| The percentage of Hispanic immigrants living in poverty would be far higher if measured by incomes falling below the state median
We're doomed, I tell ya, we're doomed. |
Posted on 11/29/2001 10:35:32 PM PST by RICK77
News Published Wednesday, November 28, 2001 Poor belie our golden reputation Census 2000 data shows Third World poverty in huge parts of California By Jack Chang CONTRA COSTA TIMES -----------------------------------------------------------
Countering traditional perceptions of California as a golden land of economic opportunity, a study released today shows the state is one of the poorest in the country and claims poverty levels comparable to Third World countries.
Over the past three decades, California's ranking in one poverty measure has risen steadily, from 16th-poorest among states in 1980 to its current ranking of second behind Washington, D.C., according to a report by the nonprofit Public Policy Institute of California.
The research group ranked states by the percentage of people earning less than half of the state's median annual income, or $26,347 for a family of four.
"In the early 1990s, this state had a harsher recession than the rest of nation, so that's one factor," said report author Deborah Reed. "But our demographic mix in terms of race, ethnicity and foreign-born status is also an important way to understand poverty in California."
The report's authors said the poverty measure they used was preferable to the standard method of comparing state incomes to the official federal poverty level because it takes into account regional differences in living costs.
California ranks 12th in the nation using the standard method. The report used only the standard method to measure regional and racial distinctions in poverty.
The study found that much of California's poverty is concentrated in one demographic group: foreign-born Hispanics. More than a quarter of Hispanic immigrants in 2000 earned less than the national poverty rate of $17,463 a year for a family of four, by far the highest level of poverty of any ethnic group in the state, the report said.
The percentage of Hispanic immigrants living in poverty would be far higher if measured by incomes falling below the state median, or about $26,000. The study did not include that measure for the demographic group.
In the past two decades, millions of people have immigrated to the state from Latin America and taken low-paying jobs in agriculture and other labor-intensive industries.
California has the nation's biggest Hispanic population, nearly 11 million, according to the 2000 census.
Many of the poorest live in San Joaquin Valley counties, the report indicated. About 22 percent of the general population there lives below the federal poverty level.
That percentage matches poverty levels in such Third World countries as Brazil and Egypt, which set their own income standards to determine poverty levels, according to the institute study and a United Nations report on human development.
By comparison, about 11 percent of Americans earn incomes below the federal poverty line, the institute's study showed.
Luis Magaña, who works with migrant workers around Stockton, said extreme poverty in the San Joaquin Valley results from both a lack of social services available to legal and illegal immigrants and from a lifestyle marked by low wages and long hours on farms and in factories.
Latinos make up 31 percent of the population in San Joaquin County, census figures show.
"Starving is a way of life for many people," Magaña said. "It's like they're living in another world."
The dire circumstances of some families living in the San Joaquin Valley serve as a sharp contrast to conditions about an hour's drive west.
With 7 percent of people living below the federal poverty index, the Bay Area claims among the lowest levels of poverty in the state and in the United States, the report found.
The region ranks well statewide in a range of factors such as educational achievement and children's health care, according to another study released today by the nonprofit child advocacy group Children Now.
Tracking numerous indicators of child welfare, the study finds a higher median income in Alameda and Contra Costa counties than most other California counties, with residents receiving good prenatal care, attaining high educational levels and suffering low rates of traffic injuries and deaths.
By comparison, Stanislaus County, in the San Joaquin Valley, ranks near the top of the state's 58 counties in high school dropout rates and among the bottom fifth in the percentage of children living in poverty, according to the Children Now report.
A recent arrival to Lafayette, British native Jude Parkinson-Morgan said she and her husband were attracted by Contra Costa's well-performing school districts and safe neighborhoods.
"But I can see a great divide between different regions here because my husband works in Oakland, and there's a huge difference just over there," Parkinson-Morgan said. "It would be wonderful if the schools in Oakland were better."
Reed warned that numbers trumpeting the Bay Area's affluence may be deceptive.
Over the past few years, many low-income people may have simply been priced out of the Bay Area by the region's high living costs, Reed said.
"If low-income families have been forced to move out of the region, the statistics don't necessarily reflect a healthy economy in the fullest sense where everyone is doing well and all people have their economic status improving," she said.
These illiterate peasants will be voting straight demonrat party for the next hundred years, (or until California reverts to Mexico, which ever comes first.)
| The percentage of Hispanic immigrants living in poverty would be far higher if measured by incomes falling below the state median
We're doomed, I tell ya, we're doomed. |
What am I missing, here?
And, does it cost more to be a poor person in California than in other parts of the US? I think you can be poor for much less in Illinois.
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The dumbing-down continues. The complaint that "half the people make less than the median income!" used to be a joke. It was used to poke fun at bleeding-heart liberals. Now here it is in the newspaper, offered up as a serious argument.