Poverty in the USA
| AN OUTSIDERS VIEW |
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| Ken Fuller |
In 2010, a further 2.6 million Americans descended into poverty, bringing the total to 46.2 million, a peak not previously reached in the 52 years since the Census Bureau started compiling such statistics. The impoverished represent 15.1 percent of the population, a level last seen in 1993.
Those in “deep poverty,” defined as existing on less than half the amount determining the official poverty line, increased to 20.5 million. At 16.4 million, child poverty is the highest since 1962. And, as might be expected, those who are not white stand a greater chance of being poor, the poverty-rates being 27 percent for blacks, 26 percent for Hispanics, and 12.1 percent for Asians, compared to 9.9 percent for whites – but they’re all on the increase.
Needless to say, unemployment is largely responsible for this state of affairs, and last year a staggering 48 million people between the ages of 18 and 64 did not work a single week — an increase of 3 million in 2009. But things are also bad on the wages front, and average earnings for a full-time male worker, adjusted for inflation, were slightly lower than they were in 1973. Yes, 1973.
If you’re poor, things are bad even when times are “good.” For example, the report in the New York Times on Sept. 13 cited a researcher at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities who pointed out that “the period from 2001 to 2007 was the first recovery on record where the level of poverty was deeper, and median income of working-age people was lower, at the end than at the beginning.”.... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110927com5.html
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