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Making Sense of Poverty Numbers
The Great Recession has hit those on the bottom most heavily, adding six million Americans to the ranks of the officially poor.
The number of officially poor is now higher, at nearly 44 million, than at any time in the 51 years of this count. Yet these recent Census numbers hide as much as they reveal.
They don't include the homeless, who number anywhere from half a million to three million. Nor do they count most doubled-up families — experts say they're up by at least 11 percent. And then there's those young adults returning home who at other times would be living independently (the Census estimates 42 percent of them would be poor if still out on their own). Most invisible are those whose incomes are above the poverty line but can't afford the bare necessities, a problem that is most acute in high-cost urban areas.
Only senior citizens have been exempt from the general downward slide. They're the only age group that experienced a decline in poverty and an actual increase in income in 2009. This continues a long-term trend as elders have gone from being the poorest age group in 1959, when more than one in three was poor, to being the least poor group today with a poverty rate under 9 percent. Why? Because seniors, more than any other demographic group, have a working safety net in the form of Social Security, plus Medicare which was added in the 1960s. In 2009, Social Security alone saved over 14 million Americans from falling into poverty.
Workers didn't fare so well. More than 3 million Americans were kept out of poverty by unemployment insurance alone, but millions of other workers are struggling to survive job loss without government help and have little prospect of finding a job in the current economy.
The new poverty also highlights the continuing plight of families with children, especially single-parent families where there is rarely a second income to fall back on when one parent loses a job. The most vulnerable families are those headed by single mothers, and among them the hardest hit are those headed by single women of color. Almost two out of five single mothers are poor, and this isn't for lack of trying: Even now, two-thirds are employed. But in addition to the chronic problems of low wages and unstable and episodic employment, many single mothers have seen their work hours cut in the recession.
Welfare (now called TANF, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) doesn't begin to meet the needs of vulnerable families. Even though there are six people for every job opening in this recession, TANF ironically still insists you have to find a job to get benefits.
And welfare often doesn't last as long as its beneficiaries may need it. Right now, TANF is cutting or eliminating benefits for 85,000 families per month, even as welfare offices are swamped with destitute families who have exhausted all other options. With welfare budgets frozen at pre-recession need levels, officials must choose between spending money on child care for still working mothers and helping families with no income at all.
There are a few bright lights in this dark picture: The TANF emergency fund has created 250,000 subsidized jobs, mostly in the private sector, making the difference for many small enterprises as well as the jobholders and their families. Extended unemployment benefits have sustained the unemployed and their communities. The Recovery Act has saved or created millions of jobs. Yet Congress has turned a blind eye to what clearly works and is clearly needed. Some especially cynical and callous lawmakers are even ignoring worries about deficits and supporting tax breaks for the rich. As we have seen with Social Security, and to a lesser extent the extension of unemployment benefits, food stamps, and housing programs, we can reduce poverty. We know what to do. We just have to have the determination to do it.
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Show All"seniors, more than any other demographic group, have a working safety net in the form of Social Security, plus Medicare which was added in the 1960s. In 2009, Social Security alone saved over 14 million Americans from falling into poverty.
"
So naturally, the Republicans want to gut these two programs because they cost too much.
Yes, but SS and Medicare is funded by working people it is NOT their money. They are simply kleptocrats who are thieving money that does not belong to them. And don't be so naive as to think that many Ds are not in on the theft, with Barack Obama at the top of the list.
Many Republicans have tried to enact a corporate welfare program disguised as health care reform and only Obama has succeeded.
Many Republicans have tried to gut social security and Obama appears to be on the path to succeeding in gutting it with his deficit reduction commission furnishing the ammo (after the November election, of course).
We already have Corporate Welfare; TARP, and the so-called Recovery ACT are nothing but Corporate Welfare. Thats why I keep asking what Socialism has BO done for PEOPLE! The banksters and Corporate radiers are already holding a trillion and a 1/2 of Corporate Welfare now. Except for WY who got a 1/2 trillion as a bribe to vote for ObamaCare no one has seen any benefit out of the abortion of a bill.
As far as the Catfood comission goes, I can wait for that. I won't even speculate what horrors they'll release on the once proud, and happy US people.
>^^<
I buy large packages of ultra-cheap (ostensible) turkey or chicken hot dogs, which are marketed for dogs and Seniors. My Chihuahuas love them.
It must pain The THEY to offer even this much ‘nourishment’ for public consumption, since they urgently want us to die and get out of the way. Not only do we no longer benefit their bottom line, but we know too much.
