Top Stories - Chicago Tribune
THE WORKING POOR
Sun Apr 25, 9:40 AM ET
By Tim Jones Tribune national correspondent
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The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank, reported recently that 43 million people are living in low-income working families with children. Other government data show the number of people living below the official poverty line grew by more than 3.5 million from 2000 to 2002, to 34.6 million. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture (news - web sites) reported that the number of Americans who don't know where their next meal will come from--categorized as "food insecure"--jumped from 31 million to 35 million between 1999 and 2002.
"The reach of the economic slowdown has really pulled in a lot of folks who never expected to be poor," said Stacy Dean, director of food stamp policy for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "What you see now is families turning to private relief for what often is a very small amount of help."
<snip>
Danny Palmer, who lives in the Ohio River village of Cheshire, lost his $20-an-hour welding job and now works at Wal-Mart for $5.95 an hour. Insurance coverage he got as part of a severance package from his former employer runs out next month. He has no health coverage with Wal-Mart.
<snip>
Johnson's "unconditional war on poverty" going badly. Unemployment in Athens County in February was 5.9 percent, but about one-third of the county's residents live at or below the federal poverty line. Many of the good jobs are gone as Ohio, like many states, is making the transition from a manufacturing to a service-based economy.
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2027&e=1&u=/chitribts/theworkingpoor
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