11.7% of Americans live in Poverty. $18,104 for a Family of Four?

[JanMichael]

http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/inequal/2002/0925census.htm

"The Census Bureau said the number of poor Americans rose last year to 32.9 million, an increase of 1.3 million, while the proportion living in poverty rose to 11.7 percent, from 11.3 percent in 2000. Median household income fell to $42,228 in 2001, a decline of $934 or 2.2 percent from the prior year. The number of households with income above the median is the same as the number below it. A family of four was classified as poor if it had cash income less than $18,104 last year. The official poverty levels, updated each year to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index, were $14,128 for a family of three, $11,569 for a married couple and $9,039 for an individual."

Let's see, that's around $1,418 a month (I took out 6% for FICA/etc) for four people to live on...Do your own math.

Rent Wages in 2001 http://www.nlihc.org/oor2001/ (The 2003 are here: http://www.nlihc.org/oor_current/ ) here's the by-state page http://www.nlihc.org/cgi-bin/oor2001.pl?state=_all

"In Florida, an extremely low income household (earning $15,210, 30% of the Area Median Income of $50,700) can afford monthly rent of no more than $380, while the Fair Market Rent for a two bedroom unit is $694."

Gee. Trickle down is such a booming success:eyes:

At least in Prison you can get your teeth fixed...

[JanMichael]

1. I should have added "Clark & Dean sittin' in a tree...

...ki SS ing.

Sure, Poverty is a bummer, and I guess I shouldn't expect a bunch of people with cable modems/dsl to give much of a shit cus they gots theirs.

[xchrom]

2. do you care?

you seem to have said equipment. or at least some of it.

[JanMichael]

3. Ha!

Cute.

Any comments on the reality of American Poverty or shall we just play a tit for tat game?

[Pastiche423]

8. That is the 1st thing

I have heard you say that truly sucks.

I live well below the poverty line, have dial up and I don't give a shit because I've got mine?

Re-think that insulting statement.

[JanMichael]

9. Just frusterated.

It seems the only thing that gets attention these days are candidate flame threads so I just shot off.

No intentional insult to dial-up users intended.

OK?

EDIT: Aha! You though I was slamming lower income DU'ers??? No! I was trying, unsuccessfully it seems, to slam the generic "white middle class" Liberals here who bitch about candidates ad nauseum but avoid discussing Poverty in any substantial way.

Sorry it sounded the other way around.

[tjdee]

4. THIS is why someone making 80K is not middle class.

One person with a salary of 80K is stinking rich, IMO.

The MEDIAN in this country for an entire HOUSEHOLD is half that.

I see this every day--two parents working, not able to afford the rents in my area. So off they go to the ghetto, or off to a less populous state.

Maybe that's a solution...let's all move to America's breadbasket where the cost of living isn't that high...but then...how is the job market there?

[Romberry]

6. 80 grand is not rich

It is solidly upper middle class though. The problem isn't the people making 80 grand, it's that the wages for workers simply do not reflect the gains in productivity made over the last three decades. All the gains went to the top 1% and higher.

See http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/25/business/25POOR.html

In 1979, the wealthiest 1 percent had just under half the after-tax income of the poorest 40 percent of Americans, analysis of new data from the Congressional Budget Office shows.

The figures show 2000 as the year of the greatest economic disparity between rich and poor for any year since 1979, the year the budget office began collecting this data, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit research organization in Washington that advocates tax and federal spending policies to benefit the poor. It released its analysis on Tuesday.

The richest 2.8 million Americans had $950 billion after taxes, or 15.5 percent, of the $6.2 trillion economic pie in 2000, Isaac Shapiro, a senior fellow at the center, said.

The poorest 110 million Americans had less, sharing 14.4 percent of all after tax money.

But the higher incomes of the last decade did not lift all people equally.

In 2000, the top 1 percent of American taxpayers had $862,700 each after taxes, on average, more than triple the $286,300 they had, adjusted for inflation, in 1979. The bottom 40 percent in 2000 had $21,118 each, up 13 percent from their $18,695 average in 1979.

The poor don't need to engage in the age old habit of middle class envy. They middle class doesn't need to fall for the trap of blaming their problems on the poor. Both groups need to set their sites higher and realize that top down class warfare is here and has been here for quite some time.

[bicentennial_baby]

5. Hey! I'm poverty stricken!

My fiancee makes about 10,500/year and I don't work b/c I'm in school full time. Thus, we live with my parents and can't afford to move out anytime soon. Lemme tell ya, it sucks!

[Yupster]

7. Congrats

When's the big day?