Collapse in Living Standards in America

[Panaconda]

Collapse in Living Standards in America
Validated Independent News

More than 15 million Americans are unemployed, homelessness has increased by 50 percent in some cities, and 38 million people are receiving food stamps, more than at any time in the program’s almost 50-year history.

Evidence of rising economic hardship is ample. There’s one commonly used standard for measuring it: the U.S. Census Bureau’s poverty rate. It guides much of federal and state spending aimed at helping those unable to make a decent living.

According to Richard Bavier, a former analyst for the federal Office of Management and Budget, already available data about employment rates, wages, and food stamp enrollment suggest that an additional 5.7 million people were officially poor in 2009. That would bring the total number of people with incomes below the federal poverty threshold to more than 45 million. The poverty rate, Bavier expects, will hit 15 percent – up from 13.2 percent in 2008, when the Great Recession first started to take its toll.

...

http://www.mediafreedominternational.org/2010/07/22/collapse-in-living-standards-in-america/

[lunatica]

1. And it'll get worse

Maybe it's just me but it seems things are getting worse. A hell of a lot of those new poor are losing their homes and becoming homeless without jobs to be had. And a hell of a lot of them are older. If there is a jobs creation, such as rebuilding the infrastructure who's going to hire the older people? They (we) will become a permanent underclass of people who worked hard all our lives only to end up being a burden on the country. Aging marches relentlessly on.

The future is getting bleaker and bleaker with every passing day with corporate scandal and bursting bubble.

[maryf]

7. but you'll keep hearing about the recovery...

and I keep remembering my favorite shot of wall street:

[blindpig]

2. k&r

Yet productivity is at an all time high, how can this be?

I would say that the distribution of the fruits of labor is badly askew.

[Hannah Bell]

13. +100

[LibinMo]

3. This is why I will never complain

about the lack of a social security COLA again this year. We have enough to get by. Many others are not so lucky.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. And the American are angry about this and will react in November by

either not voting or voting for Republicans. That's sure to help.

[TBF]

10. The moderates really control the elections, and when the economy

is bad they vote anti-incumbent. You're absolutely correct.

[Starry Messenger]

5. k & r

[maryf]

6. K&R

Thank you! I believe in phoenixes!

[autorank]

8. k*r How about that - it's as though MSM never heard of it

We know these statistics but that's because we're news junkies. Why isn't this screamed across the headlines?

Because "the moderate" approach would be exposed as a fraud.

We live in dangerous and damaging times. We'll stay there as long as we have a ruling class that can't grasp
the needs of all of the people and accept a program that will meet those needs.

Great post!

[Panaconda]

9. Solidarity

:toast:

[TBF]

11. K&R to the OP -

and also to maryf who tried to post this story initially.

[maryf]

14. No need TBF

but thanks! It's the message not the messenger that matters. It's truth that needs to get out there, and Panaconda is one of the best here lately to dig out the gold (or sadly the shit). We have to keep shining our lights into the darkest most evil places to expose the rot that is happening...and if we repeat the message to make sure the most people possible can be enlightened, then so be it. I greatly appreciate the message being brought out again.

[dajoki]

12. Thanks for posting this n/t

:kick: