21 Shocking Facts About The Explosive Growth Of Poverty In America

zero hedge ^ | 11/3/15 | tyler durden

[Nachum]

Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

What you are about to see is more evidence that the growth of poverty in the United States is wildly out of control.  It turns out that there is a tremendous amount of suffering in “the wealthiest nation on the planet”, and it is getting worse with each passing year.  During this election season, politicians of all stripes are running around telling all of us how great we are, but is that really true? 

As you will see below, poverty is reaching unprecedented levels in this country, and the middle class is steadily dying.  There aren’t enough good jobs to go around, dependence on the government has never been greater, and it is our children that are being hit the hardest.  If we have this many people living on the edge of despair now, while times are “good”, what are things going to look like when our economy really starts falling apart?  The following are 21 facts about the explosive growth of poverty in America that will blow your mind…

#1 The U.S. Census Bureau says that nearly 47 million Americans are living in poverty right now.

 

#2 Other numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau are also very disturbing.  For example, in 2007 about one out of every eight children in America was on food stamps.  Today, that number is one out of every five.

 

#3 According to Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer, the authors of a new book entitled “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America“, there are 1.5 million “ultrapoor” households in the United States that live on less than two dollars a day.  That number has doubled since 1996.

 

#4 46 million Americans use food banks each year, and lines start forming at some U.S. food banks as early as 6:30 in the morning because people want to get something before the food supplies run out.

 

#5 The number of homeless children in the U.S. has increased by 60 percent over the past six years.

 

#6 According to Poverty USA, 1.6 million American children slept in a homeless shelter or some other form of emergency housing last year.

 

#7 Police in New York City have identified 80 separate homeless encampments in the city, and the homeless crisis there has gotten so bad that it is being described as an “epidemic”.

#8 If you can believe it, more than half of all students in our public schools are poor enough to qualify for school lunch subsidies.

 

#9 According to a Census Bureau report that was released a while back, 65 percent of all children in the U.S. are living in a home that receives some form of aid from the federal government.

 

#10 According to a report that was published by UNICEF, almost one-third of all children in this country “live in households with an income below 60 percent of the national median income”.

 

#11 When it comes to child poverty, the United States ranks 36th out of the 41 “wealthy nations” that UNICEF looked at.

 

#12 The number of Americans that are living in concentrated areas of high poverty has doubled since the year 2000.

 

#13 An astounding 45 percent of all African-American children in the United States live in areas of “concentrated poverty”.

 

#14 40.9 percent of all children in the United States that are being raised by a single parent are living in poverty.

 

#15 An astounding 48.8 percent of all 25-year-old Americans still live at home with their parents.

 

#16 There are simply not enough good jobs to go around anymore.  It may be hard to believe, but 51 percent of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year.

 

#17 There are 7.9 million working age Americans that are “officially unemployed” right now and another 94.7 million working age Americans that are considered to be “not in the labor force”.  When you add those two numbers together, you get a grand total of 102.6 million working age Americans that do not have a job right now.

 

#18 Owning a home has traditionally been a signal that you belong to the middle class.  That is why it is so alarming that the rate of homeownership in the United States has been falling for eight years in a row.

 

#19 According to a recent Pew survey, approximately 70 percent of all Americans believe that “debt is a necessity in their lives”.

 

#20 At this point, 25 percent of all Americans have a negative net worth.  That means that the value of what they owe is greater than the value of everything that they own.

 

#21 The top 0.1 percent of all American families have about as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent of all American families combined.

If we truly are “the greatest nation on the planet”, then why can’t we even take care of our own people?

Why are there tens of millions of us living in poverty?

Perhaps we really aren’t so great after all.

It would be one thing if economic conditions were getting better and poverty was in decline.  At least then we could be talking about the improvement we were making.  But despite the fact that we are stealing more than a hundred million dollars from future generations of Americans every single hour of every single day, poverty just continues to grow like an aggressive form of cancer.

So what is wrong?

Why can’t we get this thing fixed?

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[umgud]

LBJ and good ole Teddy Kennedy struck us death blows...... LBJ the war on poverty and Teddy the immigration act that assured all post 1965 immigrants came from the turd world.

[ctdonath2]

Pointless article without actually defining "poverty".

Insofar as there are people living under world median income - yes, help them. But stop defining the phrase up to include ever-more of the world's 80th percentile in wealth.

[Buckeye McFrog]

My point exactly. Our definition of poverty is the definition of royalty to much of the world.

[Mr Rogers]

Lots of the article is BS. Lots of kids get lunch payments because there is no check - in fact, I had a school official try to get me to sign my kids up for free meals.

47 million in poverty...but what is poverty? Is it being in the lowest 20% of income? In that case, 47 million would be about right. And it does not include food stamps and some forms of welfare payments.

1.5 million “households” living on $2/day, $60/month? BS! Total garbage. It is not happening.

1/3 of kids live in households with income below 60% of the median. Hmmm...60% of 50% is 30%. So one third of kids live in households in the bottom 30% of income. Sounds about right.

[dartuser]

Only 1 fact ...

ObiOnes fault

[SunkenCiv]

The Obama Recession

to go with

The Obama Tax Hikes

[dragnet2]

Yet, no one in America is starving. And I wonder how many “poor” Americans have big screen TV’s, air conditioning, a bed to sleep in. Oh, and a smart phone.

What a stupid statement. We've had AC and phones since the 1950s, flat screen TV's can be had for 280 bucks. But now all those products are made in Communist China. You think think not dying of starvation, having a foreign made TV and and phone make America great?

