Forum Post: 1 in 3 Americans Poor or Near-Poor.

[-] 1 points by mserfas (652) from Ashland, PA 12 years ago

Honestly I find this kind of news to be almost meaningless. It just becomes an argument over semantics, what 'poor' or 'near poor' means. I think it is much more important to look at hard, unarguable, unspinnable data - for example, infant mortality in the U.S. halved every 20 years from 1960 to 2000 ( http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=sp_dyn_imrt_in&idim=country:USA&dl=en&hl=en&q=%22infant+mortality%22+%22united+states%22 ) but for the past ten years has been almost level. You can add plots from other countries at that page, like Denmark, Norway, or the Netherlands, and see that they have much lower mortality and are still continuing to make rapid progress in reducing it further!

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[-] 1 points by JOHNUSACITIZEN (62) 12 years ago

More importantly, what about our children, our future.

Cornel West shocked me by bringing to light this horror.

Source: http://www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/eco1.asp

■In 2009, 21 percent of all children ages 0–17 (15.5 million) lived in poverty. This is up from the low of 16 percent in 2000 and 2001. The poverty rate for all children increased from 18 percent in 2007 to 19 percent in 2008, and then to 21 percent in 2009. This trend is consistent with expectations related to the recent economic downturn. ■Among all children, the poverty rate was three times higher for Black children and nearly three times higher for Hispanic children compared with the poverty rate for White, non-Hispanic children.2 In 2009, 36 percent of Black children, 33 percent of Hispanic children, and 12 percent of White, non-Hispanic children lived in poverty. These are increases from 35 percent, 29 percent, and 10 percent, respectively, in 2007. ■As was the case for all children, the percentage of related children with family incomes below the poverty threshold was higher in 2009 (20 percent) than in 2008 (19 percent).36 The poverty rate for related children has fluctuated since the early 1980s, reaching a peak of 22 percent in 1993 and a low of 16 percent in 2000. ■The poverty rate for related children living in female-householder families (no spouse present) was 44 percent in 2009, an increase from the low of 39 percent in 2001. The poverty rate for related children in married couple families increased from 8 percent to 11 percent over this time period. ■Related children ages 0–5 were more likely to be living in families with incomes below the poverty line than those ages 6–17. In 2009, 24 percent of related children ages 0–5 lived in poverty, compared with 18 percent of older related children. ■In 2009, 9 percent of related children lived in families with incomes below 50 percent of the poverty level, the highest estimate for related children since 1997.

... oh, it gets worse. READ IT.

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[Removed]

[-] 1 points by Dontwatchthis (174) 12 years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w

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[-] 0 points by economicallydiscardedcitizen (761) 12 years ago

Me too. Technically speaking I am economically destitute. Since 2008 when my Real Estate and Mortgage Banker/Brokerage closed forcing layoff I've burned through savings and the UI Benefit that I paid into since the age of 16. My being broke and this time 'round not even able to snap up what I used to call a 'dole joblet' within a few days of company closure in the hopes of finding gainful/self supportive income earning work without dipping into the UI was and is different because despite thousands of resumes, applications and even pavement pounding for both a 'dole joblet' (meaning some min. wage to low income work) I have not had one offer! In-freaking believable! I did plenty of cash work doing things like pressure washing, cleaning and even can collecting from friends and relatives but still NOTHING. Eventually I grudgingly applied for UI. It and my savings, plus my husband who despite being work injured around the same time as my company closure has a Service connected VA benefit that though small allowed us to relocate and survive in Reno, NV whereas in the San Francisco Bay Area we would literally be on the streets.

Poverty is not fair when the biggest among us who are capable of assisting do not, but poverty is also a sad reality that is not a crime-do I feel that our current household poverty is unfair? Well, let's put it this way because it's a mixed bag-surely our situation is largely due to circumstance, decisions, fate and the powers that be but I hate to blame others for my misfortune despite pouring my energy and best efforts into succeeding preferring to OUT those in our political system and Wall Street and yes, even private business who are responsible for sending US JOBS/Manufacturing OVERSEAS and those who place their NASTY job ads that do not offer TESTING or TRAINING for the Nation's career displaced who want to work and earn at or above average income without need of PUBLIC or PRIVATE assistance since their wages will be adjusted for the costs of living in their locality.

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[-] 0 points by ciavlad (85) 12 years ago

Do you want to get rid of cunning people !? Vote petition on the Internet : http://wh.gov/jkl

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[-] 0 points by l31sh0p (279) from Sand Fork, WV 12 years ago

While sitting on the poverty line in the United States you are among the top 14% most wealthy in the world. If this whole thing is about globalization, facts must be presented as such.

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[-] 1 points by buphiloman (840) 12 years ago

bullshit.

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Forum Post: 1 in 3 Americans Poor or Near-Poor.

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