Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.
Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.
The findings come as President Barack Obama tries to renew his administration's emphasis on the economy, saying in recent speeches that his highest priority is to "rebuild ladders of opportunity" and reverse income inequality.
As nonwhites approach a numerical majority in the U.S., one question is how public programs to lift the disadvantaged should be best focused — on the affirmative action that historically has tried to eliminate the racial barriers seen as the major impediment to economic equality, or simply on improving socioeconomic status for all, regardless of race.
Hardship is particularly growing among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among that racial group about their families' economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987. In the most recent AP-GfK poll, 63 percent of whites called the economy "poor."
The gauge defines "economic insecurity" as a year or more of periodic joblessness, reliance on government aid such as food stamps or income below 150 percent of the poverty line. Measured across all races, the risk of economic insecurity rises to 79 percent.
"There is the real possibility that white alienation will increase if steps are not taken to highlight and address inequality on a broad front,"
Nationwide, the count of America's poor remains stuck at a record number: 46.2 million, or 15 percent of the population, due in part to lingering high unemployment following the recession. While poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics are nearly three times higher, by absolute numbers the predominant face of the poor is white.
More than 19 million whites fall below the poverty line of $23,021 for a family of four, accounting for more than 41 percent of the nation's des ute, nearly double the number of poor blacks.
Sometimes termed "the invisible poor" by demographers, lower-income whites generally are dispersed in suburbs as well as small rural towns, where more than 60 percent of the poor are white. Concentrated in Appalachia in the East, they are numerous in the industrial Midwest and spread across America's heartland, from Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma up through the Great Plains.
http://mobile.sfgate.com/sfchron/db_41685/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=Z7VJkGWG&full=true#d isplay
white alienation isn't gonna take place. They'll continue to be the corporate puppets that they have been for 30 years (
we made Reagan a two term president but 1987 sucks!
All those white people in Arkansas and Mississippi feeling "uncertain" about their economic status are never gonna abandon the white nationalism and jeebo ism the rich have instilled in them from birth in order to pursue their best economic interests. The only they'll do is go after the Mexican who makes less money than they do mowing lawns because they think he's the reason their lives suck
Increasing poverty and economic inequality existed decades before Obama. Tell us about the numerous Repug jobs/economic plans and how Ryan's budget helps the 47%.
Something about how if Willard pays less taxes (because the tax rate he pays is sooooo oppressive as it stands) the laffer curve dictates that he will be increasingly charitable and let his wealth twickle down to the middle class/working poor. There might be no empirical evidence supporting this, but it's why the Ryan plan will somehow help the poor by letting the rich become richer. A rising tide lifts all the boats, because comparing wealth distribution to ocean tide makes completely logical sense.
What qualifies as poverty in America is a joke; there are plenty of poor no doubt, but the standard is BS. I've got about a half dozen cop friends who, of course, deal with people on the Lone Star Card all the time. DirectTV, internet, cell phones, nice clothes, cars... the friends are all Repugs now.
Nothing funnier than right wing anecdotal evidence about a bunch of god damn poor people!
boutons stole this from drudge report
So peoples earned money donated isn't good enough? How much money do you donate?Something about how if Willard pays less taxes (because the tax rate he pays is sooooo oppressive as it stands
Go into any city's welfare office and see how many 11 and 12 year olds have $100 shoes and ipods. I don't blame people for running the system. Just shows how smart people are. But yeah the federal standard of "poor" is middle class in alot of areas of America.
"What qualifies as poverty in America is a joke; there are plenty of poor no doubt, but the standard is BS. I've got about a half dozen cop friends who, of course, deal with people on the Lone Star Card all the time. DirectTV, internet, cell phones, nice clothes, cars... the friends are all Repugs now."
ah yes, the old ST Ronnie's "welfare queens in cadillac" .
of the 46M "poor" people on public assistance, how many do you think are really living well and/or defrauding public assistance?
how many are among 8M that lost their jobs in the Banksters Great Depression?
or among the 4M who had their homes stolen by the financial sector,?
or were suckered in to sub-prime loans by lying, fraudulent predatory lenders who violated all federal borrower qualification regs?
Last edited by boutons_deux; 07-29-2013 at 05:30 AM.
Idk what the you're talking about.
