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Highest Levels of Severe Poverty in America: A Growing Threat to Public Health

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G_j Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 10:00 AM
Original message
Highest Levels of Severe Poverty in America: A Growing Threat to Public Health
http://www.ajpm-online.net/article/PIIS0749379706002339/fulltext

The Rising Prevalence of Severe Poverty in America: A Growing Threat to Public Health
Steven H. Woolf, MD, MPHab, Robert E. Johnson, PhDac, H. Jack Geiger, MD, MSd

Background
The U.S. poverty rate has increased since 2000, but the depth of poverty experienced by Americans has been inadequately studied. Of particular concern is whether severe poverty is increasing, a trend that would carry important public health implications.

Methods
Income-to-poverty (I/P) ratios and income deficits/surpluses were examined for the 1990–2004 period. The severely poor, moderately poor, and near-poor were classified as those with I/P ratios of less than 0.5, 0.5 to 1.0, or 1.0 to 2.0, respectively. Income deficits/surpluses were classified relative to the poverty threshold as Tier I (deficit $8000 or more), Tier II (deficit or surplus less than $8000), or Tier III (surplus more than $8000). Odds ratios for severe poverty and Tier I were also calculated.

Results
Severe poverty increased between 2000 and 2004—those with I/P ratios of less than 0.5 grew by 20%, and Tier I grew by 45% to 55%—while the prevalence of higher levels of income diminished. The population in severe poverty was over-represented by children (odds ratio =1.69, confidence interval =1.63–1.75), African Americans (OR=2.84, CI=2.74–2.95), and Hispanics (OR=1.64, CI=1.58–1.71).

Conclusions
From 2000 to 2004, the prevalence of severe poverty increased sharply while the proportion of Americans in higher income tiers diminished. These trends have broad societal implications. Likely health consequences include a higher prevalence of chronic illnesses, more frequent and severe disease complications, and increased demands and costs for healthcare services. Adverse effects on children warrant special concern. The growth in the number of Americans living in poverty calls for the re-examination of policies enacted in recent years to foster economic progress.

