37 million poor hidden in the land of plenty

[ProSense]

37 million poor hidden in the land of plenty

Americans have always believed that hard work will bring rewards, but vast numbers now cannot meet their bills even with two or three jobs. More than one in 10 citizens live below the poverty line, and the gap between the haves and have-nots is widening

Paul Harris in Kentucky
Sunday February 19, 2006
The Observer


The flickering television in Candy Lumpkins's trailer blared out The Bold and the Beautiful. It was a fantasy daytime soap vision of American life with little relevance to the reality of this impoverished corner of Kentucky.

Snip...

It is a vision of deep and abiding poverty. Yet the Lumpkins are not alone in their plight. They are just the negative side of the American equation. America does have vast, wealthy suburbs, huge shopping malls and a busy middle class, but it also has vast numbers of poor, struggling to make it in a low-wage economy with minimal government help.

A shocking 37 million Americans live in poverty. That is 12.7 per cent of the population - the highest percentage in the developed world. They are found from the hills of Kentucky to Detroit's streets, from the Deep South of Louisiana to the heartland of Oklahoma. Each year since 2001 their number has grown.

Under President George W Bush an extra 5.4 million have slipped below the poverty line. Yet they are not a story of the unemployed or the destitute. Most have jobs. Many have two. Amos Lumpkins has work and his children go to school. But the economy, stripped of worker benefits like healthcare, is having trouble providing good wages.

more...

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1712965,00.html?gusrc=rss

[saltpoint]

1. It would be of great service to the nation if at least one damned

reporter would ask Mr. Bush why his tax cuts have failed to elevate all Americans even as they fatten the purses of his supporters and donors.

[Gronk Groks]

9. It would be a great service if the MSM would run this article...

...and follow it up!

Why does it take foreign news outlets to point out the problems in America?

Oh, I forgot, shrub's buddies bought out all the American outlets except Knight-Ridder...
...but they are working to correct that omission.

[Earth_First]

2. "12.7 per cent of the population...

the highest percentage in the developed world"

This should be cause of great concern. Yet instead in this warped reality that we live in, they are a product of their own destiny.

[Erika]

3. Hannity says our "poor" all have air conditioning & TV's

What an out and out lie to make the selfish rich feel better about themselves.

I live within four miles of three homeless shelters. These people are down on their luck, some sick, and lost in this country that now worships the rich and detests the poor.

[sandnsea]

16. Well, there's poverty and then there's poverty

There is some truth in the fact that people who are lucky enough to have low-income housing and all the other benefits in place, don't exactly live like those people in those homeless shelters. And they are considered in poverty because only their income, or SSD, or whatever benefit, is counted. And yes they do have creature comforts, because often grandma and grandpa buy them. But for every one lucky enough to have that, there's a ton more who don't, and it's still a struggle and depressing way to live.

[ProSense]

4. Stats from the article.

An America divided

· There are 37 million Americans living below the poverty line. That figure has increased by five million since President George W. Bush came to power.

· The United States has 269 billionaires, the highest number in the world.

· Almost a quarter of all black Americans live below the poverty line; 22 per cent of Hispanics fall below it. But for whites the figure is just 8.6 per cent.

· There are 46 million Americans without health insurance.

· There are 82,000 homeless people in Los Angeles alone.

· In 2004 the poorest community in America was Pine Ridge Indian reservation. Unemployment is over 80 per cent, 69 per cent of people live in poverty and male life expectancy is 57 years. In the Western hemisphere only Haiti has a lower number.

· The richest town in America is Rancho Santa Fe in California. Average incomes are more than $100,000 a year; the average house price is $1.7m.

[NMDemDist2]

5. K & N n/t

[MaraJade]

6. The really BAD NEWS is. . .

that the Middle Class is now disappearing, thanks to the outsourcing of jobs to other countries
(India, China, Mexico). The sorts of jobs that are being outsourced and that are disappearing are
Medical (Medical Diagnostic, including the reading of x-rays and scans, and the processing of laboratory
and other diagnostic tests), accounting, computer science and information systens technology, archetecture,
publishing, graphic arts, animation, manufacturing including automotive manufacture and the manufacture of
wood, plastic and steel products, internet related, and many others. Even state and local
governments are now sending functions to India and China, such as medicaid and medicare claims
processing and call center functions.

HIGHER PAYING JOBS that created and fueled a middle class in this nation are going away. The only jobs left
are so called "service " jobs that pay the minimum wage or little above. Millions are now eligible for the
Earned Income Credit, and that's not good. Millions more must rely on Medicaid for health care (taxpayer financed
health care) and that is much worse. Millions upon millions can barely make ends meet, and it bodes ill for us all.


The continuous transfer of jobs out of the US is destroying the middle class. Many economists are now speaking
of an "hour-glass" economy, with a few Rich People at the top, little or no middle class and a vast "Wal-Mart worker"
type of low-wage economy at the bottom. Some smart people (Hilary among them) are now truly worried that the
fact that we manufacture NOTHING here in the US any more could present a national defense problem (for example, we
have NO STEEL made here any more--if we had to manufacture defense equipment, could we do it with factories in
ruins and no workers who know how?)

