Overwhelming Evidence that Half of America is In or Near Poverty

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/overwhelming-evidence-half-america-or-near-poverty



***SNIP


1. The Official Poverty Threshold Should Be Much Higher

According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), "The poverty line reflects a measure of economic need based on living standards that prevailed in the mid-1950s...It is not adjusted to reflect changes in needs associated with improved standards of living that have occurred over the decades since the measure was first developed. If the same basic methodology developed in the early 1960s was applied today, the poverty thresholds would be over three times higher than the current thresholds."

The original poverty measures were (and still are) based largely on the food costs of the 1950s. But while food costs have doubled since 1978, housing has more than tripled, medical expenses are six times higher, and college tuition is eleven times higher. The Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau have calculated that food, housing, health care, child care, transportation, taxes, and other household expenditures consume nearly the entire median household income.


***SNIP

2. Almost Half of Americans Own, on Average, NOTHING

The bottom half of America own just 1.1% of the country's wealth, or about $793 billion, which is the same amount owned by the 30 richest Americans. ZERO wealth is owned by approximately the bottom 47 percent.

***SNIP

3. Half of Americans are "Poor" or "Low-Income"

This is based on the Census Department's Relative Poverty Measure (Table 4), which is "most commonly used in developed countries to measure poverty." The Economic Policy Institute uses the term "economically vulnerable." With this standard, 18 percent of Americans are below the poverty threshold and 32 percent are below twice the threshold, putting them in the low-income category.

***SNIP

4. It's Much Worse for Black Families

Incredibly, while America's total wealth has risen from $12 trillion to $77 trillion in 25 years, the median net worth for black households has GONE DOWN over approximately the same time, from $7,150 to $6,446, adjusted for inflation. State of Working America reports that almost half of black children under the age of six are living in poverty.

[Delphinus]

1. Yes,

absolutely, the poverty threshold is way too low.

The article points out some really important facts - let's hope great discussion ensues.

[Control-Z]

2. This makes me want to weep.

And, sadly, to say fuck it all. Any answers I might have, even conservative ones, would fail even if we all stood up, I'm afraid.

[hfojvt]

76. me too

it is incredibly sad that Buchheit and Alternet keep pushing this bullsh*t and that so many here will just lap it up.

[reddread]

3. one question all politicians and officials should be made to answer

Why should the rich get richer?

[DhhD]

15. This question should be ask during all Town Hall meetings this election season.

[Half-Century Man]

17. Give me one advantage that allowing billionaires gives to a society.

Give me a single valid argument on why personal wealth should be allowed to exceed 100 million dollars.

Why should anyone with a personal fortune in excess of 100 million dollars be allowed to remain in the workforce, as anything more that an unpaid adviser.

Is there just cause for a person to be allowed to raise their personal fortune by more than 5 million dollar per year increments?

Or are these all just bottlenecks, in the economy and the power structure?

As a society, we should draw a finish line and once you win; you have to stop playing, watch and shout encouragement.

[B Calm]

4. Wondering what percentage of them vote republican. . .

[reddread]

5. It sure wasnt the butler, was it?

the victim did it.

[newfie11]

6. Sadly they believe the repug lies

And probably will continue to vote repug.

[reddread]

54. Public option? Renogiate NAFTA?

oh, sorry.

[newfie11]

63. As long as repugs rule the house

Public option is dead. NAFTA is a repug dream as well as TPP.

How do you purpose to change things when republicans stops any proposals unless it benefits the rich?

Now that I've read other posts by you I don't think I will get anywhere with this conversation so off to ignore!

[Kermitt Gribble]

67. So repugs are to blame for TPP? eom

[reddread]

72. just the repug voters

because theyre the problem. even though the hot dogs mom apple pie and chevy campaign promises they voted for probably didnt explicitly contain the knife in the back that money accepting politicians give "the voters"
its the voters own fault.

[reddread]

7. would you wish poverty on Republican voters?

how about non-voters?
how about Democratic voters in a Democratic administration?
Theres a lot of possible subtext in your question Id like to explore.

[B Calm]

8. wtf

[reddread]

11. my thoughts exactly

thanks for the clarification

[magical thyme]

12. you know you could simply try asking the poster to clarify their meaning

instead of immediately resorting to snarky attacks due to your assumptions.

Maybe the poster was simply referring to the possibility that too many people are fooled by the GOP lies and vote against their own self-interest.

[reddread]

14. that blame the victim shit says it all

there isnt a lot of ways to slice it, but theyre welcome to straighten me out.
It makes me ill that anyone would turn their backs on their fellow Americans
for any reason. When so many people abstain from voting, should they be tossed under
the bus of poverty without remorse?
Perhaps someone will break out some voting statistics by income.
and as long as people root for a team instead of the country as a whole
nothing will ever change for the better.
which is not to say anything is broken.
thats just how that works.

