Hunger and Poverty in America - US poor at 49.1m

[Andrew49]

THE number of Americans living in poverty grew today to 49.1 million, or 16 per cent of the total population, under a new US Census Bureau methodology that gave more weight to day-to-day expenses. Officially, some 46.6 million people in the US, or 15.2 per cent, live under the poverty line, but that figure is rooted in statistical methods dating back to the 1950s and based on pre-tax income.

The revised "supplemental poverty measure" for 2010 - unveiled today by the Census Bureau - gives more weight to expenses such as taxes, work-related expenses, child care, child support and out-of-pocket medical expenses.

Source (http://bit.ly/ud7aRT)

Astonishing numbers and confirms what my brother has been telling me this past decade about life in America. Seems moves to create two classes of people (the super-rich and the rest of us) is going to plan.

[fluffybiscuits]

THE number of Americans living in poverty grew today to 49.1 million, or 16 per cent of the total population, under a new US Census Bureau methodology that gave more weight to day-to-day expenses. Officially, some 46.6 million people in the US, or 15.2 per cent, live under the poverty line, but that figure is rooted in statistical methods dating back to the 1950s and based on pre-tax income.

The revised "supplemental poverty measure" for 2010 - unveiled today by the Census Bureau - gives more weight to expenses such as taxes, work-related expenses, child care, child support and out-of-pocket medical expenses.

Source (http://bit.ly/ud7aRT)

Astonishing numbers and confirms what my brother has been telling me this past decade about life in America. Seems moves to create two classes of people (the super-rich and the rest of us) is going to plan.

What happens next? Well we get two classes of people and therefore we get the cream of the crop who want their hands on oil and money invading and bringing more young people to their death. This idea also creates a divide and conquer strategy idea for the American right, if a working class people are so demotivated and lacking any fire they wont fight them .

[morticia]

Sooner or later, I'd imagine the American working classes might spawn a real leader. The worse it gets, the more likely that becomes.

[C. Flower]

Feature on RTE News about how African Americans are joining in "Occupy Wall Street" - great to see unsectarian action and also good to see pigs/RTE flying and reporting on this.

[Andrew49]

As of June 2011 there were 45,183,931 people on food stamps.

Of that:

35% are white or 15,814,375 white people.
22% are African American, or 9,940,264 black people.

The full breakdown is:

35% are White
22% are African American
10% are Hispanic
2% are Asian
4% are Native American
19% are Unknown

Further breakdowns aside from race:

49% of all participants are children (17 or younger), and 49% of them live in single-parent households.
15% of all participants are elderly (age 60 or over).
20% of all participants are non-elderly disabled people.
The average gross monthly income per food stamp household is $731; The average net income is $336.

All information is from the US Department of Agriculture.

[TotalMayhem]

Just came across this (http://blogs.ft.com/the-a-list/2012/04/02/only-the-rich-are-benefiting-from-americas-recovery/#ixzz1qu9jSsG8):


The top 1 per cent got 45 per cent of Clinton-era economic growth and 65 per cent of the economic growth during the Bush era. So far in the Obama recovery, the top 1 per cent has pocketed 93 per cent of the gains.

[Sidewinder]

Astonishing numbers and confirms what my brother has been telling me this past decade about life in America. Seems moves to create two classes of people (the super-rich and the rest of us) is going to plan.

Well....this would really just be a return to status-quo, and that is what is really going on.

Since the early 1970s there has been a concerted counter-revolution going on, in plain sight, with the explicit aim of rolling back all the gains made by the peasantry since the end of WWI, and returning the world to it's "natural" state of a mass of impoverished peasantry with no rights, and a fabulously wealthy, tiny elite with all the power.

Looked at in the broad sweep of history the small gains in living & working conditions, pay, rights, entitlements etc made by ordinary people from 1918-1978 or thereabouts were the aberration, an aberration which is now being swiftly rectified.

Welcome to your shiny new medieval future for people in N America and Europe. Course, most of the rest of the world never really left an authoritarian impoverished feudal state in the first place, so their peoples won't really notice much difference.

[C. Flower]

One in seven Americans were living in poverty in 2011, and half of all New Yorkers.
The rate of growth of inequality accelerated 2009-2011.
Change we can believe in.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/25/weal-a25.html (http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/25/weal-a25.html)

[Slim Buddha]

It should be clear to people in the USA that this is core Republican Party philosophy. If an outfit like the Tea Party were operating in a continental European country, they would be regarded as extreme right-wing types far to the right of UKIP. I am not sure if the USA can function anymore with just two parties contesting elections.