Study: Already High Level of Poverty Likely to Get Worse

2010 Census Bureau figures recently revealed that the US poverty level had skyrocketed and noted that  the population of poor Americans had climbed to 46.2 million.  A new studyreleased today by Indiana University compounds that bad news by predicting that things are likely to get worse before they get better.

A soup kitchen in Detroit. The report said Michigan had one of the highest rates of poverty, with minorities among the hardest hit. Photograph: Mark Blinch/Reuters As reported by The Guardian:

The report warns that the numbers will continue to rise, because although the recession is technically over, its continued impact on cuts to welfare budgets and the quality of new, often poorly paid, jobs can be expected to force many more people in to poverty. It is also difficult for those already under water to get back up again.

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/11-7

Paul Buchheit - Half of America In Poverty? The Facts Say It's True

Published on Tuesday, December 27, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/27-0

by Paul Buchheit 

Recent reports suggest that almost 50% of Americans are in poverty or at a "low income" level. The claim is based on a new supplemental measure by the Census Bureau that includes health care, transportation, and other essential living expenses in the poverty calculation.

The concept of "low income" is controversial. It has been defined as earnings between 100 and 199 percent of the poverty level, a claim which, if true, would place every American family making $50,000 or less at a near-poverty level.

Conservative organizations believe the whole 'poverty' issue is overblown. The Cato Institute blames LBJ and Obama for reversing a declining poverty rate. Forbes blames the calculations. The Heritage Foundation argues, "The average poor person, as defined by the government, has a living standard far higher than the public imagines...In the kitchen, the household had a refrigerator, an oven and stove, and a microwave." The case for a growing "consumption equality" is alternately defended and denied. 

With emotions running high on both sides, we need to take a balanced look at the available data to determine how well the highest-earning family of the poorest 50% -- a family with a $50,000 income -- can survive. (The maximum individual income for the poorest 50% is about $30,000.)

Start with taxes. It is frequently noted by conservatives that the richest 1% pay most of the federal income taxes, and indeed they paid about 37 percent in 2009, more than the poorest 90% of Americans. But only the richest 5% of Americans have experienced income growth since 1980. And during that time, their tax rate has dropped from 34% to 23%. As for the 3 percent rate paid by the poorest 50%, the Tax Policy Center sums it up nicely: "The basic structure of the income tax simply exempts subsistence levels of income from tax."

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Lucia Mutikani - Hunger Stalks US Cities as Poverty Rises: Study

Published on Thursday, December 15, 2011 by Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/15/us-usa-economy-hunger-idUSTRE7BE19920111215

by Lucia Mutikani

A growing number of families in the United States are struggling to put food on the table as poverty rises in major cities, a new survey showed on Thursday.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors' 2011 hunger and homelessness survey found all but four of the 29 cities surveyed reported an increase in requests for emergency food assistance during the period between September 2010 and August 2011.

Half of those asking for emergency food assistance were people in families, while 26 percent were employed. The elderly accounted for 19 percent, with the homeless making up the remaining 11 percent.

This is the latest survey to underscore the magnitude of the damage inflicted by the 2007-09 recession.

Though the downturn ended 2-1/2 years ago, the recovery has been very slow by historical standards as households struggle to repair their balance sheets and unemployment is at an uncomfortably high 8.6 percent.

About 24.4 million Americans are either out of work or underemployed and employment remains 6.3 million jobs below its level in December 2007 when the recession started.

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NEW ORIGINAL SERIES: American Veterans: Forgotten and Discarded - Episode 1: "Afflicted"

This Thanksgiving, remember our vets who have returned to a country that so easily forgets them. 

In a follow-up to the heart-wrenching series, "Who Is Killing Our American Veterans?", Dr. Gary Null exposes the continued epidemic of homelessness affecting our American Veterans today. Thousands of Veterans are mired in poverty, suffering with physical and psychological illnesses and are living on the streets and in the woods throughout America. See the tragic story of these forgotten men and women and the few dedicated people who are committed to helping them in their plight. 

Senior Executive Producer/Writer/Director: Gary Null Ph.D.

