According to the U.S. bureau of the census, one in four children are living in poverty. How poor do you have to be to be poor? As of 1996 a family of four would have to earn 15,141 dollars a year or less, with those standards, the U.S. has reached over 40 million people living under the official definition of poverty. These figures come at a time when the stock market is hovering over 7000 and the news is full how prosperous the economy is.
Since 1990 the numbers of people that meat the federal definition of poverty has increased by about 7 million. For a single person in 1993 the poverty threshold was about 7,363 dollars per year earned. For a household of three the number was set at 11,522 dollars per year earned. The growth in poverty has remained constant since the 1970's, occasionally it has stabilized, for two years in the mid 1980's and for one year in the 1990's. Each period of stabilization is followed by a dramatic increase in the number of people officially living in poverty.
Some parts of the country have been hit harder than others, mainly the south and the west, with Texas and California leading the rest of the states in the levels of poverty. The federal governments removal of immigrant from the SSI roles has hit California particularly hard. Texas is now trying to privatize its welfare program and companies have already lined up to get the prized 2 billion dollar a year contract.
Yet the "bullish" economy rolls on like a leviathan crushing people in its' tracks. The media specifically wants people to believe that things are going great. The short period of wage increases that occurred recently ended. That the end of the wage increases occurred simultaneously with the "end of welfare" is no coincidence. There are around 37,000 people ruling this country whose assets total over 10 million dollars. If we do not fight these people things will continue to get better for them - at our expense.
-Aaron
U.S. Bureau of the Census, Staistical Abstract of the United States; 1995 (115th edition.) Washington, DC, 1995.