[Oilwellian]

31. Perhaps you can clarify something

The people who live in poverty...what are they victims of?

[reddread]

34. thanks for the chuckle

[Oilwellian]

35. Is there a reason you won't answer my question? n/t

[reddread]

37. not really

[Oilwellian]

38. Could it be because...

You know my question has painted you in a corner?

[reddread]

40. did someone eat your breadcrumb trail?

reality is thataway>>>>>

[Oilwellian]

41. I don't think most will believe I'm the one who's lost

Your dodging my original question is an eye-opener and exposes your attack on others as baseless.

[reddread]

44. I knew you were holding a brush

But no, you didnt paint me into a corner, just werent on the right path to an interchange.
More like the exit to nowhere.
farewell.

[Oilwellian]

45. Well, thank you for giving my question some thought

Perhaps it will give you pause before attacking others needlessly.

[tkmorris]

46. Do you labor under the impression that you converse?

You take evasiveness to new heights, than disguise it with unintelligible gobbledygook. You might try taking the gigantic chip off your shoulder and just having a normal interchange with people. You'd be surprised how rewarding that can be.

[awoke_in_2003]

69. +1000. nt

[PowerToThePeople]

43. victims of capitalism. eom

[etherealtruth]

70. They are victims of a society that offers very little for a safety net

They are victims of perilous economies, gross unemployment and under employment, they are often victims of an absence of opportunity (the city of Detroit is an excellent example of this) .... they may be victims of circumstance .... victims of corporate greed ... and yes, occasionally, they are victims of poor choices

Harder for Americans to Rise From Lower Rungs - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/us/harder-for-americans-to-rise-from-lower-rungs.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
The New York Times

Jan 4, 2012 - Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada ... Liberal commentators have long emphasized class, but the attention on the right is largely new. ... “I don't think you'll find too many people who will argue with that. ... Similarly, 65 percent born in the bottom fifth stay in the bottom two-fifths ...

One reason for the mobility gap may be the depth of American poverty, which leaves poor children starting especially far behind. Another may be the unusually large premiums that American employers pay for college degrees. Since children generally follow their parents’ educational trajectory, that premium increases the importance of family background and stymies people with less schooling.

[DhhD]

16. Yes, GWB said in a speech that the American people, who voted him in for another term, gave

the green light to do what ever he pleased. Bush knew his tax breaks and spending would break the country into poverty.

[reddread]

22. a number of stretches there

we KNOW those elections were not just questionable.
so the rest of that logic cannot follow.

[butterfly77]

26. The answer to your first question is

Yes! Don't they wish it on the rest of us.

[redqueen]

32. WTF does wishing have to do with anything?

These voters have dragged the entire political landscape to the right over the past four decades. They have exacerbated poverty with their ignorance. Wondering how many of those voters struggle with poverty themselves is a reasonable query.

[reddread]

42. So you blame the ignorant, possibly right wing (please cite #'s) poor for the problems of poverty

Kind of what I gathered from the initial post.
Thats the kind of accountability that will move things forward.
little sarcasm thingy goes here<

does that ignorance spring full blown or is it very expensively nurtured?
I dont think you are on the track of any solutions if you have the problem misdiagnosed.

[redqueen]

52. I blame ALL republican voters.

As for your theatrics:

[reddread]

53. I have a hard time blaming truly stupid people for being stupid fools

there isnt much to be gained from it.
Democratic voters I expect a little more from.
Finger pointing in lieu of responsible accounting is theatrics.
ssdd.

[reddread]

55. for NAFTA? n/t

[redqueen]

57. Can you not read so well? Is that the problem?

(Potential jurors: reddread opened this line of conversation with his 'cultivate ignorance' dig earlier. Goose / gander, don't dish if you can't take, etc)

Did I say anything about NAFTA?

[Demo_Chris]

48. In general, more wealthy people vote Dem, but the hyper-wealthy lean slightly repub...

Overall things are fairly evenly split across the economic spectrum. Democrats generally get more of the wealthy, Republicans get a slightly larger slice of the poor, and if you asked most Americans they would tell you the exact opposite.

[reddread]

50. never mind their voting in the booth

the very rich contribute to both sides, if not equally, adequately.

[Demo_Chris]

56. Exactly, and this applies to corporations as well...

Both parties represent the same few people. The contest is not over what they will DO, but over which group will get the chance to enrich themselves by representing the elite.

[YoungDemCA]

59. More wealthy people vote Dem? Republicans get more of the poor?

Cite, please. Everything I've read and seen indicates the opposite.

