There are more than 4 million more Americans in living in poverty than previously reported and they make up 15.7% of the population, not 14.3%, as earlier estimated. The new figure takes into account actual costs of living that include medical expenses, transportation and childcare, putting the U.S. total at 47.8 million living in poverty. Keep in mind that even these estimates are artificially low, as they use the ridiculous figure of $22,050 annual income for a family of four as the threshold, when in cities like New York and San Francisco, a person would be lucky to pay $12,000 per year just for their rent.
Over 16% of seniors and 18% of children are now living in poverty and over 6% are now living in “deep” poverty, with family incomes of less than $11,000. Meanwhile, according the Economic Policy Institute, the wealth of the richest 1% of Americans was 225 times more than the median family net worth in 2009. According to the report, the bottom 20% of families saw their income grow only $200 for the entire period from 1979 to 2005, whereas families in the top 0.1% saw their income grow by nearly $6 million.
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| From the Economic Policy Institute |
As a result of unemployment, wage cuts, furloughs, increased health costs (insurance premiums have increased 131% in the last 10 years), and overall growing immiseration, 1.53 million Americans filed for bankruptcy last year, an increase of 9%. It should be pointed out that in 2005, bankruptcy laws were changed, making it much more difficult and costly for families to file for bankruptcy, making the increase even more appalling.
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| From the Economic Policy Institute |
Excellent, informative site! Diane Ravitch in this week's "Bridging Differences" post on edweek.org quotes Isabel Sawhill from the Brookings Institute. Sawhill's figures reveal that 20% of America's children are living in poverty and she predicts that by 2014 almost 25% of our children will be living in poverty. It's quite interesting to read National Association of School Principals' recent research on the PISA scores. When American students living in poverty are removed from the U.S. scores, American children have the highest PISA scores in the world. Poverty is the real story. Poverty is the real problem we need to address. Because our politicians and most Americans want America to stay #1 in the world perhaps our country will finally see that America can not stay #1 if poverty is the barrier that keeps 20- 25% of our children from being successful in school. We must break the chains of poverty beginning with 2 and 3 year olds by providing them with early childhood education that will prepare them to be successful in kindergarten. Although it will take many years to accomplish our goal, as more of these children stay in school and graduate and enter the middle class,their own children will do the same. We were a nation at risk. We are now a nation in crisis, and if we care for our country, we must face this issue head on.
ReplyDeletetheschoolprincipal@inthetrencheswithschoolreform.com
www.inthetrencheswithschoolreform.com
Thanks for your comments, School Principal. It's especially refreshing to hear an administrator jump into the debate with a sound, critical voice.
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