Weekend Economists Ask: R WEE Donne? January 8-10, 2016

[Proserpina]

10. 45 Million Americans Live in Poverty,but You Wouldn’t Know It From Watching (election) 2016 Coverage

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/45-million-americans-live-poverty-you-wouldnt-know-it-watching-2016-coverage?akid=13860.227380.oB0FL1&rd=1&src=newsletter1048604&t=5

Of the five Republican debates and of the three Democratic debates, not one moderator has asked a question involving the words “poverty” or “poor.” While the subject has been touched upon by some of the Democratic candidates, namely Bernie Sanders and briefly Jim Webb, the topic has been entirely unmentioned by the moderators during the three Democratic debates. In the GOP debates, the candidates only bring up the topic as a way to swipe President Obama, which is fair enough but is not a discussion of poverty much less a good-faith attempt to mitigate it. By comparison, the Democratic debate moderators brought up “ISIS” or “Terrorism” 21 times total in all three debates.

A recent study in The Intercept found poverty's non-status on television isn’t just limited to the debates. Cable news was over 20 times more likely to mention ISIS or terrorism than poverty during the heart of primary season in late 2014.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/YSJZ8sFB12cHA95c9M_2pdT58jjxGi4hPZzpROGtj8NsnTgwzzcj1gehFyPHNL7JOp2WNTFvcNUQDQXctZRzFlwhe46UCeVr3Rm-5CDqr8V0P3peB6Gi_amS3UG3bd_r4g795cl7

Bernie Sanders has brought up poverty in the debates about half a dozen times, calling childhood poverty “a national disgrace." Hillary Clinton has not brought up the issue in the debates, though she frequently tweets about it. This is partly not the candidates' fault: if they’re not asked the question they can’t really discuss the topic. To the extent discussions of poverty are jammed into a response it’s part of a much broader answer about the economic problems America is facing.

According to the 2014 census, 14.5% of Americans, or over 45 million people, live in poverty, up from 11.3% in 2000; a rate not seen since the early '90s.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/aG7U3HoejV6JmHUVIhbqwf9RO_Kfk0seLG0Ilm17IjkZgw7kyM5BRG74ZoEsAOndtriLGE7fU6iip-TY25F_ho5LsfZq3QhiNG9k3xcPgb55naJQysSKZlFemS5Jgl4Ii3TsdCXO