Number of poor hit record 46 million in 2010 (in USA)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. poverty rate hit its highest level since 1993 last year with a record 46 million Americans living below the poverty line, according to a government report on Tuesday that depicted the grim effects of stubbornly high unemployment. Underscoring the economic challenges that face President Barack Obama and Congress, the U.S. Census Bureau said the poverty rate rose for a third consecutive year to hit 15.1 percent in 2010.

The number in poverty was the largest since the government first began publishing estimates in 1959. The United States has the highest poverty rate among developed countries, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The poverty line for an American family of four with two children is an income $22,113 a year.

The data showed that children under 18 suffered the highest poverty rate, 22 percent, compared with adults and the elderly.

news.yahoo.com...

Yep, these are the people that many of you complain about not paying any income taxes...people that can barely make it.

Don't know how someone makes it raising 2 kids with that small of an income....especially when prices are exploding everywhere.

Food is becoming incredibly expensive, gas is through the roof, health insurance is absolutely insane, all energy costs are up....yet wages are still stagnant.

46 million. wow. simply sad.

actually PATHETIC for a 1st world nation to have this kind of number. PATHETIC.

reply to post by David9176


If those unemployed people look hard enough, there are jobs to be had. McDonalds pays a decent wage so I see no reason for welfare or unemployment benefits.

Start flipping those burgers!!!! Surely $6 an hr can pay rent, gas, food, children's clothes, etc.

Preposterous number! I smell all the right seeds of revolution right now.

reply to post by illuminatislave

Start flipping those burgers!!!! Surely $6 an hr can pay rent, gas, food, children's clothes, etc.

Not sure exactly what that comes out to a year, but i have recently read that someone working minimum wage (varies state to state) barely makes over 14,000 a year....just over the threshold to qualify for food stamps.

Originally posted by David9176
Yep, these are the people that many of you complain about not paying any income taxes...people that can barely make it.

Don't know how someone makes it raising 2 kids with that small of an income....especially when prices are exploding everywhere.

Food is becoming incredibly expensive, gas is through the roof, health insurance is absolutely insane, all energy costs are up....yet wages are still stagnant.

46 million. wow. simply sad.

actually PATHETIC for a 1st world nation to have this kind of number. PATHETIC.

edit on 13-9-2011 by David9176 because: (no reason given)

I would call it tragic.

Pathetic comes from the word pathos, which relates to an event that happened beyond anyone's control.

A tragedy is something that could be prevented.

Tragic.

reply to post by BadMagician

I would call it tragic. Pathetic comes from the word pathos, which relates to an event that happened beyond anyone's control. A tragedy is something that could be prevented. Tragic.

Agreed....

Population of Canada....35 million.

Number of US poor...46 million.

Originally posted by illuminatislave
reply to post by David9176

 

If those unemployed people look hard enough, there are jobs to be had. McDonalds pays a decent wage so I see no reason for welfare or unemployment benefits.

Start flipping those burgers!!!! Surely $6 an hr can pay rent, gas, food, children's clothes, etc.

I did this when I was unemployed in Canada and yes I was hired to do the $h!t Kicker work but I also got a very small paycheck. This paycheck did not cover the basic cost of living even when I worked night stock double shifts.

Australia has safeguarded its peoples wages by setting the award at 18-22 minimum for many jobs. This stops people from undercutting the pay rate and bargaining for lower wages to get the job. This is often done by people who live in large share houses who can afford to live on a lower rate.
When last I went back to Canada fully qualified with many years experience It took me months to get a job and that was going to interviews and applying daily. The job I got was a a Sh1tki1cker job in the industry of my trade and it paid my basic bills however it was hard to support my partner on this wage.
In the end I realized how good we have it in Australia and came back to a wage which is increased yearly.

All in all I would say your burger flipping comment is not sustainable for those stuck in the states and Canada and in no way could you raise a child or support a dependent on those wages. I am speaking as someone who is not afraid to get my hands dirty to work for a wage and accept a low paid job when needed. The pay does not support cost of living so your argument is from my perspective is invalid based on the first hand evidence and experience I have had doing it.

reply to post by David9176


My first job I made $8.25 an hour, this of course was in 1997. I quickly established a career and rose in pay to $11 an hour. Then I got into management and made a comfortable $37,000 in the year 1999. Today that same management job pays $32,000 and going down exponentially.