Folks, when you add up everybody's anecdotal evidence it equals what happens. You must go to high class grocery stores exclusively to not see the welfare abuse.
Also...Breaking News!!! If you don't want to live in a poor household then don't be a single parent. It's that simple. This used to be common knowledge even among children back when the world was sane.
"You must go to high class grocery stores exclusively to not see the welfare abuse."
so how many of the current 46M on public assistance are frauds?
got enough "anecdotes" to be statistically useful?
You saw one, or a few, and all 46M are frauds so cut public assistance by $100Bs as House Repugs want.
Maybe we should admit defeat on the "war on poverty" before it drags everyone in.
How often are you going to welfare offices?
The Corporate Right-Wing Agenda Is Driving Thousands of Americans to Attempt Suicide
Virginia’s suicide rate is now the highest it’s been in the last 13 years; Virginians are now three times more likely to die from suicide than they are from homicide.
And Virginia is not alone.
Over the past decade, our nation’s suicide rate has been steadily climbing, rising a staggering 23 percent. According to the Centers for Disease Control, there were 700,000 emergency room visits in 2010 alone for self-inflicted injuries.
The fact is, America’s suicide rate is on the rise, and Conservative economic policies are to blame.
In a study released in May, Professors David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu of Oxford University in England found that suicide rates in both the U.S. and U.K. increase when working class wages and wealth decline.
The study calculates, for example, that there were 4,750 “excess” suicides during the recession period in the U.S., compared with suicide rates before the recession.
Stuckler and Basu conclude their report by saying that, “what we’ve learned is that the real danger to public health is not recession per se, but austerity.”
That’s right. The very same austerity policies that Republicans in Washington are constantly pushing on us are the same policies that are driving Americans to kill themselves.
And these findings are nothing new.
Australian research shows that suicides increase under Conservative governments.
Australian scientists found that suicides in that country increased markedly when a Conservative government was in power. And, they found similar results for the U.K.
The team of Australian scientists analyzed suicide statistics for the New South Wales area of Australia between 1901, when the Australian federal government was established, and 1998.
They then looked at which political parties had control in both state and federal governments in New South Wales, which have consistently been under either Labour (like the Democratic Party in the U.S.) or Conservative control.
And surprise, the scientists found that the highest rates of suicide occurred when Conservative state and federal governments were in power.
And then here’s another smoking gun: When Conservative-backed austerity policies began to ravage Greece in 2010, the suicide rate shot up by 18 percent.
In Athens alone, the suicide rate soared 25 percent.
Before austerity came to Greece, that nation had the lowest suicide rate in the entire European Union.
In other European nations hit with austerity, the results are the same.
In Italy, for example, the suicide rate has also increased thanks to devastating austerity policies.
So, if Conservative-backed austerity policies are driving suicides here in the U.S. and around the world, and we’ve known this for over a decade, what can be done to reverse this trend?
Going back to the study by Stuckler and Basu, they found that to stop the epidemic of austerity-driven suicides, we must invest more in our economy and country, not less.
They show that, during the Great Depression, each $100 per capita of “relief” spending from FDR’s New Deal ($1800 in today’s dollars) led to a decline in pneumonia deaths of 18 per 100,000 people; a reduction in infant deaths of 18 per 1,000 live births; and a drop in suicides of 4 per 100,000 people.
etc
http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-an...ttempt-suicide
but your right-wing ers go ahead keep babbling out expensive shoes, relentlessly criminalizing the poor just for being poor. Suckered or not, you're shilling for the VRWC strategy of criminalizing the poor while forcing them into poverty, with NO HOPE for escape.
you wouldnt happen to be black?
Busted!
How Iceland handled their Banskters and their Banskters Great Depression
"Despite all of this, rather than take the Conservative approach that we took here in America, bailing out the banks and slashing funding to crucial government programs, Iceland decided to say no to austerity, and rejected major cuts to its social safety net programs.
As a result, there was no significant increase in suicides during Iceland’s economic collapse."
Unlike USA, Iceland also prosecuted and convicted some of their bankers. Being an Iceland banker is now lower than being a drug dealer.
Unlike "Bowling Alone" America, Iceland is small enough to have considerable social, cultural cohesion and civic participation.
