Forum Post: WSWS: Sharp rise in extreme-poverty neighborhoods in the US since 2000

from today's World Socialist Web Site:

Sharp rise in extreme-poverty neighborhoods in the US since 2000

While Democrats and Republicans in Washington continue to wrangle over the precise means by which what’s left of the social safety net should be shredded, reports continue to emerge detailing the desperate economic condition facing tens of millions in the US.

Basing itself on US Census Bureau material, the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C., has issued a report on the “Re-emergence of Concentrated Poverty,” which reveals, among other things, that the population in extreme-poverty neighborhoods (where at least 40 percent of residents live below the official poverty line) rose by one third from 2000 to 2005-2009. The report suggests that, given the ongoing economic slump, this process will continue.

When the researchers speak of “extreme poverty,” they are hardly overstating the case. Some 20.5 million people in the US, or 6.7 percent of the population, survive at 50 percent or less of the official poverty line. According to the Associated Press, “Those living in deep poverty represent nearly half of the 46.2 million people scraping by below the poverty line. In 2010, the poorest poor meant an [annual] income of $5,570 or less for an individual and $11,157 for a family of four.” For the record, Goldman Sachs chief executive officer Lloyd Blankfein makes approximately $9,200 each hour.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/nov2011/pove-n04.shtml