If you live in the United States, there is a good chance that you are
now living in poverty or near poverty. Nearly 50 million Americans,
(49.7 Million), are living below the poverty line, with
80% of the entire U.S. population living near poverty or below it.
?
That near poverty statistic is perhaps more startling than the 50
million Americans below the poverty line, because it translates to a
full 80% of the population struggling with joblessness, near-poverty or
reliance on government assistance to help make ends meet.
In September, the Associated Press pointed to survey data that told
of an increasingly widening gap between rich and poor, as well as the
loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs that used to provide
opportunities for the “Working Class” to explain an increasing trend
towards poverty in the U.S.
But the numbers of those below the poverty line does not merely
reflect the number of jobless Americans. Instead, according to a revised
census measure released Wednesday, the number – 3 million higher than
what the official government numbers imagine – are also due to
out-of-pocket medical costs and work-related expenses.
The new measure is generally “considered more reliable by social
scientists because it factors in living expenses as well as the effects
of government aid, such as food stamps and tax credits,” according
to Hope Yen reporting for the Associated Press.
Some other findings revealed that food stamps helped 5 million people
barely reach above the poverty line. That means that the actual poverty
rate is even higher, as without such aid, poverty rate would rise from
16 percent to 17.6 percent.
Latino and Asian Americans saw an increase in poverty, rising to 27.8
percent and 16.7 percent respectively, from 25.8 percent and 11.8
percent under official government numbers. African-Americans, however,
saw a very small decrease, from 27.3 percent to 25.8 percent which the
study documents is due to government assistance programs. Non-Hispanic
whites too rose from 9.8 percent to 10.7 percent in poverty.
“The primary reason that poverty remains so high,” Sheldon Danziger, a
University of Michigan economist said, “is that the benefits of a
growing economy are no longer being shared by all workers as they were
in the quarter-century following the end of World War II.”
“Given current economic conditions,” he continued, “poverty will not
be substantially reduced unless government does more to help the working
poor.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. government seems to think that the answer is
cutting more of those services which are helping to keep 80% of the
population just barely above the poverty line, cutting Food Stamps since
the beginning of the month. Democrats and Republicans are negotiating
about just how much more of these programs should be cut, but neither
party is arguing that they should not be touched.
(
Article by Simeon Ari; photo via AP Photo)
Political Blindspot, Τετάρτη, 6 Νοεμβρίου 2013 (In the U.S. 49.7 Million Are Now Poor, and 80% of the Total Population Is Near Poverty)