The goal of these (as FDR called them) 'economic royalists' is to create a new feudalism; a vast pool of disposable labor who will be available to work cheap, free of union meddling or, eventually, if the GOP gets it way, any protection from the government. Of course, a few of the smarter kids will kept in luxury to program the computers, serve the wealthy, and keep the machines running, but the mass of America will be divided into the top 2 percent with 95 percent of the money, and the rest of us peons, scraping for crumbs. After all, we must compete in the awful global economy that makes the rich richer and everyone else poorer.
The fly in the ointment is that with the elimination of the middle-class, low-paid Americans will no longer be able to buy the expensive electronic doodads and other goods produced by wage-slave labor overseas, and housing developments will be full of vacant homes, so there goes the free-market ball game.
But the Power Elite doesn't care, just as Chainsaw Al Dunlap didn't care about the future of Scott Paper or Sunbeam -- cut employees, sell off inventory, raise the stock price, and then bail-out with your personal fortune while the company slides into collapse and the suckers take it in the neck. Now these ruthless short-termers, obviously aware the demise of cutthroat capitalism is near since the meltdown of 2008, are squeezing every dime out of the dying carcass.
This my friend is agood example of how helpful Unions can be today, please read;
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/09/23/2010-09-23_they_work_40plus_hours_to_transport_disabled__bring_home_200_per_week_390_an_hou.html
And as an evil State Worker who has been working with 3 furlough days a month for over a year, yet me express my lack of confidence in SEIU, to ever get us out of this hole. Forget making us Whole! an MOU is not a contract and the Gov and State is using that to hammer us relentlessly.
I don't know who can help, with the lack of jobs we certinally can't help ourselves any longer. It looks like all Ross Perots scarry claims about Global Capitalism have come hoom to roost, on the working class for good.
>^^<
No, they only SAY they want to eliminate them because they "cost too much." That's the excuse. Remember that comment about all the people getting Unemployment and/or Social Security (soon to include me) are just undeservedly sucking on a freely provided udder?
I wish people would listen and understand when so-called "conservatives" say things like that. That's what they believe, that's what they want to do, and if it causes widespread suffering, that's fine with them because they think anyone receiving government benefits of any kind are part of the "undeserving poor" and ought to go do construction work, harvest asparagus, and be glad of the opportunity to do so.
They'd be fine with starving us out to prove a point.
@ Paranoid Pessimist, yes, the neocons say that until their SS or Medicare is cut off, then you've never heard so much wailing and gnashing of teeth about the injustice of it all.
While I agree that the top 2 percent would be very happy to starve us out -- at least those they can't put to use -- the various Teabaggers and other conservative flotsam in the GOP would be crying holy hell if even a dime was cut from any govt. program that benefits their bank accounts.
I'm reminded of the 'govt. cheese giveaway' during the Reagan Regime -- most of those at the head of the line were Republicans with jobs and good incomes, but they couldn't pass up the 'free' cheese, although they no doubt went back to carping about how useless the government is while they were digesting it back at home.
I'm also reminded of Rep. Michele Bachmann who, while railing to get the government off our backs and end all of these budget-busting social programs, was happily accepting $100K in govt. farm subsidies.
Hypocrisy can be identified by a single letter these days -- that letter would be 'R' as in Republican.
I was a food stamp and medicaid caseworker for 18 yrs. At least one third of my caseload were Seniors. A single Senior with no or little work history is expected to live on $674 per month. If she has the medicare part B premium of approx $110 taken out, she is expected to live on $564 per month. If they are a married couple with little work history they live on less than $900 per month before the insurance premium is taken out. They did not receive a Cost of Living increase in 2010 because the cost of living did not increase.(per the Government).
I have worked as a Social Worker for the past 30 years. My job was privatized by Mitch Daniels, Indiana Governor. I was able to receive a partial retirement of $550 per month. I expect to receive about $1500, including SS, per month when I retire. I will retire in 2 years. So a College Educated professional who has worked for 50 years will live in Poverty and have no money for emergency expenses. What is wrong with this picture??
You worked, admirably, for people in poverty for 30 years, and no one who does that is rewarded in a capitalist system where poverty is considered a problem of low character and personal irresponsibility. The system itself is never to blame; it's strictly a matter of failing to be personally endowed with the qualities that would enable one to avoid or escape poverty. If you lack a ruthless or ambitious temperament, good luck getting along in this society. Somewhere along the line you'll end up dealing with poverty. Criminals thrive here (Congress, the executive branch, most of the judicial branch, the corporate elite, corporate media tycoons, wheelers and dealers of all stripes), while those who want to "live simply so that others may simply live" are always at risk. They're misfits in a social order that respects only its most ruthless and heartless members.
You both describe the nature of a Barbarian country versus one that's Civilized.