We'll see if Ireland manages to prosecute/convict their bankers for Ireland Banksters Great Deprssion, who were caught on tape laughing about lying to the govt about how many $Bs were needed to bail them out. Sorta like dubya's extortionist Henry Paulsen pulling out of his ass "give me $700B, in 7 days max, keep me out of reach of legislature and judiciary, or else"
otoh, Fabulous Fabrice, convicted fraudster, is a hero on Wall St for pulling off a huge $1B fraud, suckering the Muppets, while co-fraudster and beneficiary John Paulsen skated free.
Last edited by boutons_deux; 08-04-2013 at 11:24 AM.
It might have something to do with letting big banks literally do whatever they want and screw everyone over, destroying all gains the middle class has made in recent years and then not punishing the s responsible.
What gains have the middle class gained in recent years?
They have the best hand sanitizer
Do the Math: People Don't Choose to Be Poor or Unemployed
And unemployed. That's the good life. Poor and unemployed.
I mean, just look at all the cool stuff you get. Medicaid and welfare. Food stamps and unemployment insurance. And don't forget public housing.
This stuff is so awesome that it's like a "hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency, that drains them of their will and their incentive to make the most of their lives." That's what Paul Ryan says, at least, and as the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, he's supposed to know these things, right?
According to Ryan and his fellow Republicans, if I have unemployment insurance, I'll never want to work again. Senator Rand Paul says it will cause me "to become part of this perpetual unemployed group." With an average benefit of $269 per week, I'll be living on Easy Street.
This is a common belief. There's an email making the rounds from a 54-year-old consulting engineer who makes $60,000 a year and has to pay $482 a month for health insurance under Obamacare, but that's not his biggest complaint. He's really upset that his 61-year-old girlfriend who makes $18,000 a year only has to pay $1 a month for health insurance.
He thinks she has it so easy that she can afford to pay more, but he's wrong.
On average, Americans earning $18,000 a year pay more than $3,000 in taxes, so she really only has $15,000 leftover to pay her expenses. She lives in Monterey, CA, where the average rent and utilities add up to $15,000 a year. So, after paying taxes, rent, and utilities, she's completely broke. She doesn't have money for food, let alone health insurance.
The consulting engineer thinks people will choose her lifestyle over his. "Heck, why study engineering when I can be a schlub for $20K per year?" he asks. (Nice way to talk about your girlfriend, by the way.) To which I'd like to reply: If being a "schlub" is so attractive, why don't you do it? Why don't you quit your engineering job and join the "$20K per year" club?
For that matter, why don't we all quit our jobs right now and start collecting unemployment insurance? How far do you honestly think we can stretch $269 a week?
I'll tell you how far: It would cover less than half of the basic necessities for the average American family.
That's why unemployment makes you more likely to have to borrow money from a friend, withdraw money from your retirement savings, and have trouble paying your medical bills, rent, and mortgage. It makes you more likely to have a stroke or heart attack, lose self-respect, have difficulty sleeping, and seek professional help for anxiety and depression. It makes you more likely to kill yourself, kill others, and drink yourself to death.
And if you've been unemployed for more than a few months, most employers won't even look at your résumé. It doesn't matter how qualified you are. It's like you don't exist anymore.
The last time it was this bad, with long-term unemployment close to 3 percent of the workforce, was the peak of the 1980-81 recession. Back then, the federal government kept extended unemployment insurance in place for almost two more years, until the long-term unemployment rate fell close to 1 percent. In fact, that's been standard operating procedure for every recession in the modern era, including 1990-91 and 2001. But now, with long-term unemployment as high as it's been since World War II, Republicans have killed the emergency unemployment insurance program, and they're fighting Democrats' efforts to restore it.
They don't seem to care that there are 2.9 applicants for every job opening. They don't seem to care that people on unemployment insurance actually spend more time searching for work than their fellow unemployed who are ineligible for benefits. They're sticking to their story.
On the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty, many Americans are still operating under the assumption that people choose to be poor and unemployed, that they'd rather be lazy than rich, that they can afford the basic necessities of life. But the numbers tell a different story.
I don't wish I were poor. Or unemployed. And I sure don't wish it on anyone else. If you did the math, neither would you.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthon...b_4578856.html
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