(New York) City Report Shows a Growing Number Are Near Poverty
Source: NYT
The rise in New York City’s poverty rate as a result of the recession has apparently eased, but not before pushing nearly half of the city’s population into the ranks of the poor or near-poor in 2011, according to an analysis by the Bloomberg administration.
That year, according to the city’s measure, about 46 percent of New Yorkers were making less than 150 percent of the poverty threshold, a benchmark used to describe people who are not officially poor but who still struggle to get by. That represents a rise of almost two percentage points since 2009, when the nation’s recession officially ended.
By the city’s definition, a family with two adults and two children could earn $46,416 a year and still fall within 150 percent of the city’s poverty level. Unlike the official but rigid federal poverty level, the city’s measure balances the added value of tax credits, food stamps, rent subsidies and other benefits against expenses like health and day care, housing and commuting that reflect New York’s higher living costs. The city says a two-adult, two-child family is poor if it earns less than $30,949 a year. The federal government sets the level at $22,811.
Though more New Yorkers were working in 2011 than the year before, larger shares of children and working adults were classified as poor in 2011, and the proportions of Asians, noncitizens and Queens residents — overlapping groups — each rose by more than four percentage points since 2008.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/nyregion/city-report-shows-a-growing-number-are-near-poverty.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Geez, how in the world did this happen?
P.S. It might help if the Times didn't charge $2.50 for its weekday edition and $5.00 for it Sunday edition.
rocktivity
Hmmm.. Where did they get that "officially ended" business from? Maybe the recession, but not the Depression. This Depression isn't over until the unemployment rate goes back down to 4%. That is a slap in the face to all of those who are suffering from this Milton Freidman Shock Doctrine effing disaster capitalism Depression bullshit economy. Hell, it's a slap in the face to the entire 99%! Thanks, NYTimes. Thanks allot. 
...but I will give you a half of a percent ( i.e. 4 1/2% unemployment rate), begrudgingly, however. If capitalism is so great, then there shouldn't be anyone who can't find a job with a fucking living wage if they want one. Do you believe everything they taught you in college? Did you believe Alan Greenspan, when he said it is good for capitalism to have unemployed citizens? I'm going to stop. I respectfully disagree. 
