US poverty rate hits 11-year high

[Orwellian_Ghost]

US poverty rate hits 11-year high
By Shannon Jones
11 September 2009

Poverty in the United States climbed to 13.2 percent in 2008, up from 12.5 percent in 2007, the highest level since 1997. The increase came as millions of workers lost their jobs in the first year of the worst economic slump since the Great Depression. Meanwhile, median household income hit its lowest level since 1997, while the number of people without health insurance rose. The data was contained in the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey released on Thursday.

In 2008, 39.8 million people were living in poverty, up from 37.3 million in 2007. The government defines poverty as a family of four with an annual income of less than $22,025. By this measure, the poverty rate for children under the age of 18 rose from 18 percent in 2007 to 19 percent in 2009. There were 14.1 million children living in poverty in 2008. The family poverty rate rose to 10.3 percent in 2008, with 8.1 million families in poverty. As the government’s official poverty threshold is woefully low, these figures drastically understate the true picture.

The US Midwest and West showed increases in both the poverty rate and the number living in poverty. The Midwest, hard hit by job losses in manufacturing, saw an increase in the poverty rate to 12.4 percent in 2008, up from 11.1 percent in 2007, an increase of 900,000 people living in poverty. The poverty rate in the West, battered by the collapse of the housing bubble, rose from 12 percent to 13.5 percent, an increase of 1.2 million additional people.

The poverty rate for whites rose to 8.6 percent, up from 8.2 percent in 2007. Poverty among Hispanics rose to 23.2 percent, up from 21.5 percent in 2007. Meanwhile, poverty among African American remained unchanged at 24.7 percent. According to the report, 31 percent of Americans fell into poverty for at least two months between 2004 and 2007. In 2008, 17.1 million people had income below one-half of their poverty threshold, in other words were living in extreme poverty. Of this number, 36.8 percent were children.

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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/sep2009/pove-s11.shtml

[AndyA]

1. Be sure to thank George W. Bush, your local GOP Congressperson,

and the GOP for this. Their successes are everybody else's failures.

[liberal N proud]

2. Those people can just pull them selves up by their boot straps

:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:

[blindpig]

3. Gee, good thing there's a recovery underway.....

Wait, that's on Wall Street, not Main St.

The priorities of Capital in stark relief.

[FBaggins]

4. You ain't seen nothing yet

This statistic takes quite some time to come out (notice that this is for 2008?)

Unemployment didn't get really out of hand until 2/3rds of the way through 2008.

Even if "the BOTTOM (tm)" was in a couple months ago, 2009 will be much worse...

...but it won't get reported until late next year.

[Wilms]

5. Since 1997 when DLClinton was in office?

Telling.

[maryf]

6. K&Rnt