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Half of America is Poor -CBS
[Tycho?]![[Tycho?]](https://us.v-cdn.net/5018289/uploads/userpics/934/nHG8VEMRTY5QM.gif)
As elusive as doubtRegistered User regular
As elusive as doubtRegistered User regular
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57343397/census-data-half-of-u.s-poor-or-low-income/
Recovery™
Poverty. Are you poor? Notice an increase in poverty in the last few years?
50 percent is a lot. I haven't checked, but I'm sure the US definition of poor would be incredibly wealthy for much of the world. So how big a deal is this actually? Is this a minor hiccup, soon to be corrected? Or maybe we're nearing a repeat of the Great Depression.
I get the feeling this will be a major part of Obama's campaign. Half is such an easy number to use, it will fit easily into a slogan.
(AP)
WASHINGTON - 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."
Recovery™
Poverty. Are you poor? Notice an increase in poverty in the last few years?
50 percent is a lot. I haven't checked, but I'm sure the US definition of poor would be incredibly wealthy for much of the world. So how big a deal is this actually? Is this a minor hiccup, soon to be corrected? Or maybe we're nearing a repeat of the Great Depression.
I get the feeling this will be a major part of Obama's campaign. Half is such an easy number to use, it will fit easily into a slogan.
[Tycho?] on
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and perhaps other threads. I wouldn't be opposed to merging, but I thought this would be a big enough story for its own, likely more short lived, thread.
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
Yeah, it's really meaningless.
And yes, I'm totally poor. I used to be a (classically trained!) cook, and now I've been unemployed almost this entire year. Not only can I not get a job, I'm watching the pay for the jobs I can't get go down as well. It's crazy. Now I'm temping for minimum wage at a candy factory maybe a 3-4 days a month. Trying to get back into school to work on my finance degree, but community colleges are so over-filled right now that I basically have to try for an overload on any class I need.
Edit - I probably shouldn't throw out one-liners as my only post content. Let me get back on track. I would describe my situation as being poor as well. Only, it really is even if you go on dollar amounts. I've been working at this place for a whole year getting nothing more than 20-ish hours a week, breaking 30 probably twice. I can't afford rent, and currently live in a situation where I don't pay any, but I've been literally living paycheck to paycheck. Mind you, these are the worst working conditions I've been under at any job in any point of my life. The money situation wouldn't bother me as much if the mental fatigue didn't set in from that.
No, Wonka fired all his American workers so that he could use illegal immigrants.
This is really depressing.
In America, Healthcare Insurance is a profit generating business. Hurrah for pain and suffering!
Technically, we provide subsidies to the for-profit businesses under the hope that they will drop the price, but it doesn't work.
But we keep trying because
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It's a hell of a thing to reflect that we've gotten to the point where we've basically taken for granted that people routinely make millions off denying care to the sick.
Like, that's a status quo that public figures defend, and are applauded as defenders of capitalism for doing so.
That's a profoundly unsettling thought when it's late at night and a loved one is refusing to go to the emergency room due to sheer fear of the costs.
But that doesnt mean its free, or that you wont end up bankrupt/homeless.
Not only that, it's a mechanism for employers to control their employees.
Please go DIAF, Mr. Rector.
What's bizarre is that there are, if I'm not mistaken, certain protections in place for what medical providers can and can't do to harass people for back payment. Which implies an understanding of some serious systemic problems for the working poor, but no willingness to do anything meaningful about them.
That sounds like the same kind of crap that came out of the republicans a year or so ago, craziness along the lines of " They own a TV and a Refridgerator, THESE FILTHY PARASITES "
That was a couple months ago, and that was Mr. Cain, who was trying to run for President.
That's because it's coming from the cesspool they get their talking points from, a.k.a. The Heritage Foundation.
Feels like its been an eternity.
I like this response.
If you don't have a refrigerator where are you going to keep eight days worth of food?
I've sort of wondered about this. What do you do to prevent employers from denying jobless people outright on the basis of joblessness? Is there any way in which it's reasonable to, like, legislatively deny an employer the right to know your current employment status at the time of a hiring decision?
It's hard for that not to sound like an equally insane solution to an insane problem.
I would say that there is a difference between 'poor', 'desperate' and 'abject despair'.
A lot of people in the west fall into the 'poor' category. They can, mostly, feed themselves and eke out some meagre & unfulfilling existence, which should be emarrassing for the public at large, given how incredibly wealthy the nation as an aggregate is.
A few people in the west fall into the 'desperate' category. Their ability to feed themselves, keep themselves clean, shelter themselves, etc, has completely atrophied (a lot of those in this situation suffer from mental illness), so they beg in the streets in order to stave-off starvation and seek shelter wherever they can find it.
Nobody in the west really falls into the 'abject despair' category, which is what you see a lot of when you're in a failed state. People with full faculties, but absolutely no hope, and not even a community to beg for food in. Survival is the single objective in the person's life.
As an aside - I'm pretty sure that if you're dying of cancer - they aren't required to provide any services whatsoever.
I remember quite a few people dying because the only public hospital in vegas closed for this very reason.
those hours i spend in the office (to submit an updated form or fix a mistake on their end or whatever) are some of the most humiliating and frustrating i'll ever experience.
i believe the entire country has switched to electronic debiting, now. it's state by state so there might be some low tech holdouts, but most places offer 'cash' (which is like direct deposit to a debit card) and 'food stamps' (which are direct deposit of funds to the same debit card that can only be applied to food)
No, it's a debit card type thing now. The government gives you a set amount of money that you can use on certain foods each week/month.
They used to come in a sort of coupon form, but nowadays I'm pretty sure almost everywhere they're handed out as a debit card (that may or may not even be a VISA/MC). The only difference is that they can only be used for items that qualify (the card won't let you buy anything else with the money).
EDIT: And yeah, the cash portion that can be used for non-qualifying items, but I didn't want to complicate it too much.
So, how does it distinguish between food and other stuff? Or is it up to the clerk at the grocery store to see what you've bought?
Or do you have to like bring in the receipt to some office every month?
most major grocery stores have internal tabulation where it will say 'ok this much can be paid for by food stamps' and you swipe and then you're left a balance for the non-eligible items.
smaller places (with external machines for swiping) 'technically' still keep track, since they can get huge fines... but there are plenty of places in low income areas that will not differentiate, often gouging the user (ok you can use food stamps for cigarettes but it'll be $14 instead of $7).
of course, if those businesses which did this were caught, the fines are astronooooooooomical (like, potentially enough to shut down a local bodega)
I'm guessing stores have to have the system in place to discern between items in order to take the card.
as the end user there are remarkably few hoops i have to jump through in order to use my benefits, and the medical coverage is incredible (i've easily exceeded 50,000usd in medical treatment in the past six months, of which i'm liable for $8)
it's just, when you do need to update some paperwork or replace a lost card or do any basic, tedious thing at the office it is legitimately a fucking nightmare of long queues, an overworked system, rude workers, trashy peers, etc. just a demoralizing nightmare