HARDSHIP INDICATORS POINT TO A DIFFICULT HOLIDAY SEASON
If the definition of poverty were revised to make sense, a hell of a lot more people would be deemed as living in poverty. I'll have to write my senators (chronic disappointment Barack Obama and kick the repiglikkkans asses to hell Dick Durbin) and ask why those numbers are so ridiculous.
A family of 3 that makes over 15,000 a year is not considered to live in poverty?
Let's tell the truth about Amerikkka. It is a third world country, and counting.
(an excerpt)
A variety of measures suggest that tens of millions of American families will confront significant hardships this holiday season, with many unable to meet their basic food, health, and shelter needs. Government data show that:
Poverty has now risen for four straight years; 37 million people were poor in 2004.
Food insecurity and hunger have trended upward since 1999. More than one in six households with children experienced hunger or risk of hunger in 2004.
The number of people lacking health insurance reached an all-time recorded high in 2004.
During the last two years, the number of jobs has increased modestly but wages have fallen, with the downward trend in wages being especially marked for low-wage workers. Similarly, other data show that high-income households are gaining the most from the recovery, and that the already wide gaps between rich and poor are becoming still greater.
11.6 million low-income households pay more than half of their income for housing, up by 23 percent in a four-year period. Further, home heating prices are projected to increase significantly this winter. High housing and heating costs make it difficult for millions of low-income families and senior citizens to heat their homes, pay their rent, and still afford other necessities.
Hundreds of thousands of Hurricane victims continue to face difficult situations. One of every four Hurricane Katrina evacuees remains unemployed.
The national policy response to these trends has been inadequate in some respects, and misdirected in others. The federal government has stepped in with substantial aid to many victims of the hurricane, but its efforts have been far from sufficient in such basic areas as providing health care coverage and appropriate housing alternatives. Congress, moreover, has not yet acted to provide additional low-income energy assistance to help households facing rising heating bills.
Most troubling of all, the House voted last week to extract a variety of cuts in aid to the poor that will deepen poverty and increase hardship, even as both the House and the Senate are moving to enact new tax cuts of primary benefit to high-income people. The budget policies under consideration would not only fail to respond to the troubling trends outlined above, but would worsen many of those problems.
These issues are discussed in more detail below. The paper ends with some of the information broken out on a state-by-state basis.
The tables on the site are extremely interesting. Makes you wonder how it is people in those decimated states like Texas and Oklahoma support the idiot.
A family of 3 that makes over 15,000 a year is not considered to live in poverty?
Let's tell the truth about Amerikkka. It is a third world country, and counting.
(an excerpt)
A variety of measures suggest that tens of millions of American families will confront significant hardships this holiday season, with many unable to meet their basic food, health, and shelter needs. Government data show that:
Poverty has now risen for four straight years; 37 million people were poor in 2004.
Food insecurity and hunger have trended upward since 1999. More than one in six households with children experienced hunger or risk of hunger in 2004.
The number of people lacking health insurance reached an all-time recorded high in 2004.
During the last two years, the number of jobs has increased modestly but wages have fallen, with the downward trend in wages being especially marked for low-wage workers. Similarly, other data show that high-income households are gaining the most from the recovery, and that the already wide gaps between rich and poor are becoming still greater.
11.6 million low-income households pay more than half of their income for housing, up by 23 percent in a four-year period. Further, home heating prices are projected to increase significantly this winter. High housing and heating costs make it difficult for millions of low-income families and senior citizens to heat their homes, pay their rent, and still afford other necessities.
Hundreds of thousands of Hurricane victims continue to face difficult situations. One of every four Hurricane Katrina evacuees remains unemployed.
The national policy response to these trends has been inadequate in some respects, and misdirected in others. The federal government has stepped in with substantial aid to many victims of the hurricane, but its efforts have been far from sufficient in such basic areas as providing health care coverage and appropriate housing alternatives. Congress, moreover, has not yet acted to provide additional low-income energy assistance to help households facing rising heating bills.
Most troubling of all, the House voted last week to extract a variety of cuts in aid to the poor that will deepen poverty and increase hardship, even as both the House and the Senate are moving to enact new tax cuts of primary benefit to high-income people. The budget policies under consideration would not only fail to respond to the troubling trends outlined above, but would worsen many of those problems.
These issues are discussed in more detail below. The paper ends with some of the information broken out on a state-by-state basis.
The tables on the site are extremely interesting. Makes you wonder how it is people in those decimated states like Texas and Oklahoma support the idiot.
posted by TheFuriousGourmet | 4:58 PM
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