Forum Post: New Poverty Data Provide Key Insights into Fiscal Cliff Negotiations
Posted 10 years ago on June 19, 2013, 9:26 a.m. EST by BradB
(2693)
from Washington, DC
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
The Supplemental Poverty Measure data show that 49.7 million people, or 16.1 percent of Americans, lived in poverty in 2011. This is a statistically insignificant change from the rate of 16 percent in 2010. Despite the grim news on poverty, though, some good news can be found in the data. One of the key things the Supplemental Poverty Measure data tell us is that public policy does make a difference in lifting people out of poverty and alleviating economic hardship. Refundable tax credits for working families such as the earned income and child tax credits, for example, lifted 8.7 million people out of poverty in 2011, and the child poverty rate would have been 6.3 percentage points higher without them. Similarly, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program lifted 4.7 million people out of poverty in 2011. Without it, the child poverty rate would have been 2.9 percentage points higher.
nothing is up
no, the ~$300 annual raise was not significant
I Received this dream-message from an awakened human who wonders... is this possible?:
"I had a great dream a few months ago... Someone found a way to tap into the bank accounts of the very rich and shared the bounty with everyone. As a green flood of cash spread across the world like the life-giving flood of the Nile, people had enough to eat, got medical care, got their teeth fixed. And all over the world, people stopped fighting. Can this happen? "