Record Poverty Persists While Gap Between Rich and Rest of Us Increases

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/09/13-2


Food is distributed by a food bank in Deposit, New York. The converted beverage truck delivers fresh produce, dairy products and other grocery items to people in need. (Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

***SNIP

New Census Bureau figures released Wednesday, show that 15 percent of the U.S. population lived in poverty in 2011. Over 46 million Americans lived at or below the poverty threshold of a household income of $23,201 per year for a family of four. One in five of our children live in poverty and over one-third of black and Latino children are struggling through impoverishment.

In 2011, we saw the first one-year increase in income inequality [L1] since 1993. The top 5% gained 5.3% in income in 2011 over 2010. The lowest quintile saw little change, but the second-lowest, middle, and fourth-lowest quintiles all experienced a decline in income over the year. Sadly, those who “occupied” Wall Street and city squares across the country in 2011, were right: All of the income gains have concentrated at the top, while the rest of us saw a deterioration or stagnation in our wages and income.

This data also confirms that safety programs work. According to the Census Bureau, unemployment benefits kept 2.3 million of us out of poverty in 2011, Social Security benefits kept over 21 million people out of poverty and, if we count the nutrition aid of the Food Stamps program as income, it would show that 3.9 million people were lifted above the poverty line in 2011.

Increasingly, all of the boost in wealth is concentrated at the top and record numbers of poverty persist, while the middle and lower-economic classes are losing ground. Now is not the time to lower taxes on the wealthiest by cutting proven, effective anti-poverty measures such as Unemployment Insurance, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, the Earned Income Tax Credit, Social Security, and new coverage benefits gained from the health care reform law.



***until i want more -- until you want more -- than crumbs for your self, for your neighbor, for your country -- this is the equation we will all live with.

until i see my self in striking teachers, caterpillar workers, anti-fracking activists, anti-mountain top removal activists, womens activists, etc -- this stays the same.

[porphyrian]

1. Is this a headline from Reagan's term?

Oh, no, I see the dates now...

[tama]

2. Well said

As long as my primary political identity is party member who sees all criticism of and resistance to my party politics as threat to my party and political identity, this stays the same. Parties are tools, at best, and if a tool don't do the work it is supposed to, discard it and pick another and do something else.

Solidarity with people and planet, not with symbols of sectarian division. Compassion in our shared experiences and sense of whole and good.

[xchrom]

3. +1