The U.S. Census Bureau had calculated the official 2005 poverty rate to be 12.6 percent, or almost 37 million Americans. But the official parameters used –enough pretax income, plus cash benefits from the government, to pay for bare necessities — did not paint an accurate picture. So the bureau recently published 12 alternative measures of poverty, all but one showing higher poverty rates.
According to more realistic measures, such as those suggested by the National Academy of Sciences, the number of Americans living below the poverty level in 2005 was 41.3 million.
Though we will always have the poor among us, we should try to make it easier for those Americans who are trying to climb out of poverty.
Posted by Patrice Hein
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31 Comments
41.3 million Americans in poverty and how many illegal immigrants that is not counted?
Mary will tell us they’re only poor because they choose to be.
Through the ministries that I have worked with or lead I have met a lot of the people below the poverty line. About 90% of them think:
The are owed somethingThey can’t work to make enough moneyDigital cable is more important than food
Nobody is using force to keep these people down. However it is very fashionable in far-left circles to want to use force to bring down the ‘rich’.
It’s difficult to believe that a person with your mindset could possibly work with and/or lead any type of “ministries.” Where did you get your “90%” figure? Did you just pull it out of the air to make your post sound better?
I don’t know any low-income people who “think they are owed something,’ or that “digital cable is more important than food.” I DO know a number of low income people who work two or three jobs who DO think “they can’t work to make enough money” - no matter HOW hard they try.
im 1096 — well said
How proudboy can profess to work with ministries, then tell us that the poor are that way because they think cable is more important, is quite telling about his mindset.
You gotta be a republican, because the repukes see, to enjoy looking down on people. Combine that with out of sight salaries, golden parachutes, stock options and book cooking, and you have the proto-typical republican “rich”.
Small wonder why the so-called, “far-left” dislikes those ‘pukes with such intensity. Especially when, as posted in one of todays thread, the same ‘pukes are buying the repuke congressmen in order to stop things like medicare from contracting for lower medical costs.
It really is time to vote those same repukes back to the stone age, and get people in there who understand whom the constitution was written for.
Another example: A detailed report was generated this week showing Canada’s health care to both cheaper and better than the high priced spread we live with here.
So the real question is: who owns whom in this country; congress or big business? I would place all my money on big business, and come away rich. But at the expense of whom: the working public. That has got to change.
Want another? 94,000page tax code. Who do you think gets the benefit of tax reductions on billion dollar profits? Not the poor.
O, excuse me. Canada also has universal health care. We have over 45 million people without it. But, as proudboy thinks, they probably drop health care for cable tv. Your a real freakin’ winner, boy. Remind me to avoid your ministries at all costs.
He’s a libertarian, see his link.
Libertarianism is the fastest way to turn this nation into a 3rd world country where 90% of us would be at poverty level.
The 90% figure comes from personal experience, as stated in my original post. Just like the cable comment. I’ve met those people by serving and running charities. There are those who need a helping hand. In front of them you will find 40-year-old children expecting someone else to provide for them.
This entire thread is a joke. Poverty in America? Go look at actual impoverished people in other countries. They would love to live in the proverbial projects here in the US.
At the end of the analysis, being ‘impoverished’ in the US is a behavioral disorder. It is not a forced condition from which there is no escape.
Yes our standard of poverty is less than what is of third world nations and THANK GOD.
See, that’s what libertarians want. Damn it you should be thankful for your food and water and tent.
How dare you complain that you work 60 hour weeks and can’t afford to pay your car insurance that makes you able to get to your work in the first place.
Couple of folks here have either directly or indirectly made the claim that you can’t work hard enough to get out of/avoid poverty. It’s the age-old class warfare argument in the making. Here is what they need people to believe:
“You will never be able to work hard enough to ‘make it’. Therefore you should put us in charge of the government so that we can lower the bar down to your level.”
What is really funny is those of you on the other side of the keyboard very likely work hard and are not in poverty. Yet supposedly you cannot work hard enough. . .
