Posted on 12/15/2011 5:33:19 AM PST by markomalley
Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.
The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.
"Safety net programs such as food stamps and tax credits kept poverty from rising even higher in 2010, but for many low-income families with work-related and medical expenses, they are considered too 'rich' to qualify," said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan public policy professor who specializes in poverty.
"The reality is that prospects for the poor and the near poor are dismal," he said. "If Congress and the states make further cuts, we can expect the number of poor and low-income families to rise for the next several years."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Precisely what the muslim marxist wants.
Mission accomplished, for the most part, indeed:
http://www.lp.org/blogs/wayne-allyn-root/obama-mission-accomplished
Watch the stock market over the 3-4 months, it’s about to get a lot worse.
This is pure bovine excrement.
Nicely done, spot on.
Exactly.
They are obese because the cheap foods that they eat are intentionally and specifically designed to make people fat.
It’s an evil relationship between the food companies and the “health” care industry.
Half the people are below average? GOSH, what a surprise!
The word “poor” has lost all meaning here.
The vast majority of all the people who ever walked the face of the earth would be flabbergasted by all the wealth that the American “poor” have.
We’re all filthy rich by global and historical standards, but somehow a large portion of this nation has been convinced that they are “poor.”
Aw, the power of negative thinking! (Or victim mentality.)
thanx.
Half the people are below the mean.
It’s easy when you can set the bar for what constitutes “low income” anyplace you want it to be.
Along with OWS and “We Are The 99%”, part of the campaign to convince 50.1% of the electorate that they are victims.
I seriously doubt 1 in 2 Americans is living in poverty. You would have to redefine poverty to a ridiculous level to say half of all Americans are impoverished. Hidden agenda here. Inside every liberal university professor (poverty studies?) is a glory-seeking, megalomaniac bursting to get out. How better to get his idol Obama (odds are this clown is the head of the local “Get Dear Leader Re-elected in 2012” committee) re-elected than to publish some spurious study claiming people, many of whom are obese, live in nice houses, have more than two cars,tv sets, etc. are living in poverty because of some redefinition of the term.
Only in a gaussian distribution. That's why mean is not a good indicator of central tendency for incomes - they don't usually follow a normal distribution. Half the people are by definition below the MEDIAN in ANY distribution regardless of skew or kurtosis. Median is a better indicator.
Fully half the population makes less than the median income, people! SOMEthing MUST be done!!! ;-P
lol
Yes - indeed they do. They have a bone deep sense of entitlement, and politicians rise to power fanning this sense of entitlement and then pandering to it.
Actually, mean is the same as average. The only technically correct statement would be: "Half the people are below the median." However, I wasn't going to be picky in my cynicism.
This article is a cynical cover for entitlement fraud. The census number simply don't add up.
What they neglect to point out is that the median household income as of the most recent June 2011 is 49,900 which accounts for the recent economic downturn. This means House holds with incomes in the the $50,000 range are being considered “poor” which is total BS
The truth is that we have many people with high incomes ripping off the system and we have others, many illegal aliens, fraudulently receiving welfare entitlement's under fake identities (often multiple false Identities,)
I have personally witnesses a Spanish speaking Hispanic family have three family members, the father, the mother and the teenage daughter purchase hundreds of dollars each of supplies at Wal Mart at midnight on a Sunday.
The Father pulled out and sorted through 5 or 6 state welfare EBT cards, each of which had it's own ID card and distributed the cards to his wife and daughter. In our state, each household is issued one and only one card per family.
No one cared a bit and they did not even try to hide what they were doing.
On the way out they were parked near to me so I made it a point to pass by all three of them loading their haul into their car.
They were driving a brand new red Ford Excursion four wheel drive SUV with beige leather interior with Sonora Mexico plates.
Poor indeed.
The reality is that entitlement fraud is bankrupting our system. California did an audit that showed that 60 PERCENT of LA County entitlement spending was fraudulent. I California, LA County entitlement spending is on the order of 18 BILLION dollars per year. That is just for LA County alone
You do the math
If you want an educational experience go to the Pico Rivera Wal Mart on a typical evening. All cash registers packed 10-15 people deep, most all of them speaking Spanish illegal aliens and at least 80 % paying with the distinctive California DES Welfare EBT card. Wonder what happened to all of those welfare queens when their lifetime 5 years of welfare expired?
Social workers and community organizers worked to get them and each and every family member qualified as long term mentally disabled so they could receive permanent, life long Social Security benefits to the tune of $500 per month per person. On the streets they call this scam “ crazy money”
This one “crazy money” scam alone is costing Soc Sec about 55 billion dollars per year out of a Soc Sec yearly budget is currently 750 billion per year, so about 7.5 percent of our Soc Sec budget is being wasted on the crazy money scam. There are many more disability scams like this one that are bankrupting Soc Sec. Social Security is no longer the noble last bastion keeping granny from doing here food shopping on the cat food aisle. It's the new frontier of entitlement fraud.
The local NYT newsrag in these parts ran this today and had a pic of some morbidly obese 18 year old (18!) with a 7 month old daughter, and they, along with her live-in 'boyfriend', were residing in the dining room of her mother's apartment.
Gee, what could have gone wrong?
And I'm supposed to feel sorry for these people? Ye Gods.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.