Poverty In America

[PokerMatt]

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And my point was that the number of people in perennial poverty is much lower than most people think. It exists and there are arguments on both sides on the way to "solve" it, however it's important to have an understanding of the scope and size of the problem.

By using the number of people that fall under the povert line to show that poverty is a problem in America drastically overstates the problem.

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I think you're underestimating how many people are entrenched in poverty.

Historical Poverty Statistics - Families

Historical Poverty Statistics - All People

For families, the poverty rate dropped from 18.5% in 1959 to 9.7% in 1969, and has hovered around 10% since then (with a high of 12.3% in 1983 & 1993 and a low of 8.7% in 2000). Individuals follow the same trend. Anecdotes aside, I don't see anything here that leads me to believe that most people move out of the poor group as they age.