Poverty is a mind set in saying that you do not have enough.Look at the dictionary meaning –1. The state of being poor, lack of means of providing material needs or comforts.2. Deficiency in amount, scantiness.3. Unproductiveness, infertility.4. Renunciation made by a member of a religious order of the right to own property.
So what is poverty?How are you comparing the lifestyle and cultures of one group of people to another group of people in the area that they live in?In other words, an Eskimo Indian man, living in an igloo with two fat wives, 30 pelts of skin and a thousand pounds of whale blubber might mean being a rich person to the Eskimo Indians.
Poverty to me really means deprivation, especially of economics or social necessities, lacking advantageous, opportunities or experiences that is the standards in that one society.A rich man in our modern society can have millions of dollars and still be in poverty.Poverty is deprivation, poverty is a mind set in saying that you do not have enough.
Poverty in America isn’t real poverty.
Go to Lord’s Diner and see the real poor of our streets. Then see if they have decent clothes, a bicycle and a cell phone clipped on their belt.
At least nobody starves or lives on garbage dump sites and sewer filled streets in America.
13. WHERE THE MONEY IS - The top 1% of US taxpayers (based upon adjusted gross income) pays 37% of all federal income tax. Twenty years ago (1987), this top income group paid 25% of all taxes (source: IRS).
Obvious Proudie has never been poor. Lucky him, at least so far. Something about pride goething before a fall?
J M I am interested in that study on Canadian health care. Where did you find this article? Could you provide a link.
Thanks
granny,Several years ago, I knew a number of Canadian Mennonite nurses who came here as volunteers. Their first question was invariably “How do you manage to cope with this chaotic, idiotic heath care system?”
Yeah, those elderly who worked 50 years on an assembly line and earned a pension for retirement until the company cut it really are just lazy and think they deserve a handout.
Those people who had to choose between poverty or a life saving medical procedure were just lazy and didn’t want to work.
The conservatives will find any excuse for the poor being poor but will view corporate welfare for multi-billion dollar companies as necessary for “economic growth”, even if those same companies lay off 30,000 the following month.
Don’t mind the conservative’s views on economics, the damage the Republican controlled government has done to the economy proves they don’t know what they are talking about. It’s no surprise that liberal economic reforms created the middle class, caused the greatest economic expansions in history, reduced the level of poverty and increased our standard of living. Conservatives hate success and just want to destroy.
The word “poverty” is being thrown around pretty lightly.
When I think of poverty - I think of the emaciated child in Sudan with the swollen tummy and flies that gather in the corners of his eye because he is just too weak to brush them away from the infection there.
That is unlikely to be seen in the United States.
What does ‘living in poverty’ REALLY mean here in America?
DougThe Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation would pay the benefits of any Defined Benefit Plan if the company was not able to meet its obligations.Such pensions can’t be “cut” by the company without court approval.
On the contrary Doug, concerning the differences between the parties: The Democrats NEED an underclass in order to win elections.The Republicans would be very happy if everyone was rich.The motivation to perpetuate poverty is with the Democrats.
I can tell you about the “real poverty” in America, because I’m saturated with it day after dayIt’s the severe and persistant mentally ill who are abandoned by their family and feared by others and have no idea how to access the system that can help them.It’s the drug addicted who lives are spiraling out of control, who live hand to mouth, worrying about how they’re going to stay high.It’s the single mom who dropped out of school and has too many kids with no skills to support them.It’s the children growing up in a culture of abuse, hopelessness, and materialism, with a lack of moral guidance and few positive roles models.It’s women who would rather be in an abusive relationship, even when it means subjecting their children to abuse because they’re so insecure and scared to be alone.I know many of you think I’m a hardass, but I can tell you from lots of experience that in order for people to rise above poverty, they have to make the decision that they don’t want to live that way….because no one can change their lives for them. As much as we would all love to have the power to lift those up who are struggling, it’s impossible if they don’t make the choice to change their lives. That’s the reality of our culture. Instead of helping, too often we enable, and by doing for others what they need to so for themselves, we only add to their helplessness, hopelessness, and insecurity.The way people become strong is if they are allowed to overcome their struggles themselves, that’s the only way to develop self esteem and a sense of independance. You can provide the tools for them to do that, but they HAVE to be the ones to do it.Also, poverty in America can’t come near to what it is in other countries, take a trip to a 3rd world country and see if you don’t kiss the ground when you get back..at least in this country there is opportunity to better your life if that’s what you want.I know this because I’ve seen many people overcome incredible odds to make a decent and happy life, but they had to do it for themselves, no one could give it to them.
