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Poverty in the USA and European Union – USA Ranks with Czech Republic (Bulgaria Leads EU)
Confounded Interest ^ | 01/18/2013 | Anthony B. Sanders

Posted on 01/18/2013 7:19:39 AM PST by whitedog57

According to the US Census Bureau, the poverty rate in the USA soared to 15% by the end of 2011.

Poverty, of course, is linked to unemployment and partial employment. Here is a chart of US poverty compared to the U6 measure of unemployment.

Perhaps when the Census Bureau updates their poverty survey for 2012, it will have improved.

Of course, the poverty numbers suffer from the infamous “devil is in the details” problem. The Heritage Foundation, for example, digs deeper in the causes and measurement of poverty. Poverty can include Section 8 housing, big screen televisions, food stamps and other benefits that may dissuade a return to the job market (and an escape from poverty).

But the 2011 poverty rate makes the USA equivalent to the Czech Republic and The Netherlands.

The leading poverty rates in the EU belong to former Communist countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia and the Ukraine. Greece is next on the list followed by Poland other several Mediterranean countries. One must admit, Communism left an ugly scar on the people of Europe.

These same countries also have some of the highest sovereign bond yields in the EU.

As the USA continues its great leap forward in becoming a European welfare state, we can witness the fiscal and debt drag of doing so.

As the USA has moved towards a more European socialist nation (e.g., Lyndon Johnson’s “The Great Society”, and Clinton’s “National Homeownership Strategy,” we have seen wages and salaries as a percentage of GDP continue to fall from the sheer distortions of these policies. nhsdream2

Meanwhile, after-tax corporate profits in the USA continue to climb.

There are a variety of culprits in the decline of wages and salaries (job outsourcing, generous welfare benefits, legislation such as the (un)affordable health care act), but the one thing that households need to escape the poverty cycle is jobs.

Clinton’s National Homeownership Strategy was a broadening of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and did contribute to a surge in homeownership rates that was not sustained. In fact, the homeownership rate is back to levels of the Carter Administration.

Even though house prices remain elevated at 2003 levels, thanks to The Federal Reserve and the European fiscal/debt crisis pushing rate down considerably.

What do we need (both in the USA and EU)? A serious jobs recovery.

Speaking of a slow recovery, the University of Michigan fell to 71.3 and is still lower than the long-run average. Economists were expecting 75.0 (a BIG swing and a miss). So, consumer confidence plunged To December 2011 levels and recorded the biggest miss relative to expectations in 7 years.

Can you spell jobs and tax increases?


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: economy; housing; obama; poverty
Hurray! Obama has turned us into EU poverty rates!!!!
1 posted on 01/18/2013 7:19:51 AM PST by whitedog57
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To: whitedog57

Folks in poverty in the U.S. would be middle class or upper middle class in many SE Asian countries. TV? Cel phone? Fridge? More than one room? A veee-hicle?


2 posted on 01/18/2013 7:26:05 AM PST by Rembrandt (Part of the 51% who pay Federal taxes)
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To: whitedog57

People on welfare live better than I do.

Says plenty about “poverty” in the USA if you ask me.


3 posted on 01/18/2013 7:34:49 AM PST by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: Rembrandt
Folks in poverty in the U.S. would be middle class

Many or most would be middle class here if you counted all the free stuff the government gives them. But by the strange accounting of the government, if they are poor they get free stuff which doesn't count when seeing if they are still poor so the Democrats say they need more stuff.

There was a recent article which stated that to match all the free stuff she gets, a single mother with some kids would have to earn $60,000 pre-tax to equal her total take on Medicare, food stamps, section 8 housing, EITC and everything else.

4 posted on 01/18/2013 7:37:32 AM PST by KarlInOhio (Choose one: the yellow and black flag of the Tea Party or the white flag of the Republican Party.)
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To: whitedog57
The "poor" in this country get free cell phones.So,among other things,I get to pay for my *own* cell phone *plus* the cell phone of some welfare sow (very possibly a wetback).

I've seen *real* poverty in my lifetime.I've seen it in Africa,Asia *and* South America.At least 99% of the genuinely poor of this world would sell their souls to live like the typical US welfare parasite.

5 posted on 01/18/2013 8:03:14 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (Red State Secession Is The Only Answer)
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To: cripplecreek
People on welfare live better than I do.

I hope you're not telling us that you don't realize that that was the Rat Party's goal from the very start (the "war on poverty").

6 posted on 01/18/2013 8:06:04 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (Red State Secession Is The Only Answer)
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To: KarlInOhio

Thank you for the illumination, Dr. Obvious.


7 posted on 01/18/2013 8:07:09 AM PST by Rembrandt (Part of the 51% who pay Federal taxes)
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To: Rembrandt

>>>Folks in poverty in the U.S. would be middle class or upper middle class in many SE Asian countries. TV? Cel phone? Fridge? More than one room? A veee-hicle?<<<

Take free stuff away and you’ll see. A lot of young ignorant folks in Canada views US the way Americans see Mexico - a a dirt-poor crime-ridden hellhole. Traveling from Windzor, Ontario to Detroit backs their stereotypes.
If you’ll ask a Canadian cop near border if he remember any homicide he’ll most likely remind an American from Michigan killing another American a couple years ago.


8 posted on 01/23/2013 10:23:09 PM PST by cunning_fish
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