Poverty In America

[MtSmalls]

According to the Census Bureau report released this morning LINK there are now 37 million people in this country living in poverty, more than million added to that grim statistic over the course of 2004. This does not include the victims of Katrina. Nearly a THIRD of those 37 million are children. This is not Darfur poverty or Bangladesh poverty by any stretch. But let’s not fool ourselves either. For a family of four the poverty line was considered to be making $19,300 or less. That’s a fortune in the third world, but one disaster (natural or otherwise) from living on the streets.

Since the Bush Administration took office, poverty in America has steadily risen, with more than 6 million Americans joining that group in four years. And this is supposed to be the largest, most powerful free market economy in the world. With an estimated 400,000 jobs vanishing in the wake of Katrina, this number will be substantially higher next year. The administration spokesperson even tried the Rumsfeld defense, “We hope this is it, that this is the last gasp of indicators for the recession”.

Real wages have been stagnant for the last four years under this administration. One American in SEVEN doesn’t have health insurance. One American in 9 lives below the poverty line. All of these numbers are going the wrong way. Only the truly delusional can believe that this country is headed in the right direction.

Forget the “war” on terror. Forget the “war” on drugs. What ever happened to the ‘war’ on POVERTY???

[JonPKibble]

I'm sure Bush will be fighting the war on poverty in Iraq before anything is done about it here at home.

/Flame away

[tek]

[ QUOTE ]
Forget the “war” on terror. Forget the “war” on drugs. What ever happened to the ‘war’ on POVERTY?

[/ QUOTE ]

The weapon in the war on poverty was welfare. It didn't work. In fact, in made the poor even worse off because they and their children and grandchildren over the past 40 some years have become lazy, acquired a victim/give me mentality and have indirectly made the overall socio-economic situation in this country worse.

Another factor adversely affecting the war on poverty is the CIA/Columbia drug and gun-running operations in the inner cities the past 40 some years. And don't forget the war on drugs. The same people that buy drugs and guns from the CIA get throw in jail.

In conclusion, poor people have been conditioned to become out of work victims, buy drugs and guns, become criminals and get sent to jail--instead of learning job skills, learning self esteem, getting jobs and becoming productive.

thank you tek

[BCPVP]

[ QUOTE ]
What ever happened to the ‘war’ on POVERTY???

[/ QUOTE ]
It clearly failed.

Here is the problem... everytime these "poverty" numbers come out... everyone, especially CA will start beating the minimum wage drum.

I guarentee there will be hundreds of news stories over the next few weeks about how two parents working 40 hours a week at minimum wage jobs can't even support a family of four.

NO JOKE... there is reason it's call MINIMUM WAGE... it's the bare minimum for NON-SKILLED employees. The minimum wage was never established to make sure families could make the grade.

How about we start holding these parents responsible for bringing more children into poverty when they obviously don't make enough money for the basic necessities of said children.

[MtSmalls]

Forgetting about the sociology for a moment, but is this country best served moving back to a class structure reminiscent of the late 1800's? Or with a thriving, productive middle class?

During the 1960's, under the Kennedy and LBJ adminstrations several federally funded education and training programs were passed through congress such as the Manpower Development and Training act (designed to retrain workers whose skills were no longer sought after), the Economic Opportunity Act which created the Job Corps. The result?
In 1960, more than 40 million Americans , 1 in 5, lived in poverty. This was largely the black population in the deep south. By 1969, that number was down to 24 million, or 12% of the population. During the 1960's black family income rose 53%, black employment in professional, technical and clerical occupations doubled, the percentage of blacks living below the poverty line dropped from 55% to 27%. The black unemployment rate fell 34%. These programs continued to provide relief and opportunity to poor, until gutted in 1982 by Reagan, who cut all federal funding for these programs, leaving it up to the states to fund. Not coincidentally, homelessness in America doubled during Reagan's presidency. So it can be argued that these "liberal" ideas didn't fail, but that the government (state and federal) failed.

Its SO refreshing to see that virtually all of the arguments made against working to lift the poor out of poverty are nothing more than Reaganite parroting of "Blame the Welfare Queens". Charity and Compassion are Family Values. Just not apparently Republican ones.

[BCPVP]

By using the government to fund these programs, could it not be said that the poor/black/minority progress came at the expense of everyone elses'?

Do you see a problem with progress for the poor being based on who's in office instead of the poor's own efforts?

[Triumph36]

The problem with the current debate on poverty is that both sides have an entrentched either/or position - as is evident from this thread alone - tek puts it squarely on 'personal responsibility', whereas MtSmalls is consistently using statistics to show that the problem is social.

It's both. And until everyone acknowledges that there is an element of personal responsibility and an element of social responsibility, we will get nowhere in trying to remedy this. Welfare is not the answer - welfare appears more like a pacifier than a solution. But neither is absolute independence - if government assistance were cut, the poor could begin to rise up.

To me, the real problem seems to be that there are very few jobs or opportunities where these people live. Industry is disappearing from the United States, and I'm not fully convinced by the economic dogma that claims equal or better jobs will re-appear - not everyone can work in the service industry, especially when the poorest live in neighborhoods where there is the least need for service industry jobs.

Clearly there will always be poverty. But institutional poverty, generational poverty - these are things we hate to think about as Americans. Yet they're there, and the solutions just aren't.

I agree that the problem is both personal and social. However, I feel the social program have failed the poor in this Country... everytime we try to make changes... it political WWIII.

I really think the "poor" of this country need to take care of their own boot straps.

I completely agree that there is a time and a place for state help/handouts... but let's limit it to a certain time frame and dollar amount.