Massive Increase in Poverty In US

More than 15 million Americans are unemployed, homelessness has increased by 50 percent in some cities, and 38 million people are receiving food stamps, more than at any time in the program’s almost 50-year history. The rise in poverty rates from 2009 show the biggest year-to-year increase in recorded history. An additional 5.7 million people were officially poor in 2009. That would bring the total number of people with incomes below the federal poverty threshold to more than 45 million.

The poverty rate will hit 15 percent — up from 13.2 percent in 2008. The current formula for setting the federal poverty line — unchanged since 1963 — takes the cost of food for an individual or family and multiplies the number by three, under the assumption that people spend one-third of their incomes putting meals on the table. While the formula may have been a good way to estimate a subsistence cost of living in the early 1960s, experts say food now represents only one-eighth of a typical household budget, with expenses such as housing and child care putting increasing pressure on struggling families.

In addition, the official measure fails to account for regional differences in the cost of housing, it doesn’t include medical expenses or transportation, and at $22,000 for a family of four, the poverty line is considered by many to be simply too low.

However, the Obama administration sees the Census Bureaus current measure as problematic due to fail to recognize the benefits of at least $100 billion in 2009 stimulus money spent for low-income families. Even so, as those direct subsidies and other job-creating federal funds are phased out, advocates expect the poverty rate will shoot up again next year, when the data is in for 2010.

Title: Collapse in Living Standards in America: More Poverty By Any Measure

Author: Christine Vestal

Publication Source: Global Research, July 14, 2010

Other Sources: IPS News, Rawstory, Census.gov

URL: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20124

Student Researcher: Danielle Frisk, Sonoma State University

Faculty Evaluator: Heather Flynn, Sonoma State University

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  • http://www.nosuch Prof. Mark Dharm-reese

    Our POVERTY is engineering socially by the Rothschild / Rockerfeller / Bush cult Eliets, and their CENTRAL fake BANK money from nothing scams, as well as extraction of natural world beyond recovery ability. Not high minded folk, it seems. They seem to be anti-life, anti-Christ, retarded adults deep in delusion and denial, which they project on innocent life, determined to destroy, not befriend and restore. They TAKE ADVANTAGE of our INNOCENCE and GOOD NATURE and lack of GILE, and then slam-dunk us in the hoops of their dreams. You did it, they say, but we did allow it.

    POVERTY IS A GREAT TEACHER. As a Spirit Soul visiting Earth, after your child-training experience, you FORGOT G*D, forgot YOU, forgot your mission, and sought THINGS and OTHERS. POVERTY will foster a fresh focusing on essentials, and this will lead to a better world. One either OKS SUFFERING, OR ONE SEEKS SOLUTIONS, RESOLUTIONS and new portals to pester for particulars promising persistent bettering, by a positive regard for the horrific situation, by design, so AMERICANs will freak out in fear, flip out in anger, become a WATTS MOB, and “Ta-TA!” Presidential Executive illegal-orders “kick arse” round ‘em up, head ‘em out, replay NAZI GERMANY, with new JEWS, or re-establish REPUBLIC FORMS of TEAM WORK and FIX the place with better processing of particulars.

    POVERY brings FREE TIME. Use it also to go inside, see your inner world, even if at first you find the unwanted, get beyond that gate keeper, and enter into yourself every day, to remind you, I AM A SPIRIT SOUL HAVING AN EARTH EXPERIENCE. I AM NOT AN EARTH ANIMAL HAVING A SOUL EXPERIENCE.

    And the N.W.O. cool cats would tell you you have no soul. White man talk to other white man, what black man or brown would believe such a lie, or yellow man, yellow soul is a glory field for sure. POVERTY stimulates original thinking. THE CRMINAL GOVERNORS WANT TO DESTROY YOU, AND HAVE YOU PAY FOR IT AS YOU LEAVE THEIR WORLD, seems to be a popular delusion. I think the N.W.O. fans just follow a habit, from a lost time, gone, and they brought those games into this place, and created POVERTY, not ABUNDANCE.

    Also G*D and MOTHER Earth, Nature Herself, must have felt man is a being of POVERTY, without inside insight, without major motivation, to change behavior, saving Earth Life Support Systems from the trashed state they now are in, so WAR and more WAR with THINGS and more THINGS would GIVE EGO THRILL to FEARFUL MEN seeking Profit, instead of G*D.

    POVERTY SUCKS. One sixth of Amer-I-Cans — 48 million — in poverty is an all time record, and in the Great Depression, 4/5ths of all, lived on farms, family farms, now 1/5th does, the rest, are CITY FOLK. And CITY has bad air, poor water, no free food, and many energies. First POVERTY, then MARTIAL LAW, then culling, pruning, stalking, taking, breaking, as if some MAD TEENAGE JUNIOR GANG IS MISFITS SEEKING CONTROL actually got control. But wait, MILITARY TOOK OATH against all Enemies, Foreign and Domestic, OATH to the CONSTITUTION. Poverty may breed a new socialism of brotherhood-sisterhood, team-work, share-care, all-for-one, one-for-all. Research shows that people in poverty are more honest, more caring, and happier than the better to-do money cult folks.

    As one who has gone from riches to rags to riches to rags to riches, REMEMBER to seek service, see what needs service, and share it. Avoid Satan’s whisperings to cheat, and steal, and harm, and bully, because score-keepers are keeping score, and later, you will ANSWER UP, it seems.

    Cheers!

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  • http://www.TheEconomicSurvivalGuide.com Lacy Cihak

    Great post.

    I have posted some reference link(s) that may be informative on the subject.

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