POVERTY NO MATTER HOW YOU SLICE IT

For the fourth consecutive year the poverty rate rose, from 12.5% in 2003 to 12.7% in 2004. The number of people in poverty increased also, by 1.1 million, to 37.0 million in 2004.

37 million people in poverty? In the US? Yep.

"How much can a person make and be "in poverty"?" you might ask.

According to the US Census Bureau, the 2005 Poverty Threshold, without going thru charts and tables, this is how it breaks down:

One Person - less than $10,000/yr; Two Persons - Less than $13K; Three People - Less than $16K; Four People - $20K; etc. etc.


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Comments

Anonymous said…
I think some of this data is skewed by the hundreds of thousands who come into the country illegally each year. Before any of you bleeding hearts put your blinders on in a hissy fit, I'm not making a judgment on whether folks should be allowed to immigrate (legally or illegally), etc. I'm just pointing out that I'm sure it's a good bet that the vast majority of folks who enter the country illegally are subsisting below the poverty line. I see this in the parents of some of our kids. They don't speak English and many didn't finish high school in their native lands. As a result, their kids live in poverty here (albeit better off than they would have been from whence their parents came). However, their kids do speak English and do graduate from high school and then move on and up. As per today's LA Times, the unemployment rate is about 4%, meaning that 96% of folks can find work! And so that means that this second generation will likely find better paying jobs and may even go on to college. My point is that current immigration is fueling a growth in poverty. It will likely take a generation for these families to rise out of poverty and so the numbers will not reflect the upswing that is happening with the children until several years down the line.
12/23/2006 6:02 PM
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