Posted on 07/29/2013 2:12:25 AM PDT by RKBA Democrat
Despite consumer confidence at a six-year high, the latest AP survey of the real America shows a stunning four out of five U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, are near poverty, or rely on welfare for at least parts of their lives amid signs of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream. Hardship is particularly on the rise among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among whites about their families' economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987.
"Poverty is no longer an issue of 'them', it's an issue of 'us'," as 'the invisible poor' - lower income whites - are generally dispersed in suburbs (Appalachia, the industrial Midwest, and across America's heartland, from Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma up through the Great Plains) where more than 60% of the poor are white.
More than 19 million whites fall below the poverty line of $23,021 for a family of four - accounting for more than 41% of the nation's destitute - nearly double the number of poor blacks and as one survey respondent noted "I think it's going to get worse."
Via AP,
Hardship is particularly on the rise among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among that racial group about their families' economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987. In the most recent AP-GfK poll, 63 percent of whites called the economy "poor."
"If you do try to go apply for a job, they're not hiring people, and they're not paying that much to even go to work," she said. Children, she said, have "nothing better to do than to get on drugs."
Economic insecurity among whites also is more pervasive than is shown in government data, engulfing more than 76 percent of white adults by the time they turn 60, according to a new economic gauge being published next year by the Oxford University Press.
"It's time that America comes to understand that many of the nation's biggest disparities, from education and life expectancy to poverty, are increasingly due to economic class position," said William Julius Wilson, a Harvard professor who specializes in race and poverty.
"There is the real possibility that white alienation will increase if steps are not taken to highlight and address inequality on a broad front,"
"Poverty is no longer an issue of 'them', it's an issue of 'us'," says Mark Rank, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis who calculated the numbers.
Among the findings:
For the first time since 1975, the number of white single-mother households who were living in poverty with children surpassed or equaled black ones in the past decade, spurred by job losses and faster rates of out-of-wedlock births among whites. White single-mother families in poverty stood at nearly 1.5 million in 2011, comparable to the number for blacks. Hispanic single-mother families in poverty trailed at 1.2 million.
The share of children living in high-poverty neighborhoods — those with poverty rates of 30 percent or more — has increased to 1 in 10, putting them at higher risk of teen pregnancy or dropping out of school. Non-Hispanic whites accounted for 17 percent of the child population in such neighborhoods, up from 13 percent in 2000, even though the overall proportion of white children in the U.S. has been declining.
The share of black children in high-poverty neighborhoods dropped sharply, from 43 percent to 37 percent, while the share of Latino children ticked higher, from 38 to 39 percent.
Going back to the 1980s, never have whites been so pessimistic about their futures.
All this despite Jack Lew's insistence on this morning's Meet The Press that this recovery is 'not anemic', six year highs in consumer confidence, and all-time-highs in US equity markets.
Perhaps it is worth reiterating the question that Rick Santelli asked before?
"for at least parts of their lives" ... I'm surprised it's only 80%.
("For their entire lives" might be approaching the magic 47% after Obama, but that's not what the article says.)
BTTT !
My students do not seem to have trouble finding jobs, especially if they are in accounting or business. The # of my college seniors going into law has plummeted.
In short, if all these people are "near poverty" they sure aren't behaving that way.
Granted most of those in poverty have a cell phone and cable tv it doesn’t change the fact that comparing $$ is Atlanta to most of Africa is a useless exercise to determine poverty.
Pike County has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state. 12.4% on the fake unemployment scale, so God only knows how many are really unemployed.
“I know I’m in the ‘burbs, but this just doesn’t compute as much as Freepers want it to.”
Here in the ‘burbs in northeast NJ the economy is trashed; too many jobs lost and taxpayers fleeing. The only people buying homes or patronizing restaurants are the public employees who have survived the layoffs (which would be the ones with the most seniority/highest pay). Won’t be any building for decades due to the amount of homes for sale and empty commercial buildings. The news has a “shore recovery” piece each day about the re-building progress there; I couldn’t believe how much business wasn’t up & running yet (since the focus was on businesses instead of homes) - there are much fewer people with the money to spend down there, so the shore is basically going to miss a season (at least one).
The only way the Dems stay in races is to say this is due to foreign competition (instead of socialist policies); they can then ask which you would rather have in office: Santa Claus or mean white male Republicans?
It’s the transformation of America to third world status. One promise he’s kept.
Until the media has mass lay-offs and reporters are applying for food stamps, they’ll be trying to convince the crumbling middle class that things are on the up-swing.
CNBC deserves to be the first one to go for their non-stop lying about a “recovery” that never happened, except for the well-connected on Wall St. The rich get richer and the poor get food stamps.
That’s right. The article says “at some point in their life”. I’m quite wealthy these days but a long time ago I was extremely poor, that was my college years. I even went hungry once in a while but you wouldn’t think it to see me now! Lot’s of us have been poor at some point but we work hard and overcome.
Which we know is preposterous. The majority of middle class Americans on up go with close to income through at least a couple of years of college, but they’re not even then living a poverty lifestyle.
Bingo!
The above is a link to the book “Coming Apart”. It mirrors what I have seen happening. The lower class white’s are sliding into the same trap that has already claimed the lower class blacks. No jobs, no hope, generational welfare, and a feeling that there is no escape.
My home town in eastern Nebraska has changed totally in the last ten years. Families that used to be hard working now sit at home (to be honest, they are not families anymore, they split), do drugs, and live off of the EBT.
Many of these people don't have the IQ to get a college degree.
We need to figure out what to do before the mob starts collecting heads.
Aristocrats prefer a nation of peons/serfs. Our aristocrats today are neo-aristocrats, but wealth or power often results in a sense of entitlement. Once they’ve “arrived”, they see themselves as the ubermench, the rightful overlords of the peons.
Historically, the middle class is repugnant to aristocrats as those who can ignore their power and self-importance.
Our two political parties are sold out to America’s neo-aristocrats.
Utopia!
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjJiMDE5Y2M1OWNmNDFhMDIwNWMxYTA1Mzk5ZDkxMTk=
Conventional accounts of poverty not only exaggerate hardship, they also underestimate government spending on the poor. In 2008, federal and state governments spent $714 billion (or 5 percent of the total economy) on means-tested welfare aid, providing cash, food, housing, medical care, and targeted social services to poor and low-income Americans. (This sum does not include Social Security or Medicare.) If converted into cash, this aid would be nearly four times the amount needed to eliminate poverty in the U.S. by raising the incomes of all poor households above the federal poverty levels.
What a load of crap.
AP should stay out of Philadelphia, deetroit and LA ghettos when they make their surveys
The powers are real. We can do an end run around the DC ruling class and reestablish the rule of law.
The tyranny of consolidated government that evolved these past hundred years since the 17th Amendment, was predicted by the framers. Until vertical separation of powers is restored, the paper horizontal separation of three national branches will continue to collapse into an authoritarian government.
I know they are real, but they have been undone by entitlements and sloth. We are effectively outnumbered; and our pathetic Republican Leadership in the House and Senate are a roadblock into securing anything meaningfully substantive. At best we can only hold onto the House through Herculean efforts. The Senate is a done deal for its country club denizens and it doesn’t matter what party they are - they all are traitors except a handful few.
Lastly, it will be a long time before you see another Republican President. Democrats have perfected fraud to the ultimate level.
“There is the real possibility that white alienation will increase if steps are not taken to highlight and address inequality on a broad front,”
Uh oh....the Liberals have gone and killed the goose that laid the golden egg!
I often have to explain to my foreign guests... our “poor” often own houses, multiple vehicles, big screen televisions and are able to afford cable and smart phones...
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