..more..

``````````

http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_055141357.html

Feb 24, 2007 2:12 pm US/Eastern

Severe Poverty At Its Highest Level In America
US Corporate Profits At Highest Levels, Too

(CBS4) WASHINGTON The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty is the highest in thirty years, in which millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line, and the gulf between this country’s ''haves'' and ''have-nots'' gets wider.

The McClatchy Company - owners of the Miami Herald – a CBS4 news partner - went through an analysis of 2005 census figures, the latest available, and found that nearly 16 million Americans are living in deep or severe poverty.

A family of four, with two children and an annual income of less than $9,903 -- half the federal poverty line -- was considered severely poor in 2005. So were individuals who made less than $5,080 a year.

At the same time, economists found worker productivity increasing sizeably since the brief recession of 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged behind. The share of national income going to corporate profits has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries. Median household income of working-age families, adjusted for inflation, has fallen for five straight years.

..more..
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H2O Man Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 10:01 AM
Response to Original message
1. Nominated.
This is a serious, severe, and growing problem in the US.
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ninkasi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 11:58 PM
Response to Reply #1
29. It sure is
More people are becoming poorer in increasing numbers. This leads to many other problems in society. The wealth of corporations does not translate to more wealth for workers. It just means that the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. It's a Republican dream come true. Sadly, for the rest of us, it's a nightmare.
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raccoon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 10:04 AM
Response to Original message
2. K&R. nt
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veness Donating Member (251 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 10:06 AM
Response to Original message
3. K & R. n/t
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malaise Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 10:12 AM
Response to Original message
4. That's the part of the model
Edited on Fri Mar-02-07 10:14 AM by malaise
the fugging stupid neo-liberals forgot. Anytime you cut back on the social safety net, expect epidemics. The greedy never study history or they'd know the reasons for governments providing public health for all citizens.

Since IMF/World Bank structural adjustment models have been thrust on the developing world we have faced a polio outbreak (back in 1984) and are now fighting a malaria threat (first time in 40 years).

The irony is that the same people, who promoted the private sector take over and the redundancies among state employees who provided these services, employ the poor who are exposed to these diseases so they and their children are now just as vulnerable.

This too will pass.

Edit: Gr.

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G_j Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 10:35 AM
Response to Reply #4
6. right
"structural adjustment" has been a nightmare for so many around the world


and if the greedy do study the history
of poverty, they ignore what is "inconvenient" to them.
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Cobalt Violet Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 10:21 AM
Response to Original message
5. It's shameful what's become of the USA. n/t
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Canuckistanian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 10:40 AM
Response to Original message
7. B...But the Stock Market is booming!
Everyone look at the Stock Market... look deeply.... your eyelids are getting heavier and heavier....
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EVDebs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 10:52 AM
Response to Reply #7
8. ...eh, that's all unrealized "paper" profit
that can just as easily evaporate into thin air. Debt (actually the ability to repay debt) is the engine of the economy. Too bad bankers don't realize this, until too late.
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truedelphi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 12:44 PM
Response to Reply #8
13. The right wing "economists" appointed as their TV stations'
Edited on Fri Mar-02-07 12:46 PM by truedelphi
Talking Heads looked really desperate early this week as they flailed about trying to justify the
200 point sell off and loss to the stock market and its investors.

Paraphrasing their comments: "But the same thing Greenspan warned about - an increasing deficit - causing an immense recession hasn't happened yet and the economy is robust enough to handle the deficit even though it is rising daily, etc"

Translation: if the economy was represented by an authentic and precious Ming vase thrown off the Sears Tower in Chicago - yes, it has chipped slightly as its edges hit the scaffold of a window washer at the forty second floor - but that sure doesn't mean it will crash into smithereens when it hits the ground.
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G_j Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 11:54 AM
Response to Original message
9. a Kick
before I go
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AliceWonderland Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 12:22 PM
Response to Original message
10. Nominated. When are we going to take these issues seriously?
Edited on Fri Mar-02-07 12:26 PM by AliceWonderland
Whenever I hear someone in power repeat the meme that class is off the table ("so and so is talking about class warfare!") I get upset. Class and per above, it's intersection with race and gender, are crucial issues. And yet, we lurch along, denying that these issues even exist.

I forwarded yesterday's diabetes GD thread to some people -- the thread wondering how the poor deal with the treatment of diabetes. I couldn't get that thread out of my mind. The real success story I saw there was the poster whose father had been a coalminer, and the union took such good care of him, happily.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x318346

I suppose there's a huge cost -- not just politically, but to the American psyche in general -- in admitting all this.
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bobbolink Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 06:14 PM
Response to Reply #10
19. Thank you, Alice! As one in poverty who has pleaded with liberals to take poverty seriously,
I also question not only "when", but... WHAT WILL IT TAKE??

Maybe this is it... maybe it will take all the muddleclass being threatened with epidemics that will affect THEM before they give a rip. It certainly isn't the suffering and needless deaths of poor people that has caused them to take badly needed action!

I'm so used to being ignored, that replies like yours lift my spirits.

Thank you so much!

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bleedingheart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 12:24 PM
Response to Original message
11. The only thing I am looking forward to is the correction..I can smell the Socialism coming
and boy...when Socialism rears its head and mark my words...it will...the correction will be one wild time.

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MountainLaurel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 12:46 PM
Response to Reply #11
