Poverty and Politics
The American FlagObama may be preoccupied with healthcare reform, the world’s diplomats may be focused on the upcoming summits and the Copenhagen meeting about climate change in December, and the media may be quoting people all over the place about how economic indicators are showing that the recession is lessening or even turning around- all of this may be happening but the fact remains that there are a lot of people without jobs right now.
According to Reuters, the U.S. poverty rate has hit an 11 year high. 39.8 million U.S. citizens living in poverty. We’ve got 304 million people living in the U.S. That’s more than one in ten. That’s significant- that politically significant.
But what is poverty anyway? Everyone has their own definition, and here is what the federal government says:
Annual income of $22,025 for a family of four.
Annual income of $17,163 for a family of three.
Annual income of $14,051 for a family of two.
Unemployment in August was at 9.7%. The poverty rate is even higher, and everyone who has a corporate job is feeling the pressure and the pinch in a time like this, so the ramifications are wide. What are the politics here? It means that people need jobs and need to be taken care of- thus you see Obama pushing healthcare reform- that will guarantee him votes in the next election from this group if he can answer the question of medically, how am I going to take care of my family? And as for the jobs, his projected new pact with China means that there will be significant manufacturing jobs available through green innovation and energy companies in the coming years- but that doesn’t change what’s happening job-wise right now, or tomorrow.
The financial sector is off the front page- Bernake is in for another term and the stock market is climbing back to where it was, or at least close. So on the surface, things are looking good for the future. But let’s look at the numbers that, in the end, will determine the politics of the next few years:
It’s time for some numbers: (Remember, these are out of 300 million Americans)
46 million: number of Americans without health insurance.
8.1 million: number of families in poverty last year.
7.6 million: number of families in poverty in 2007.
(That’s 500,000 more. That’s 3.5% growth- if some company’s market share grew by 3.5% over a year they would be psyched- that’s a lot of growth in one year. Point being, this is families, not even just people.)
14.1 million: number of children under the age of 18 living in poverty in 2008
13.3 million: number of children living in poverty in 2007
And now for the quote that will stop you in your tracks:
"We project that with the continuing deterioration in the labor market, by 2009 a quarter of all children in this country will be living in poverty," said Heidi Shierholz, Economic Policy Institute labor market economist.
25% of children living in poverty by 2009? Is that accurate? If someone told you that 1 out of 4 children in Canada or France lived in poverty, would you be shocked?
How about in your own country.
Politicians- what are we going to do about this?