Executive Producer/Co-Director: Richard Polonetsky   

Producer: Shannon Burnett   

Editor: Michael Palmerio   

Camera: Florian Boehm

A Progressive Radio Network Original Series

We would like to give a very special thanks to the organizations listed below.  Please visit their websites to see how they are helping homeless Veterans and how you can help support their efforts.

National Veterans Homeless Support [http://www.nvhs.us/]

Veterans Transitional Facility

Vietnam and All Veterans of Brevard Inc. [http://www.vietnamandallveteransofbrevard.com/]

Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, Inc. [http://www.clsmf.org/index.php/services/vlap]

Daily Bread Inc. [http://www.dailybreadinc.org/]

Tents in the Woods: The New Reality of Being Poor in America

Michael Snyder - Extreme Poverty Is Now at Record Levels

By Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse

Posted on November 8, 2011
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty than they have ever measured before.  In 2010, we were told that the economy was recovering, but the truth is that the number of the "very poor" soared to heights never seen previously.  Back in 1993 and back in 2009, the rate of extreme poverty was just over 6 percent, and that represented the worst numbers on record.  But in 2010, the rate of extreme poverty hit a whopping 6.7 percent.  That means that one out of every 15 Americans is now considered to be "very poor".  For many people, this is all very confusing because their guts are telling them that things are getting worse and yet the mainstream media keeps telling them that everything is just fine.  Hopefully this article will help people realize that the plight of the poorest of the poor continues to deteriorate all across the United States.  In addition, hopefully this article will inspire many of you to lend a hand to those that are truly in need.

Tonight, there are more than 20 million Americans that are living in extreme poverty.  This number increases a little bit more every single day.  The following statistics that were mentioned in an article in The Daily Mail should be very sobering for all of us....

About 20.5 million Americans, or 6.7 percent of the U.S. population, make up the poorest poor, defined as those at 50 per cent or less of the official poverty level.

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"Richard Wolff" - Capitalism and Poverty

Wednesday 12 October 2011

by: Richard D. Wolff, MR Zine [3] | News Analysis

http://www.truth-out.org/capitalism-and-poverty/1318426007

The US Census Bureau recently reported what most Americans already knew.  Poverty is deepening.  The gap between rich and poor is growing.  Slippage soon into the ranks of the poor now confronts tens of millions of Americans who long thought of themselves as securely "middle class."

The reality is worse than the Census Bureau reports.  Consider that the Bureau's poverty line in 2010 for a family of four was $22,314. 

Families of four making more than that were not counted as poor.  That poverty line works out to $15 per day per person for everything: food, clothing, housing, medical care, transportation, education, and so on.  If you have more than $15 per day per person in your household to pay for everything each person needs, the Bureau does not count you as part of this country's poverty problem.

So the real number of US citizens living in poverty -- more reasonably defined -- is much larger today than the 46.2 million reported by the Census Bureau.  It is thus much higher than the 15.1 per cent of our people the Bureau sees as poor.  Conservatively estimated, about one in four Americans already lives in real poverty.

Another one in four is or should be worried about joining them soon.  Long-lasting and high unemployment now drains away income from families and friends of the unemployed who have used up savings as well as unemployment insurance.  As city, state, and local governments cut services and supports, people will have to divert money to offset part of those cuts.  When Medicare and if Social Security benefits are cut, millions will be spending more to help elderly parents.  Finally, poverty looms for those with jobs as (1) wages are cut or fail to keep up with rising prices, and (2) benefits -- especially pensions and medical insurance -- are reduced.

Deepening poverty has multiple causes, but the capitalist economic system is major among them.  First, capitalism's periodic crises always increase poverty, and the current crisis is no exception.  More precisely, how capitalist corporations operate, in or out of crisis, regularly reproduces poverty.  At the top of every corporation, its major shareholders (15-20 or fewer) own controlling blocs of shares.  They select a board of directors -- usually 15-20 individuals -- who run the corporation.  These two tiny groups make all the key decisions: what, how, and where to produce and what to do with the profits.

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"Jesse Jackson" - We Ignore Poverty, But It Is On the Rise

Published on Wednesday, September 21, 2011 by the Chicago Sun-Times

http://www.suntimes.com/news/jackson/7750396-452/we-ignore-poverty-but-it-is-on-the-rise.html

by Jesse Jackson

Poor people are invisible in our nation’s capital. Republicans defend the affluent, calling them “job creators,” Democrats champion the middle class and those boldest stand with “working families.” The poor go without mention.