The Repukes, in the meantime, are getting their wish come true of creating an wealthy aristocracy that governs over
a poor serf class. This benefits the rich, but in the end, what will this type of economy cost the nation?

[Gronk Groks]

10. I must disagree, we still make and sell more weapons...

...then anyone else in the world.

We ARE the Merchants of Death!
Plus we are going to solve our illegal immigration problem...
...pretty soon nobody is going to want to come here when they can make as much at home!

[ProSense]

7. Edwards' hotel workers campaign

Sen. John Edwards kicks off hotel workers campaign

By Associated Press
Saturday, February 18, 2006

BOSTON - Former vice-presidential candidate and Senator John Edwards is in Boston today to push for better benefits for hotel workers.

John Kerry’s former running mate is joining actor Danny Glover at the Ritz Carlton Hotel for the event.

Organizers say contracts for many hotel workers will expire this year in nearly a dozen U.S. cities. The campaign is designed to build support for increased benefits and wages for these workers.

The rapidly consolidating hotel industry employs more than a million people worldwide.

http://news.bostonherald.com/election2004/view.bg?articleid=126836

http://www.oneamericacommittee.com

[jus_the_facts]

8. Here's the set poverty levels in '03....imo they should be a LOT higher..

http://www.usccb.org/cchd/povback/povfact9.htm

Size of Family Unit Weighted Average Thresholds
One person

(unrelated individual) 9,393

Under 65 years 9,573

65 years and over 8,825

Two persons 12,015

Householder under 65 12,384

Householder 65 and over 11,133

Three persons 14,680

Four persons 18,810

.....it's impossible to live on less than at LEAST 20,000 a year and that's just for rent and utilities...you can't save or have insurance for 20K...these figures are beyond the poverty level by a LONG shot. x(

[Gronk Groks]

11. It would be interesting if someone would find out how many families...

...made less than $20k a year.
If that is the true poverty level, I bet you would nearly double the number of families that lived below it.

[jus_the_facts]

12. Even an individual can't live very comfortably on 20K a year.....

....much less a family...the figures they use are so bogus...I'd like to see a few of those top 1%'ers try it for a few years just to give them a CLUE what it's like to have to live on a wing and a f'n prayer!!

[sandnsea]

15. 18% of children live in poverty

Worst since we began recording poverty levels in 1975, and believe me, things weren't rosy then.

This is a 2003 report.

http://www.cbpp.org/8-26-04pov.htm

[Nothing Without Hope]

13. K & R. Significant that this is from a EUROPEAN paper. The US corporate

media will rarely dare to state these truths. They are silent when Bush or his enablers brag about how he has been so good for the economy. Well - it IS true for SOME people. The richest are now much richer.

See also this thread with some more documented numbers:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x413146

$35,000 -- basic-needs budget for a U.S. family of four (two adults, two children), as calculated in An Atlas of Poverty in America

$19,157 -- poverty line for a family of four (two adults, two children) in the U.S. in 2004, as established by the U.S. Census Bureau

$19,000 -- amount spent by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's wife Columba during a five-day shopping spree in Paris in 1999

12.7 -- percentage of U.S. citizens living below the poverty line in 2004 (37 million people)

8.6 -- percentage of non-Hispanic Caucasians living below the poverty level in 2004

9.8 -- percentage of Asians living below the poverty level in 2004

21.9 -- percentage of Hispanics living below the poverty level in 2004

24.3 -- percentage of Native Americans living below the poverty level in 2004

24.7 -- percentage of African Americans living below the poverty level in 2004

$84,044 -- average per capita personal income in New York County, N.Y., the most affluent county in the nation, in 2003

$10,805 -- average per capita personal income in Starr County, Texas, the least affluent county in the nation, in 2003

[rucky]

14. What double sucks is that the poverty line is artificially low.

Add another 20% for people who earn above the poverty line still need and qualify for public assistance.

[ProSense]

17. Kennedy: Raising the Minimum Wage is a Moral Issue

Raising the Minimum Wage is a Moral Issue

Senator Edward M. Kennedy delivered opening remarks at the Center for American Progress’ panel discussion on raising the minimum wage. Kennedy has fought for decades on behalf of America’s minimum wage workers and leads the effort in the Senate to raise it. Yet, time and time again the Republican-controlled has blocked those efforts, caving to corruption and special interests. After years of federal inaction, states across the country have recognized that those who work hard to make a living shouldn’t be gripped by poverty.

“Raising the minimum wage is a profoundly moral issue,” Senator Kennedy said, “it is wrong that hard-working men and women cannot afford to put food on the table or heat their homes. It is wrong to give billions upon billions of dollars in tax relief to the wealthy, but turn your backs on the hard-working families who live in poverty each day, and the 14 million children who go to bed hungry each night.”

Congress received their seventh pay increase in nine years, while there has not been a single pay increase to our lowest paid workers. Since January of 2004, eleven states have raised their minimum wage either legislatively or through a ballot initiative. In all, 17 states and the District of Columbia now have minimum wages above the federal rate of $5.15.

Read Senator Kennedy’s Full Remarks on Minimum Wage at the Center for American Progress

Raising the Minimum Wage – A Fact Sheet

Information on States with Minimum Wage Ballot Initiatives

–Crystal Patterson