To give some perspective my rent in 1997 was roughly $450 for a 2 bedroom. Today that 2 bedroom in the same location is $980 a month. Price of gas back then was $.97 a gallon in 1997, dropping a $20 bill filled the gas tank. (I used to love taking road trips and could travel across the US with 5 or 6 tanks of gas.) Today a gallon of gas is $3.50. My standard of living was much higher many years ago. I did not need credit cards to purchase anything I had the cash. Somewhere along the line prices rose, as money got tighter I took out lines of credit. My company seeing these rising costs froze wages. It did not take long for my management income to become too little to have a decent lifestyle. I cut off my insurance payments, that I never used anyway as I was a healthy 20 something year old. I never needed dental work, or ever visited a hospital.

I married, had a kid, and bought a home. Dual incomes elevated my lifestyle into the middle class. We saved our money and made investments occasionally. When my child came my wife decided to stay at home, as I was making enough to support our costs. Then I got laid off my job, as the economy started to slow. I looked for work and everyone was laying off, cutting positions, etc. No problem, we had saved some thousands of dollars for circumstances such as this. After 6 months unemployed they decided to raise my house payment $400 more then it was. We tried to get refinanced and they would not do it because I did not have a job. So taking the rest of our savings we moved across the country to be near family. The family took us in and I was able to find work, saving what little money we had left.

Today, after another layoff, the savings is exhausted, and left with no alternative I readily accept food assistance and any other assistance I can get. 46 Million people are not lazy people. They are products of a system that has rejected them as unworthy. Most of those people have worked all their lives and given the opportunity would continue to work. It is degrading being unemployed. Even more degrading when other Americans hyped with their own sense of self worth will trample verbally on those less fortunate.

The numbers are actually higher. Think of all the people who barely make a buck or two above the poverty limit. They are still poor!

Yet millions of illegals are welcomed and hired for jobs while citizens fall through the cracks.

Thats what they get for being lazy!

Just the amount of lazy people I see at 6 in the morning, driving 45 minute to go 6 miles makes
me sick.

America needs abortion, for grownups.

If you need money, go plant corn seeds in the park and sell the tortillas you can make.

Cut down a tree build canoes!

Did you no that 50% of Americans don't pay taxes and are really lazy?

If you eliminate minimum wage, places will pay more, I know that when I go T.V shopping I like to pay more than the price listed on the tag.

reply to post by ExPostFacto
I am quite a bit older than you, but my first job was $1.25 and hour. Like you, I moved up in the world. Wife and I were living in FL (Don't get hurt on the job there), we were still surviving on about 60% of my pay, and then due to STATE regulation her company went bankrupt. We sold all we owned, moved to MO, living with family, both working part time, and we are surviving, but it takes 4 adults in a household to survive, and no, we are not living in a McMansion. The teapartiers, the folks that still have jobs, etc., let them lose there jobs and they will no longer be part of that movement. Because of family situations, I have been an adult since the age of 11 (am now 51), have never drawn unemployment, but am one paycheck away from being without the means to support myself.

Originally posted by Night Star
The numbers are actually higher. Think of all the people who barely make a buck or two above the poverty limit. They are still poor!

Yet millions of illegals are welcomed and hired for jobs while citizens fall through the cracks.

Can you please post some stats on the illegals, or are you just posting republican talking points?

reply to post by BubbaJoe


I too never drew unemployment even after my first layoff. I used my savings, as that is what any respectable person would do. However, savings only lasts so long and I know exactly what you mean having 4 people in a house just to pay the bills. When I moved in with my family members it was the same situation. Part of my unemployment went to pay their bills, because they were falling behind too. Then I learned that within our neighborhood of some 100 homes, about 5 other people had family moving in with them for the same reason.