Perhaps the only path to a Civilized country is to eradicate the financial class, nationalize the whole of the financial system, and bust every conglomerate back to its individual parts. But to accomplish the first task, we must become Barbarians ourselves; and those in need of eradicating control the public and private security services they've erected over the years to prevent such action. Such a Civil War would cost millions of lives, which is why I've stopped calling for Revolution. For I do not think a "partial revolution" is possible that only accomplishes the last two tasks or only eviserates the Financial Class by stripping its assets. Perhaps if my economic situation were dire--facing homelessness again with no future prospects--I would feel differently about this and veiw my descent into barbaric conditions warranting Barbaric behavior. If society is infested by louses, isn't eradicating the louses the proper act?
@ karlof1, I don't think you have to worry about a revolution -- this Generation of Vipers is eating its own tail. Neither Wall Street, nor the banks, nor the government have done anything to correct the conditions that led to the 2008 collapse. Consequently, our native class of well-dressed thieves and moneyed sociopaths have returned to the same shell games that caused them to be bailed out two years ago. The difference now is there are fewer suckers to invest in their bad paper and weird schemes, and the US Treasury is dry -- and China's not about to pour more money into our economic black hole again. That being the case, I think we are headed for a global economic collapse that will eclipse the Great Depression. What will be left when the smoke clears is anybody's guess, but I'd be willing to bet that the Upper Class will be in retreat -- secluded on heavily-guarded islands or remotely-located fortified vacation homes. (Not for nothing did Dick Cheney buy a multi-million dollar walled estate in Dubai equipped with all of the latest security gizmos.) The age of free-market, WTO, slash-and-burn, disaster capitalism is coming to an end as a result of its own greed and stupidity. We can only hope the future will be better after the ashes settle.
But - wait a minute! We're hurling tall 130 pound Elizabeth Warren into the breach while screaming at her: FIX EVERYTHING! We just KNOW you can do it you're so goldang cute and really smart.
Ephraim: Excellent post. The damned truth about the U S of A.
To quote Leonard Cohen, "I love the country but I can't stand the scene."
I did have a ruthless and ambitous temperment, some say I still have. It didn't do me a dam bit of good, I did everything right fought to the last dime, went with out sleep for days sometimes a week just to keep ahead. I paid my dues, taxs and insurance.
Then I commited the sin of getting injured at work. So now I'm damaged goods and find it difficult to get jobs and to stay even when I have one. I many less damaged on full SSI and Medicare with nothing to do but smoke and watch TV. While this bothers me, it also makes me wonder, wheres mine, I have 24/7 level 7-9 pain. No government is driving up with my check, I have to pay lawyers just to keep my medical maintence, pain meds and such up to date.
I was ambitious enough to escape poverty. but will never again enjoy the status and I thought security of a well paying job.
So maybe it doesn't matter what you do, it's all dumb luck.
>^^<
Many states have programs where the Medicare B premium is paid by the state. If you earn less than $1,200 per month, you should qualify.
Check with senior services, elder services, citizens councils (whatever is in your locality to find out if there is a Medicare Part B Progra.
Many seniors are not aware of this.Many legislators are unaware of this program.
An additional $100 per month can make all the difference ($200 for coupes)
"TANF ironically still insists you have to find a job to get benefits."
TANF income is very low. For every dollar that you receive in work, a dollar is taken from TANF. For a Mother and child, in Indiana, the most that the Mother can receive is $229. When a parent signs an application for TANF, any child that is born 10 months after that app date is not eligible for TANF money. So the stereotype of pumping out babies for more money is not true.If a person receives TANF they usually receive food stamp money. If you receive food stamps you are required to get a job, depending on the ages of your children. If you receive TANF you are exempt from having to get a job if the child is under a certain age. What TANF does do is get Child Support involved. They go after the absent parent and establish legal child support which also requires that the Absent parent repay the TANF. The limit on receiving TANF is 2 or 4 years depending on the State.
How thoughtful that New York gubernatorial candidate Paladino advocates putting welfare recipients into "prison dorms" and making them take personal hygiene classes. That should solve the problem; we all know that only those who don't take daily showers can't get jobs.
Maybe putting them in dormitories would be more humane treatment than we give them now. We should take Paladino up on his offer.
Isn't the end of welfare as we know it due to Bubba Clinton and Gingrich? As the Clintons make these generous donations to charity I wonder if it occurs to them how much misery they have caused?
Aren't "prison dorms" for the impoverished traditionally called "the poorhouse"?
I guarantee you that if this obscenity ever gets legislated-- in the form of some grant program, no doubt-- they'll be "rebranded" into Transitional Workforce Domiciles.
Beats all out of living under the bridge, in the snow. Don't belive me try it.
