The government started keeping poverty statistics in 1959. More people fell below the poverty line last year than ever in the time since. Last year 43 million citizens fell to the poverty classification, the Census Bureau found. The number represents 14.3 percent of the United States of America population. The year prior, 13.2 percent fell below the low income line. The poverty report is the latest in a long line of recent bad economic news Republicans are crowing about as the November election approaches. They’ll hope the electorate ignores a longer view of the poverty rate. Statistics over the previous 10 years show that Republican policies played a role within the current increasing level. Those on the left contend the low income rate is an inadequate measure of what constitutes being poor in the real world. The other side has an opposite point of view. They say the low income line is an insufficient way to determine who is financially poor and who isn’t. Next year, the government will start considering additional factors in an effort to get a more accurate reading of poverty within the U.S.
Poverty rate bad, however might have been even worse
A low income rate increase was no surprise. In fact, the Washington Independent reports that demographers expected it to be about 15 percent. As outlined by a Census Bureau official interviewed by CNN, a decline in elderly citizens falling below the poverty threshold from 9.7 to 8.9 percent kept the poverty level from ticking higher. The poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum income deemed necessary for an adequate standard of living. Considering that standard, the poverty threshold seems overly optimistic. The Census Bureau has been using an established range. About $22,000 a year qualifies a family of four as poor.
An argument on what is poverty
About a half century ago government officials attempted to determine the income considered at the low income level by using the least amount necessary to buy groceries. MSNBC reports that experts say current methods of calculating the number of Americans living in poverty fails to think about important factors beyond income. In an interview with MSNBC, Shawn Fremstad of the Center for Economic and Policy Research said the poverty threshold in 2010 doesn’t come close to what a family needs to survive in modern-day America. To more accurately calculate a low income line, the government will incorporate additional factors into the equation, for example, low-income tax credits and job-related expenses. Comparing the poor with the rest of the population depending on median income could give a more accurate reading, according to Fremstad. Median income within the United States of America was $49,777 last year.
Low income level becomes a political football
The upcoming November ballot gives the latest poverty figures more attention than usual. Opponents of the Obama administration say its policies are causing the problem . However economic growth through the George W. Bush presidency was accompanied by an increasing poverty rate. A Washington Independent article said that a Commerce Department official told Congress last year that after during the economic recession of 2001, the low income result failed to recede. The poverty rate rose .08 percent throughout the 2000s expansion. A greater share of the United States population was poor in 2007 than in 2001. The poverty increases throughout the great recession came on top of numbers already elevated by eight years of GOP economic policies.
CNN
cnn.com/2010/OPINION/09/20/meyer.sullivan.census.poverty/index.html
MSNBC
msnbc.msn.com/id/39211644/ns/us_news-life/
Fox News
politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/09/15/rnc-supports-odonnell-delaware-nrsc-changes-tune
Washington Independent
washingtonindependent.com/97318/poverty-in-the-recession