The US has the highest poverty rate among developed countries.Yet the most recent census reveals that a stunning one in six Americans lives in poverty, more than 46 million, the highest number since the government began keeping track. Poverty is rising across all races and all regions.

The Great Recession is the immediate cause. Twenty-five million people are in need of full-time work; 49 million go without health insurance. A good many of the poor have jobs, but receive too little pay to lift their family up from poverty. But poverty was rising even before the latest economic collapse; the middle class has been losing ground for more than 30 years.

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"ScienceDaily" - One Million More U.S. Children Living in Poverty Since 2009, New Census Data Shows

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110922152631.htm

ScienceDaily (Sep. 23, 2011) — Between 2009 and 2010, one million more children in America joined the ranks of those living in poverty, bringing the total to an estimated 15.7 million poor children in 2010, an increase of 2.6 million since the recession began in 2007, according to researchers from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire.

Furthermore, the authors estimate that nearly 1 in 4 young children -- those under age 6 -- now live in poverty. "It is important to understand young child poverty specifically, as children who are poor before age 6 have been shown to experience educational deficits, and health problems, with effects that span the life course," the researchers said.

To evaluate the number of children now living in poverty, researchers focused on two time periods -- change since 2007, as the nation entered the recession, and change since 2009, as the recession was ending. They also looked at young children -- children under 6 years old -- living in poverty as well as national poverty rates for all children under 18.

Nationally, the number of all children living in poverty increased from 14.7 million in 2009 to 15.7 million in 2010. In 2007, 13.1 million children were living in poverty nationally.

Since 2007, 38 states have seen a significant increase in child poverty. Mississippi has the highest percentage of children living in poverty at 32.5 percent, followed by the District of Columbia (30.4 percent) and New Mexico (30 percent). New Hampshire has the lowest percentage of children living in poverty (10 percent), followed by Connecticut (12.8 percent) and Alaska (12.9 percent).

Overall, the South has the highest rates of child poverty at an estimated 24.2 percent, and the Northeast has the lowest rates at an estimated 17.8 percent. In addition, 28.7 percent of children in urban areas and 25.4 percent of children in rural places now live in poverty, significantly higher than the 16.1 percent in suburban areas.

Nationally, the number of young children, those under 6 years old, living in poverty increased from 5.7 million in 2009 to 5.9 million in 2010, with 24.8 percent of young children now poor. In the South, 27.9 percent of young children live in poverty, followed by 24.1 percent in the Midwest, 23.4 percent in the West, and 20.6 percent in the Northeast.

Young children living in the rural South have been the hardest hit, with more than 1 in 3 of the region's rural young children now living in poverty. "Rural poverty is particularly striking in this region, where nearly 36 percent of children under age 6 were poor," the researchers said.

The research was conducted by Jessica Bean, vulnerable families research associate at the Carsey Institute; Beth Mattingly, director of research on vulnerable families at the Carsey Institute and research assistant professor of sociology at UNH; and Andrew Schaefer, a doctoral student in sociology at UNH and research assistant at the Carsey Institute.



"The Guardian UK" - How bad is poverty in Rick Perry's Texas?

The Guardian UK, September 18, 2011

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/sep/15/texas-poverty-perry-wages-cppp/print

Texas governor Rick Perry is running for the Republican nomination on his economic record. But what is the state's record on poverty?

What is happening in Texas? According to a new report by the non-partisan Center for Public Policy Priorities , economic prosperity is passing millions of ordinary Texans by.

The reports authors write that:

Believing in the American Dream is as much a part of being a Texan as remembering the Alamo. Texans believe that by working hard, we will earn decent wages and make a good life for our families. Poverty, on the other hand, is a nightmare. New data … shows many more Texans living that nightmare

The research is based on new data from the US census bureau's Current Population Survey - which has just released figures on poverty, income and health insurance across the entire country.

The figures highlighted by the CPPP report show that unemployment in Texas has doubled, and poverty rates are shooting up, in comparison to the rest of the US. The report comes as Republican front runner Rick Perry emphasises his economic record as State governor.

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