So true Mary - which is why I consider schools to be so important - even to the point of replacing family when there isn’t one.
“It’s the single mom who dropped out of school and has too many kids with no skills to support them.It’s the children growing up in a culture of abuse, hopelessness, and materialism, with a lack of moral guidance and few positive roles models.”
At least give the kids a chance.
That is very well said Mary.
MaryCatholic Social Services has a program in which they do try hard to teach life skills and help them help themselves.I must admit, I only know this because I complained that the Salvation Army might be doing a better job than the Catholics, in that the Salvation Army does REQUIRE some things of their patrons, unlike the “Lords Diner” and some other charities. (Not putting the “Diner” down, just recalling the addage, “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.”Anyway, my mother has been employed by the Catholic Church for decades.She informed me that the Church did have such a program. In fact, a cousin of mine pretty much runs one of those programs.Many other faiths do the same work, of course.Sadly, motivating the chronic poor to actually learn life skills is difficult.—- Partly because their “friends” look upon them as “suckers” when it is so easy to get hand outs in America, handouts for doing nothing at all.
(I know many of you think I’m a hardass)
You have half that right.
Found a job yet, Bob?
Econ, so right..the more we enable dysfunctional behavior, the more dysfuctional behavior we’ll have.
“Found a job yet, Bob?”
Already have one, Mary, thanks for asking.
Note, you haven’t arrived as a hardass unless the libs start in with:
It’s difficult to believe that a person with your mindset could possibly work with and/or lead any type of “ministries.”
How proudboy can profess to work with ministries, then tell us that the poor are that way because they think cable is more important, is quite telling about his mindset.
You gotta be a republican, because the repukes see, to enjoy looking down on people.
See, that’s what libertarians want. Damn it you should be thankful for your food and water and tent.
Obvious Proudie has never been poor. Lucky him, at least so far. Something about pride goething before a fall?
I don’t think it’s that some enjoy looking down on others, It’s that for many poor, cable IS more important. And cell phones, and cigarettes, and alcohol, and drugs.I see it every single day in my work. Many of those who are on government assistance smoke, drink alcohol, and find all other sort of wasteful and unhealthy ways to spend taxpayer money. Pointing out that reality doesn’t make anyone an elitist, it’s just how it is.
Mary Caruso your last entry is very true. I have learned to live without the vices and the luxuries of life. I still have Cable though and it keeps me sane. :)
I probably would be classified as poor according to Government Income Tax standards, but try to wisely manage my money and resources.
I’m still able to put several hundred dollars a way a month in savings and investment. I don’t buy fast food hardly ever and stay away from those things I don’t need.
I buy second hand clothes, read used books or go to the Library. I have dishes from a garage sale and furniture that are hand-me downs. I re-upholstered my furniture by learning how. I refinished the woodwork on the furnish by asking how and listening.
My car and house are paid for as I plotted a course to pay for them. I keep no credit cars as I don’t want to owe anyone.
I hang my clothes from a line and wash my dishes by hand. I learned from my grandparents and parents how to be thrifty. I clip coupons and actually utilize them.
I don’t use the food warehouse as I think there might be children and poor that need it more than I.
I am rich with content and satisfied fully of who I am. I don’t need the luxuries that society offers to be me or someone else that isn’t me.
I give to charities freely and often. Not much mind you, but I am satisfied it is the proper amount and the right thing to do.
Yes, I fit in that category of being poor as classified by the government. However, I don’t let it hold me back or wear it like a badge of victim-hood.
I am a Kansan in the old tradition, a self-sustainer, a doer and one who knows that you deal with the hand that life gives you.