One in seven Americans now live on or below the poverty line, according to figures published on Thursday by the US Census Bureau. It is the highest annual rate in three decades, and analysts predicted next year’s figures would be even worse.
According to the bureau, 43.6 million people or 14.3 percent of the population were in poverty last year, up from 39.8 million in 2008. This is the third consecutive annual rise. The hardest-hit are black Americans and Hispanics.
The numbers are comparable to poverty levels of the early 1960s that led then-US president Lyndon Johnson to launch his “war on poverty” as part of the “Great Society,” a series of programs aimed at creating jobs and providing welfare — his equivalent of former US president Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.
PHOTO: AFP
The jump coincided with US President Barack Obama’s first year in office and reflected the impact of the recession on jobs.
“The one-year gain in poverty is the highest in almost three decades, when unemployment shot up in the early 1980s,” said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. “It’s only the beginning, since I would expect an even higher level next year.
“What’s important this time, is that [it] has especially affected previously growing parts of the country in the south and west, and the nation’s fastest growing minorities, Hispanics. They are certainly not as horrific as before the Great Society, but they reflect a huge shock to large parts of America,” Frey said.
The idea of the American Dream maintains a strong grip on the imagination of many Americans and would-be citizens, but a detailed breakdown of the figures reveals a grim reality.
CNN on Thursday broadcast a harrowing interview with one woman who has fallen into poverty. She lost her job, sold her television and furniture, even her wedding rings, and depends on charitable food handouts.
Named Maria by CNN, she said she never expected to find her family in this position. She had been an accountant and her husband worked for an airline: Both lost their jobs. They did temping jobs whenever they could. They have two children, one of them autistic.
“You either gather yourself and look for options,” she said. “Or you get depressed and shoot yourself.”
Many of those classified as poor have cable and satellite television, refrigerators, air-conditioning units, microwaves and a roof over their heads, even if it is just a trailer in a trailer park. But they have little disposable income and few opportunities to step up the ladder.
Obama promised during the presidential election to tackle poverty and to try to reduce the disparities between black Americans and white Americans, mainly through education.
Although the figures are embarrassing for him, they are unlikely to become a major issue in the run-up to the Nov. 2 Congressional midterm elections. The Republicans, while making jobs and the recession election themes, will almost certainly not make poverty an issue, partly because poverty rose under former president George Bush too.
Obama said the figures underlined why his reforms were vital.
“Today, the Census Bureau released data that illustrates just how tough 2009 was,” he said.
Without his reforms, millions more Americans would have ended up in poverty, he added.
Even before the recession, incomes for working-class people had been stagnant and the numbers in poverty unacceptably high.
“Today’s numbers make it clear that our work is just beginning. Our task now is to continue working together to improve our schools, build the skills of our workers and invest in our nation’s critical infrastructure,” Obama said.
One of the alarming statistics in the Census Bureau report showed the number without health insurance rose from 46.3 million in 2008 to 50.7 million last month. Obama introduced a healthcare reform package earlier this year, but most of the provisions are not due to kick in until 2014.
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