Sure it's not the best but at least it's something. In CA our Governor keeps trying to throw elderly and poor people out in the streets by cutting programs, It'll be goos to be rid of the clown in January.
>^^<
I don't think Paladino is suggesting this for humanity reasons, and it hardly sounded like something offered only for homeless people. Plus, "personal hygiene" classes? Are you kidding me??
I am 59, disabled and trying to live on Social Security Disability Insurance. I cut Medicare Part B off, so I can eat. I can not repair my car, I shop thrift stores when I have a little extra. I visit a doctor every 3 months to get my pain medication prescription. I pay the doc and I buy my own medications because in the short term I have more money to use for food. The author's only skimmed the surface with this piece. Today the GOP brought out their special plan for us all. It's been reported that Mr. Tan Man says that "privatizing" Social Security is still on the table. My meager lifestyle is under constant threat by my very own government. Millions of us are walking around in shock due to the lack of compassion towards our fellow man. If you follow what is happening in England, you know it's the same thing there. Capitalism, profits and greed are making us all expendable. A throw-away commodity.
Yep; welcome to the 21st century. where we work only 20hr a week, then only if we want to. Nuclear power and Genitic ngenerring of crops make food freely availible to anyone who needs it. Work is no longer nesassary as homes, power, and light are assigned as to need, so no one is homeless.
Medical care is also free, medical advances have rendered pain and disability to the dust bin of the past. People now live healty and happy lives well into their hundreds. Retirement is no-longer an issue, as people work or not as they please, also continuing education is freely availible to all who want it.
So, what heppened? wheres my flying car? and how come my utilities are over $500 a month?
What Happened???
>^^<
Forbes just published its latest list of the 400 richest Americans. And, speaking of great news, every one of them is a billionaire, repairing the slippage in 2009.
The US has only 5% of the world's people yet, according to Forbes, it has 36% of the world's wealthiest humans. It also has among the highest poverty rates in the western world.
How many thousands of poor people could get pulled out of poverty by investing the wealth that each one of these billionaires hoards in useful, socially productive ways?
Any system is evil that allows some people to live in poverty while others have the resources to pull them out. That includes our own despicable capitalist system.
How are we any different from the ancient Aztecs, who sacrificed people to placate their gods? We are sacrificing millions on the altar of the Holy Free Market.
Things would be alot better if in fact it were a free market instead we have corporate welfare, private profit with public liabilities.
The stated purpose of our constitution (our contract with one another; our sacred vows to each other) is to promote the general welfare, establish justice, provide for the common defense. Promoting the general welfare: THAT is the bottom line; NOT free markets or capitalism, or socialism or fascism or communism or feudalism or any other"ism". JUST WHATEVER WORKS to promote the general welfare. It is long past time to start experimenting with whatever works (what is loudly proclaimed as "free-market capitalism" clearly does not work. And there is still the need to establish justice.).
"How are we any different from the ancient Aztecs, who sacrificed people to placate their gods? We are sacrificing millions on the altar of the Holy Free Market."
Well, we invented the leaf blower.
This item is sort of what I expected to see from the authors of this piece, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26439.htm
I'd post an excerpt, but it's far too hard to determine what part when only the whole of the article will suffice.
Poverty is the worst form of violence. - Gandhi
I agree Remy. I am poor by choice, an ascetic. I have a meager income so there is no reason not to turn that into a virtue. Anyway, I can't remember when I didn't live this way.
I also remember when there was Karo Syrup and crackers for lunch and cornbread and milk for dinner. We all worked hard but there was never enough.
There is a difference between being as busy as you want to be and being as busy as you have to be.
Ya, well try living on my 572$ social security check. bull pucky
??? $572 ??? Familys with Autistic (Badly Behaving) kids get more than that. I think you need a lawyer to look over your case. In CAL Illegals get $1500 just for being here. Thats just not right.
Better Luck
>^^<
The generation that survived the Great Depression _ through sacrifice, toughness, strength & ingenuity needed for survival _ created a mythology in which poverty and hardship are something of which to be proud. There is a confusion between the condition they endured and the qualities that enabled them to do it.
In the same way, the generation that lived through World War II _ through loyalty, bravery, honor and faith _ created a mythology in which war and uniforms are something of which to be proud. There is a confusion between the violence they endured and the qualities that enabled them to do it.
The Military Industrial Complex utilizes the mythology of dignified poverty to keep workers servile, to create a working class in which poverty and ignorance are actually bling, badges of earthy, pragmatic working honor as opposed to an effete elite.
The Military Industrial Complex uses the mythology of holy violence to keep American people behind wars in which they protect their trade routes.
the number of people who have no vested interest in sustaining the system is exploding.
individualist capitalism is running its course.