47.8 Million People Live in Poverty -- Far More Than Previously Thought

47.8 Million People Live in Poverty -- Far More Than Previously Thought

Source

The Census Bureau has released new estimates that show the US poverty rate is far higher than previously thought, with 1 in 6 Americans living below the poverty line, reports the AP...(visit the link for the full news article)

Much like the underreporting of actual U.S. debt figures in main stream media, the number of people living in poverty in the United States has been grossly misrepresented. Revised census figures reveal the sad truth, and are a harbinger of things to come as social programming in the U.S. comes under increasing fire. These numbers are likely to increase dramatically in the next 2 years.

Source

Democracy Now (Entire Webcast, story embedded)

(visit the link for the full news article)

You know whats even more concerning is I'm just researching something through the Chronicle of the 20th Century before WW2 and I'm finding an almost identical pattern back then to the present times. Scary.

What is the US definition of 'below the poverty line'?
I live in UK and I believe I might fall within our own definitions. That said I count myself lucky. Is poverty relative to the norm of those around you?

Read George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier.

The book is really two in one. The first part is Orwell's eye witness account about the living and working conditions of the British poor in the inter-war years. The second part talks about how the middle class is a flase idea and what people will do to maintain their illusions of being middle class.

Forget 1984 and Animal Farm, those are works of fiction. The Road to Wigan Pier is Orwell's most important book because he explains why the lower classes will never stand up for their basic human rights together. A true wake-up call for Americans who love to cling to their title of 'middle-class' even if it is a title in name only.

www.amazon.com...

- mike

This is nothing. In a few years, it will be 80 - 90 % below the poverty line. I'm leaving room for the crafty and the super rich. The writing is on the wall... No end in sight for the bailouts, apathetic ancient Roman attitudes, drug and alcohol abuse rising, ludicrous debt, dead dollar, social problems up the yin yang, corruption, people fleeing the country, evil government, businesses moving out of the country, out of control military, extreme division, morally lacking violent populace... EXACTLY like Rome before it fell.

Living in poverty in the US is still better than a lot of places in the world. Sad but true.

The poverty line they are talking about in the USA
is a lot different then the poverty line say Uganda..

USA poverty line people have 100 plus dollar shoes
tv's, computers, internet, nice clothes and free food (food stamps)

Uganda poverty line, little hay shack, no water, no clothes, no shoes,
no food you die.. ect ect.

USA poverty is a cake walk compared to REAL poverty...

Agreed, 'poverty' is a somewhat relative statement, but the notion that people in poverty in the U.S. are secretly wealthy, or that the poorest in the U.S. don't face the same fundamental problems of the poor elsewhere is a bit ludicrous. An empty stomach knows no geography. The inability to feed, clothe, and shelter oneself is no less real be it in Ghana or Kentuky, and the global standards for poverty from Country to Country are not as wide as one might think...



Of course there is a social safety net in the U.S., for now, but the original article represents the writing on the wall for a nation where cost of living is rapidly on the rise, wages are on a steady decline, and the social safety net is being aggressively dismantled. The reality is that while a segment of the populace has a certain amount of wealth, an ever-increasing portion can no longer obtain the fundamentals of survival. The idea that these folks are sporting $100.00 shoes is just a right-wing denialist wet dream - people are starving.

reply to post by fnulnu


Just about anyone in America can get some foodstamps..

Not so many are starving to death in America...

I used to make less money than the poverty line but I wasnt living in poverty. I just had no debt and little in bills. Sometimes the numbers are misleading.

reply to post by thecinic


Food Banks Come Up Short

Clearly, Food Stamps don't meet people's needs.

NEW wordl order in effect, destroy the middle class as quielty and secretly as possible. Clintons, bilderbergs, geroge soros, damien chrysler, Bush family, and probably obama for starters, are all in this club, and in on this. america, the broke and helpless...used to be the wealthiest nation in the world, took care of its own people,t ill the corporations got greedy, as well as the FED and here's the outcome* conpiracy al on their behalf treason too

Originally posted by ziggy1706
NEW wordl order in effect, destroy the middle class as quielty and secretly as possible. Clintons, bilderbergs, geroge soros, damien chrysler, Bush family, and probably obama for starters, are all in this club, and in on this. america, the broke and helpless...used to be the wealthiest nation in the world, took care of its own people,t ill the corporations got greedy, as well as the FED and here's the outcome* conpiracy al on their behalf treason too

You've got it there. You've hit the nail right on the head and saved me a lot of typing excellent points and soooo very true.
Just like before the world wars - if people are hungry enough and can't pay their bills due to the lack of employment - What do they do? They join the Army.
I wonder why they're happy about the Gays been in the Army now? They're going to need every damn one of them - you can see it coming.
PROBLEM/REACTION/SOLUTION leading to DEPOPULATION OF THE PLANET and theirs nothing more productive than wars for these Evil, Soul less Morons.

reply to post by bluemirage5

You know whats even more concerning is I'm just researching something through the Chronicle of the 20th Century before WW2 and I'm finding an almost identical pattern back then to the present times. Scary.

Do you mean a Depression leading to war as the economic-social solution?

I'm not sure, but I think some of the 1-in-6 living in poverty might be protesting on Wall Street right now.

Just a speculation.

reply to post by thecinic


$100 shoes since when? I have 1 pair of shoes that have a small hole in them that are 5 years ol an cost me $30. I don't have cable, cell phone, new clothes, I have 2 pairs of socks, I only have 2 small tvs one 19" that is 5 years old an one that is 5". My car is broken an 90% of my money goes to bills with 75% going towars rent an 10% to utlies. I may not be poor like those in Uganda but I have a lot more in bills. I don't even some of the small things people take for grante in the USA or eurpean countries like kleneexs, forks, dining room table, or kitchen dish rags. I have two wash rags that I use for bathroom an kitchen. It has gotten worse over the years.
I feel forunate I don't live in a thir world country yet but at the same time this is bad for living in one of the richest counrties in the world.