How bad is it? We've gone from we're the only super power to, "Hey, at least your not starving".

[ctdonath2]

Quick responses:

#1 “Poverty” is undefined. There are a lot of people whose income depends on making sure that “poverty” is as expansive as can be.

#2 Children on food stamps went from 1 in 8 to 1 in 5 UNDER THE OBAMA’S ADMINISTRATION. This very well could be from expanded eligibility, not change in actual hunger.

#3 1.5M homes living on $2/day? OK, they need help - what do they need and where should charities send help?

#4 Food banks are largely open to anyone, no questions asked. I’ve actually had trouble finding someplace to give away several bushels of bread a week.

#5 Homeless children are, I expect, largely a consequence of family breakdown, much of which in allowance with Leftist “family values” (celebration of single parenthood, out-of-wedlock birth, release of mentally ill, etc).

#6 One night in emergency housing does not make for poverty.

#7 Allow homelessness, protect it as a right, and subsidize those living that way, and you’ll get more “homeless enclaves”.

#8 School lunch subsidy eligibility has been expanded tremendously; no wonder there are more kids getting free food.

#9 The government is giving away ever more welfare under broadening eligibility guidelines. No wonder more homes receive some federal monies.

#10 See #5.

#11 Again, “poverty” is undefined. Reviewing #5 may be very relevant.

#12 Move.

#13 Maybe there’s a meaningful correlation there. We’re not allowed to discuss it.

#14 See #5, which has a strong correlation to poverty. Don’t make ‘em together if you’re not going to raise ‘em together.

#15 I did too. Didn’t consider it a problem, it was a good chance to save before heading out.

#16 Regulations make it ever harder to hire at a “good” wage.

#17 Between high minimum wages preventing job creation, and lucrative benefits, there’s little incentive to make/take jobs.

#18 Mortgage industry has made it more profitable to build more expensive homes (more money from fewer buyers). Society doesn’t want affordable homes.

#19 According to recent tax deadlines, government is taking a ridiculous percentage of earners’ incomes - making it hard to live without debt.

#20 See #18. Mortgage debt is encouraged & expected & normalized. Oh, and seeing as the federal government owes $18,000,000,000,000 and has less cash on hand than Apple, let’s start with curbing federal spending first.

#21 If you took all wealth from the top 0.1% and gave it all to the bottom 90%, you’d double their wealth. Think about whether that would really make a difference.

[driftless2]

Yet, no one in America is starving. And I wonder how many "poor" Americans have big screen TV's, air conditioning, a bed to sleep in. Oh, and a smart phone.

Poverty in America is a relative thing. When I think of poverty I think of other places in the world where people are dressed in rags and actually do have to worry about whether they'll eat that night or not.

Nothing like that is occurs in the U.S. In America the poorest third of the population is the fattest. And a lot of them have a roof over their heads and those creature comforts you mentioned.

[driftless2]

Lots of the article is BS.

Yes.

[driftless2]

Where a product is made is irrelevant to the discussion. The facts are “poverty stricken” in America is not the same as poverty stricken in most countries. If you’re telling me the poorest third of the country is the fattest (which they are), that sure doesn’t sound like poverty stricken to me.

[dragnet2]

The facts are poverty stricken in America is not the same as poverty stricken in most countries.

No one said it was. But the fact is middle America has been in steep decline in every direction, and continues on that course. This is no secret.

Are you suggesting because people are not yet starving in the streets, have Communist Chinese made 280 dollar TVs and Korean made phones is somehow sign of a successful great country?

Come on.

[neefer]

lines start forming at some U.S. food banks as early as 6:30 in the morning because people want to get something before the food supplies run out.

People don't go to food banks early because they're afraid the food will run out. They want the first and best selection of perishable daily donations from supermarkets, Panera, etc.

[Glad2bnuts]

I am one of the poor, I make my bills and have nothing left for the future, I take no handouts. It has been this way since 2007. I just wish my wife wouldn’t have bailed and taken my life savings, but it is what it is..

[ctdonath2]

So long as the solution revolves around taking money from the “rich” and giving it to the “poor”, the situation (whatever it is) will not improve.

[dragnet2]

I’m more concerned with middle America who’s been left all but dead on the floor by very inept and corrupt American leadership.

[sportutegrl]

“I want to live in a country where the poor people are fat.” Dinesh Disouza

[ctdonath2]

What’s bad is that most people wouldn’t know what to do with sustenance staples & tools if handed to them in excessive quantity.

That smartphone? Instant access to endless information on cheap living. Instant access to [outgoing] advertising whatever goods & services they want to produce.
That TV? They’d rather stare at it than be productive. I, frankly, don’t see how anyone can survive while watching 40 hrs of TV a week, when I can barely squeeze in 4 hours a month.

Sure they’re not starving, but they’re not motivated to produce either.
I sometimes take meals to the impoverished. More often than not it’s obvious why the condition, and it’s a matter of choice.

[ctdonath2]

That middle America (me included) need move into affordable homes and stop buying stupid $#!^, and storm their representatives & demand end to oppressive regulations & taxes. But no, they get huge mortgages and vote for people who will take ever more of their income.

[i_robot73]

Maybe, the problem is the definition of ‘poverty’. I’d wager to guess, it’s the same as ‘unemployed’ (living off the millions in the savings account STILL = ‘unemployed’ = ‘looking for job and none available’)

Seems to me, we had a WHOLE lot less issues when the govt wasn’t fighting a war on ‘poverty’ by stealing from the taxpayers to give to preferred demographics.