Oddly, even in my circumstances I still support Ron Paul. I do so because of the larger picture. If sound money was returned to the people, and no over spending occurred we would all be better off. However, I think removing social programs for the needy at this stage in our economy would be the wrong move. We need to get our house in order before we cut off help for our own people. A great place to start is by cutting everything overseas. Our global economy has only made us suffer as a result, making life unsustainable because of profits.

If they are going to spend a trillion dollars on billionaires to bail them out, why can they not spend a trillion to automate farming and give everyone free food. I think our priorities are backwards in this country. Our people matter, more then profit of a corporation.

yeah people just have it so bad

by first job paid me $3,25 and hour and i was 16 and i told myself something then that most never will

if you cant feed or take care of yourself dont knock up a chic but nope other people and government are responsible for people instead of themselves.

people are poor because government and they make it that way. and the number of welfare receipients have double

hear that double in the last 3 years clear indications that social programs and policies do nothing for people.

reply to post by ExPostFacto


I am probably guilty of holding the sins of the son against the father. I think Ron Paul has some wonderful ideas, and in certain parts of my life, I am definitely libertarian. However, also have some issues with part of that philosophy.

I have lived in many mixed neighborhoods, have friends of all races, religions, and ethnicities. When Rand Paul suggested that we do away with the civil rights act, I closed up and in my mind, seriously hold that against Ron Paul. It is probably in no way right, but I can not get past it. I do not believe Ron Paul to be electable, at least as a Republican, I am not sure he would not draw big votes as an independent.

I want the Fed out of my life, but I also want the state out of my life, as well as the localities. The libertarians are preaching state and local, but they affect my life far more than the fed, and the whack jobs are much more likely to get elected at the local level.

reply to post by neo96


Well Neo, I told myself the same thing, and my first child wasn't born until I had been married for over 4 years. I truly do understand your frustration, there is a lot of fraud in the system, however, there are truly people that become poor through no fault of there own. Oh wait, I am at fault, because I allowed myself to become injured, or my wife is at fault, because the STATE, not the FEDS, shut the company she worked for down. You, like many others, want to take a percentage, and apply it to the whole.

I heard of a case of medicaid fraud today, I fully intend to check it out further, and report it if it is fraud. However, probably all I will accomplish, is to leave 3 young girls without health insurance, because their parents are not responsible, and daddy is a trust fund baby. Yeah lets give tax breaks to the freakin' rich, they will save us.

Originally posted by David9176
reply to post by illuminatislave

 

Start flipping those burgers!!!! Surely $6 an hr can pay rent, gas, food, children's clothes, etc.

Not sure exactly what that comes out to a year, but i have recently read that someone working minimum wage (varies state to state) barely makes over 14,000 a year....just over the threshold to qualify for food stamps.

That is before taxes if you get 40 hours a week.After taxes that is roughly a take home check of less than 200 a week. What Mcdonalds hires anyone full time? NONE. You are lucky if you get 30 hours, but most likely you will 10-14 a week.

reply to post by BubbaJoe


Your concerns are understandable. Rand Paul in my mind seems way apart from his father, so we agree there. I also am not a huge fan of state government doing anything they would like. In our nations founding though people were able to petition the third branch of the government (the judicial branch) for review on any given law. It did not take millions of dollars to do so. I would argue that restoring the judicial branch to its true role of monitoring the other two branches of government would solve this problem. It should not take millions of dollars in legal fees to get a review of a law that affects you personally. Additionally, there has been a lot of talk that judges are not supposed to make law, but they did have an appropriate power of interpreting law. The interpretation of law by judges was supposed to reflect the needs and pulse of society, and a judge seeing that society had changed its stance could rightfully strike down a law in its interpretation and declare it functionally void.

There are so many facets to the problems we face, the only real solution is to scrap anything that is not benefiting people and rebuild it with that focus. How to do that is anyone's guess, but I do know it will take an honest person with a commitment to the people to do so.

Originally posted by neo96
hear that double in the last 3 years clear indications that social programs and policies do nothing for people.

It couldn't have anything to do with paying select people a million dollars a month?

Or

The fact that the private sector swindled and misappropriated Trillions?