[YoungDemCA]

58. Not nearly as much as the wealthier half of Americans...

Especially considering that there are so many minorities, women, young people, people on disability, the unemployed and "discouraged" workers, etc. in this bottom half-all of these are strong Democratic constituencies.

Problem is, there are an awful lot of them who don't vote. When you are living paycheck to paycheck (or worse), voting is one of the last things on your mind.

[Enthusiast]

9. Under these circumstances we should not be pushing for new free trade deals.

And we shouldn't run Democratic candidates that favor free trade. Meaning Hillary, I'll be blunt.

Why are we here? We are here because of NAFTA and GATT.

We are now in a race to the bottom because our politicians have sold us out to the highest bidder.

[xchrom]

10. +1

[tea and oranges]

65. Thank you! Well put!

We have become bargaining chips for the wealthy & the connected. We Americans are a real prize, given our legendary productivity & complacency.

This is the road to North Korea we're on. OK, we may never have one dictator, but it looks like we'll be ruled w/ the same combination of propaganda, brutality, prison labor, & scarcity.

It's sickening that so few have so much. That they have attained wealth by stealing from the many is repulsive. That they then sneer at & mock their victims while pretending great virtue & wisdom is the stuff revolutions are made from (in parallel universes).

[ananda]

13. This is the result of a brutal class war.

And it's still ongoing.

[Doctor_J]

19. I beg to differ

I'ts over. The working class lost a war of annihilation. Look at our choices for president in 2016. An actual Republican, or HRC.

[reddread]

20. like Bill Hicks said- there never was a War.

[jeff47]

64. The French aristocracy thought it was over too.

So did the Czar and his friends.

Look at our choices for president in 2016. An actual Republican, or HRC.

Yeah, good idea to depress turnout for anyone else. "Why bother? HRC is gonna win". Excellent plan for getting exactly what you say you don't want.

Though getting that would get you plenty to complain about.

[elzenmahn]

75. No one is depressing any turnout here...

...though I think the point is well-made: HRC is corporate to the core, and is only to happy to make nice with the very banksters who should be in jail right now.

I think most of us get what the alternative is - that's why, assuming that HRC is the nominee (which is not guaranteed by any stretch), that I'll be bringing a gas mask with me to the polling place when I cast my vote. Put her in, then start working on congress and the local/state houses. Get progressives in those places, then that will influence what happens up at the top - and may even lead to a true progressive getting into the WH down the road.

The Republicans learned that lesson - which is how they stayed in power: get the states and localities on board. We need to do the same.

[TBF]

18. These are stunning statistics -

and should be mandatory reading. K&R

[cantbeserious]

21. The Oligarchs, Corporations And Banks Own And Control The Politicians That Own And Control Us

eom

[Eleanors38]

23. Grim stuff. But we need to talk about lost airplanes.

[reddread]

24. Putin n/t

[Javaman]

27. putin + lost plane = BENGHAZI1!!?!1 NT

[Autumn]

25. "In or Near Poverty" and yet no politician including the President speaks

of the poor. It all middle class.

Recommend.

[Demo_Chris]

49. In Obama's lexicon there are no poor, only those 'Struggling to become middle class.'

[woo me with science]

28. Hell, let's make it 75 percent!

Go, TPP! Gobama!

[hfojvt]

77. the same author already tried that once

but I guess he got shouted down, at least a little, by a reality-based crowd.

[earthside]

29. "Inequality for All"

I watched Bob Reich's movie "Inequality for All" twice this weekend (once by myself, then made the family watch).

Sad to say that Pres. Obama and much of the Democratic Party are doing very little to change the structural nature of our economy that creates this kind of poverty and stresses for poor, working and middle class Americans. Of course, the Repuglicans are much worse.

While a very upbeat movie, I am pleased to say that Reich does not sugar-coat the problems and doesn't end with one of those 'everything will get better if you just vote or send money or do so and so'.

Indeed, with the reports of the millions and million of dollars the Koch's are already spending on election 2014, I am rather convinced that things are going to get worse before they get better.

Maybe that is what has to happen, the next leg down of the 2008 crash (we are still in a slow moving recession no matter what the politicians say) might be what it takes to bring about the revolutionize of this economy for the average people.

[LuvNewcastle]

33. I'm afraid you're right.

Things are going to have to get very bad before we see things get any better. How much worse can it get? A LOT worse, and it will have to get very dire before people finally get off their asses and demand change.

The scary part is, the longer we wait, the harder it's going to be to turn things around. People act as if we can get up and change our situation anytime we please, but that's not the case. The people in charge have been planning for that eventuality for a very long time, and they're very confident that they can win a confrontation with large numbers of people. Why else would they be as bold as they are? They're telling us that this is the way it's going to be and daring us to do something about it. We think we've been seeing some hard times, but we ain't seen nothing yet.

