee on nutrition said they’re anxious about Republican leaders’ talk of separating the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program from the 2018 Farm Bill, like they tried in 2013, or creating unrealistic work requirements for eligibility.

For people on the brink of losing it all, cash can be a lifesaver. That’s according to a study published in the August 2016 issue of Science, which found giving the near-homeless roughly $1,000 in “emergency cash” substantially reduced the chances they would end up on the street — over both the short and long term.

President Trump’s initial budget proposal would end aid for poor families to pay their heating bills, defund after-school programs at public schools, and make fewer grants available to college students. Community block grants that provide disaster relief, aid neighborhoods affected by foreclosure, and help rural communities access water, sewer systems, and safe housing would be eliminated. Mick Mulvaney, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, suggested recently that even small amounts of federal funding for programs like Meals on Wheels, which delivers food to house-bound seniors, may not be justified.

The vast majority of giving by the valley’s wealthiest philanthropists goes to national and global causes, leaving less than 10 percent donated locally. Much of the local giving goes to large institutions, such as hospitals, universities or private schools — which tend to benefit the wealthy — instead of to the community-based nonprofits serving the region’s most disadvantaged groups.