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Akron
Beacon Journal...
Living
in poverty
September 17, 2011
The
Census Bureau released poverty
figures for 2010 on Tuesday. The figures are a sobering reflection of
the
economic hardships confronting growing numbers of Americans and the
enduring nature
of the so-called war on poverty.
Since
the 1960s, the federal
government has identified who is poor by setting thresholds for poverty
according to family size and income. The thresholds are adjusted yearly
for
inflation. Last year, the poverty guidelines for the Department of
Health and
Human Services deemed a single adult with income below $10,830 to be in
poverty. For a family of four, the threshold was $22,050.
Thus
measured, the Census Bureau’s
data indicate that an additional 2.6 million people fell into poverty
last
year, raising the number of Americans living below the official poverty
level
from 14.3 percent of the population in 2009 to 15.1 percent. The 46.2
million
poor represent the largest number in the 52-year history of poverty
tracking.
Median
household income dipped last
year to 1997 levels. The poverty rate has climbed among children and
working-age people, blacks and Hispanics suffering the largest
increases. The
report also indicates the number of Americans who lack health insurance
continued to rise last year.
It
often is argued that poverty is a
relative description, and that the official measure of poverty is
flawed and
overstates the number of the truly poor because the measure does not
take into
account a well-established system of government support, for example,
Medicaid,
food stamps, housing subsidies, tax credits and cash assistance.
There’s
no question that being in
poverty in America, for the most part, is nothing like the abject
deprivation
so evident in many parts of the world. All the same, however poverty is
measured, the latest figures underscore the disturbing trend. In each
of the
past four years, the poverty levels have risen. More American
households are
earning less and are less capable of meeting their needs. People in
their prime
working years are having a harder time finding work. Increasingly
worrisome,
their prospects of climbing back up are dimmed by prolonged
unemployment and an
economy that is not creating jobs fast enough.
No
less disturbing, the safety-net
system that helps alleviate deep poverty itself is in jeopardy,
social-service
and assistance programs pared down by severe cuts in government and
private
funding. The annual poverty count may not be accurate to the last
hungry
household. What it does is alert a wealthy nation to the reality that
more of
its citizens are losing their hold on a decent life.
Read
it at the Akron Beacon Journal
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