Poverty follows families to the suburbs - Thank you GWB

[Jon8503]

Suburban poor outnumber their inner-city counterparts for the first time

WASHINGTON - As Americans flee the cities for the suburbs, many are failing to leave poverty behind.

The suburban poor outnumbered their inner-city counterparts for the first time last year, with more than 12 million suburban residents living in poverty, according to a study of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas released Thursday.

“Economies are regional now,” said Alan Berube, who co-wrote the report for the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. “Where you see increases in city poverty, in almost every metropolitan area, you also see increases in suburban poverty.”

Nationally, the poverty rate leveled off last year at 12.6 percent after increasing every year since the decade began. It was a period when the country went through a recession and an uneven recovery that is still sputtering in parts of the Northeast and Midwest.

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“I hope this says to people that the way to confront poverty is not to wall it off and concentrate it,” Morial said. “You really need policies to eliminate it.”

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16077694/

[jelly]

1. Not so much a sign of people fleeing to the suburbs

as it is proof of the shrinking middle class.

[1932]

2. I suspect there are a lot of costs associated with living in suburbs that

make it harder to get ahead once you're there.

Housing and transportation and energy costs must be much higher for suburban vs city middle/working class. And time spent in your car must be a huge cost too when you consider all the productive and enjoyable things you could be do besides driving.

[jelly]

3. so true

Although as a resident of Philadelphia for going on seven years taking public transportation has its own time-associated costs! But at least it has kept me active. As a city dweller I've been able to get and stay in shape much much easier than when I was living in the burbs and had to drive everywhere. What that has to do with the socioeconomic shift of poor people to American suburbs, I'm not quite sure! ;)