[earthside]

36. Deflation accelerates.

We are in a deflationary turn-down right now.

Wages and benefits are less than they were a year ago, five years ago, a decade ago, etc.

Just like in the Great Depression, people just don't have enough money.

Because the top ten percent are essentially hoarding the money. The benefit of the Federal Reserves 'Quantitative Easing' is that it put money into the economy (although even that aimed it at the elites). Without QE, we are going to see a shrinking money supply for the rest of us.

Put that on top of increasing fees, natural resource inflation (because of scarcity and speculation), cuts in government services and increasing taxes at the state and local level ... and the poor, working and middle class are going to see a much worse economic environment.

And, sorry to say, the ACA is only marginally helping.

Democrats for 2014 ought to be proposing the biggest middle class tax cut in history; pay for it with a financial transaction tax; while continuing the push for an increase in the minimum wage.

That might encourage the liberal/progressive base to vote this year and stave off a Koch funded Repuglican wave.

Then, we really need a Bernie Sanders or Robert Reich or maybe Elizabeth Warren as the Democratic nominee in 2016.
And that will probably only slow down the decline of the U.S.

But a political strategy revolving around 'defending' the ACA and nominating Hillary over the next two years is a prescription for disaster and ... probably plutocratic fascism.

[LuvNewcastle]

39. I agree with all of that. It's similar to watching a train wreck in slow-motion,

but few of us are able to see it happening. Most people don't even believe us when we tell them what we're seeing. It's so frustrating.

[snappyturtle]

62. Thanks for reminding meabout "Inequality for All"...I just watched online

http://viooz.co/movies/23488-inequality-for-all-2013.html

It's free. Very good....particularly good for one's arsenal when confronted with an, "....it's the rich who create jobs" advocate.

[ProSense]

30. This is why

Comments like these are condescending and self-righteous. They display an ignorance of the needs of lower-income and middle-income families in America. The costs of food and housing and education and health care and transportation and child care and taxes have been well-defined by organizations such as the Economic Policy Institute, which calculated that a U.S. family of three would require an average of about $48,000 a year to meet basic needs; and by the Working Poor Families Project, which estimates the income required for basic needs for a family of four at about $45,000. The median household income is $51,000.

...the health care law is significant.

Obamacare boosting household income and spending

by Joan McCarter

It must have really killed the editorial board over at the Wall Street Journal to see this this story appear on the paper's website.

The Affordable Care Act, President Barack Barack Obama’s signature health law, is already boosting household income and spending.

The Commerce Department reported Monday that consumer spending rose a better-than-expected 0.4% and personal incomes climbed 0.3% in January. The new health-care law accounted for a big chunk of the increase on both fronts.

On the incomes side, the law’s expanded coverage boosted Medicaid benefits by an estimated $19.2 billion, according to Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. The ACA also offered several refundable tax credits, including health insurance premium subsidies, which added up to $14.7 billion.

Of course it's helping consumers. It was designed to. Which also means it will help the economy when those consumers have a little bit more personal income to spend out in the marketplace. It will help insurance companies who will have more customers, many of whom won't ever require big payouts. That's one of the reason this model of health insurance reform was proposed first by conservatives!

Kudos to the WSJ for noticing, but don't expect anyone on the right to acknowledge that this story exists.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/04/1282095/-Obamacare-boosting-household-income-and-nbsp-spending

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024606074

Obamacare: It's Obama's signature achievement
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024695694

[DeSwiss]

47. Too bad the ones who could do something......

...don't give a shit.

- K&R

‘Your job is to hold my feet to the fire…so, you need to be out there everyday raising these issues, telling us when we’re doing the right or wrong thing. My role is to be President of the United States, and your role is to be a strong voice for people who aren’t always heard.’

- President Barack Obama

Yeah, right.

[leftstreet]

51. DURec

[Rex]

60. That is how a plutocracy works and you can thank Reagan and Nixon for it!

I HATE republicans.

[Blue Owl]

61. The land of moral, ethical, and financial bankruptcy

USA! USA! USA!

[historylovr]

66. K & R.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

68. Those "poverty studies" in the 50s were brutal as well. Things like being able to afford a coat.

[samplegirl]

71. Thats all most people have to read or hear

is that black children are living in poverty. They seem to think it is just black kids.

[JAbuchan08]

73. I was f*cking amazed to discover that I am not considered "poverty level" by federal guidelines

on income. Granted they don't take into account debt, but still $20,000ish a year is not a lot of money - even for a single person.

[elzenmahn]

74. This is ONE BIG REASON why...

...I no longer buy into the fantasy of "American Exceptionalism".