Sunday, September 18, 2011

Poverty in America: A Special Report

The Economic Collapse

America is getting poorer. The U.S. government has just released a bunch of new statistics about poverty in America, and once again this year the news is not good. According to a special report from the U.S. Census Bureau, 46.2 million Americans are now living in poverty. The number of those living in poverty in America has grown by 2.6 million in just the last 12 months, and that is the largest increase that we have ever seen since the U.S. government began calculating poverty figures back in 1959. Not only that, the median household income has also fallen once again. In case you are keeping track, which makes three years in a row.

Unemployment is rampant and the number of good jobs continues to shrink. Today, competition for even the lowest paying jobs has become absolutely brutal. The number of low income jobs is rising while the number of high income jobs is falling. This has created a situation where the number of "the working poor" in America is absolutely skyrocketing. Millions of Americans are working as hard as they can and yet they still cannot afford to lead a middle class lifestyle. The elderly are also falling into poverty in staggering numbers. They may not be out protesting in the streets, but that does not mean that they are not deeply, deeply suffering. One out of every six elderly Americans now lives below the federal poverty line. Between 1991 and 2007 the number of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 that filed for bankruptcy rose by a staggering 178 percent. The Baby Boomers have only just begun to retire, and already our social programs for seniors are starting to fall apart.
Unfortunately, it appears quite unlikely that either major political party is going to offer any real solutions any time soon. So things are going to keep getting worse and worse and worse. Should we just keep doing the same things that we have been doing over and over and over and yet keep expecting different results? What we are doing right now is not working. We are in the midst of a long-term economic decline. Both major political parties have been fundamentally wrong about the economy. It is time to admit that. If we continue on this path, poverty in America is going to continue to get a lot worse. Millions of families will be torn apart and millions of lives will be destroyed. America please, wake up! Time is running out!

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