14. We can keep our fingers crossed
:evilgrin:
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G_j Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-03-07 12:43 PM
Response to Reply #11
31. k
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truedelphi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 12:39 PM
Response to Original message
12. The American Public needs to understand how stringent the Safety Net Standards
Edited on Fri Mar-02-07 12:47 PM by truedelphi
Have Become.

Imagine that you have lost your job some months ago. Your spouse, who was working part time while staying home with the kids, is now the sole bread winner.

You don't wanna be kicked out on the street and you live in an urban area where rents are high.

You borrow money from family or friends to pay your rent for a month or two.

Now that help is ending - after all their lives aren't much better and they can't support you indefinitely.

You go down to apply for Aid Families with Dependent Children.

They immediately tell you that because of the loans you have received (which they consider "income") you will not be eligible for help for at least four to six months.

How do you survive?? Meanwhile the landlord is calling, the cost of going to job interviews seems prohibitive (the bus driver is NOT going to take an IOU) etc. The kids need medical or dental care, the stress levels are unimaginable.

You notice a blurb to the effect (on some left wing bloggers site) that under Bush - the suicide rates in this country have skyrocketed - with the highest rate being in the days shortly before and after the end of each month.
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Solly Mack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 12:57 PM
Response to Original message
15. Recommended
There are all kinds of ways to enslave people without using chains

I'm actually too disgusted to even discuss this right now.





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Sapphire Blue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 01:42 PM
Response to Original message
16. Call Congress toll free @ 1-877-851-6437 or 1-800-828-0498; tell them to FULLY FUND...
... Human Needs programs.... before this crisis gets any worse.

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bobbolink Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 06:18 PM
Response to Reply #16
21. How many people are dialing right now?
How many people have made these calls?

Is this a priority with anyone here?

Hello... is this thing on?
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RestoreGore Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 06:35 PM
Response to Reply #21
26. I just saw this number and will call.
Thank you.
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bobbolink Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 06:36 PM
Response to Reply #26
27. Thank you, RestoreGore!
:hi: :hug: :hi:

Please, remind your friends to do the same.

:toast:
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G_j Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 09:34 PM
Response to Reply #16
28. thank you
I will
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undergroundpanther Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 01:45 PM
Response to Original message
17. We have to bite the hand that "feeds"
Edited on Fri Mar-02-07 01:49 PM by undergroundpanther
We have to force the rich to take less..or we all suffer the consequences of THEIR greedy pampered over optimistic morally depraved indifference.

The rich have proven time and again they are mostly made up of morally inferior people,They have NO internal self control over thier selfishness and greed,So WE must control them and limit how much they take.The rich will not do it on thier own..The rich will not put any limits on their own thieving greed and games..EVER. SO WE must force them to submit and control thier greed with corporate regulations, taxes and many other methods of forcing the rich to share wealth.We have to make it personal, to STOP their plunder of our very lives.. They RAID this countries wealth all for THEMSELVES and let others die.

This IS a problem in our culture and this STUPID infantile yet popular belief that wealth in obscene amounts is OK,and everyone has a chance is a lie it REALLY does makes the world MORE unfair, more sick and more unjust to believe such lies.

Fuck playing make believe that the rich assholes will have a change of heart and stop being Grinch's ..because they will not no matter how much you"hope" they still don't give a shit about you..This pathological optimism and pollyanna everything is good with rainbows in the sky bullshit is sick.

Poverty this bad is large scale financial abuse done by a smaller greedier over ambitious self serving clique population, who thinks it's ok to hurt the many who are not so rapaciously greedy at these elitist trash are. And tolerating such inequality financially or otherwise it is morally and ethically WRONG.

EAT THE RICH, TAKE IT BACK FROM THE PIGS Because the rich dominate through financial abuse or the threat of it to whip people down .The rich will never get their fat jowls out of the trough and let the others have some too.They do not want others not like themselves to feel comfortable or feel empowered enough to topple the fat pigs from the top.The narcissistic bully rich do not want to live as a person, they want to be as kings.And kings are fit for nothing but the Guillotine It's a patriotic thing to despise wannabe kings even if they hide their machinations behind corporate papers the flag and'capital'.
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redqueen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 01:47 PM
Response to Original message
18. I'm sure nobody is shocked. Did the gap shink at all during the Clinton years?
Hmmm...
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bobbolink Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 06:16 PM
Response to Original message
20. Sadly, this is probably what it will take--a threat to the general health and well-being
of the general population.

Poverty isn't an issue for most people, and don't be mistaken--that includes liberals!

Look how few Dem candidates even bother to mention poverty at all. :cry:

Unless/until it begins to affect all of you personally, all our pleas for help with the budget cuts, etc will continue to be ignored.

:cry:
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bobbolink Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 06:19 PM
Response to Original message
22. How many here on this thread want to DO SOMETHING about this?
?????
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JNelson6563 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 06:26 PM
Response to Reply #22
23. Many do not know what to do
Some do what they can, some have no idea where to begin....it is direction and initiative that is needed here.

Julie
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bobbolink Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 06:32 PM
Response to Reply #23
24. Call Congress toll free @ 1-877-851-6437 or 1-800-828-0498; tell them to FULLY FUND...
... Human Needs programs.... before this crisis gets any worse.

That's for starters.

And the easiest to do.

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RestoreGore Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Mar-02-07 06:34 PM
Response to Original message
25. Push Congress To Stop Funding This ILLEGAL War...
And use the money to help OUR PEOPLE. Recommended. This is an outrage.
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area51 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-03-07 01:33 AM
Response to Original message
30. kick. (n/t)
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