This is sad and scary:
WASHINGTON - Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of
Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by
on earnings that classify them as low income.
The latest census
data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high
and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of
stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers
and families.
"Safety net programs such as food stamps and
tax credits kept poverty from rising even higher in 2010, but for many
low-income families with work-related and medical expenses, they are
considered too 'rich' to qualify," said Sheldon Danziger, a University
of Michigan public policy professor who specializes in poverty.
"The
reality is that prospects for the poor and the near poor are dismal,"
he said. "If Congress and the states make further cuts, we can expect
the number of poor and low-income families to rise for the next several
years."
Congressional Republicans and Democrats are sparring over
legislation that would renew a Social Security payroll tax cut, part of a
year-end political showdown over economic priorities that could also
trim unemployment benefits, freeze federal pay and reduce entitlement
spending.
Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the
conservative Heritage Foundation, questioned whether some people
classified as poor or low-income actually suffer material hardship. He
said that while safety-net programs have helped many Americans, they
have gone too far, citing poor people who live in decent-size homes,
drive cars and own wide-screen TVs.
"There's no doubt the recession has thrown a lot of people out of work
and incomes have fallen," Rector said. "As we come out of recession, it
will be important that these programs promote self-sufficiency rather
than dependence and encourage people to look for work."
Mayors in 29 cities say more than 1 in 4 people needing emergency
food assistance did not receive it. Many middle-class Americans are
dropping below the low-income threshold — roughly $45,000 for a family
of four — because of pay cuts, a forced reduction of work hours or a
spouse losing a job. Housing and child-care costs are consuming up to
half of a family's income.
States in the South and West had the
highest shares of low-income families, including Arizona, New Mexico and
South Carolina, which have scaled back or eliminated aid programs for
the needy. By raw numbers, such families were most numerous in
California and Texas, each with more than 1 million.
The
struggling Americans include Zenobia Bechtol, 18, in Austin, Texas, who
earns minimum wage as a part-time pizza delivery driver. Bechtol and her
7-month-old baby were recently evicted from their bedbug-infested
apartment after her boyfriend, an electrician, lost his job in the
sluggish economy.
After an 18-month job search, Bechtol's
boyfriend now works as a waiter and the family of three is temporarily
living with her mother.
"We're paying my mom $200 a month for
rent, and after diapers and formula and gas for work, we barely have
enough money to spend," said Bechtol, a high school graduate who wants
to go to college. "If it weren't for food stamps and other government
money for families who need help, we wouldn't have been able to
survive."
About 97.3 million Americans fall into a low-income category,
commonly defined as those earning between 100 and 199 percent of the
poverty level, based on a new supplemental measure by the Census Bureau
that is designed to provide a fuller picture of poverty. Together with
the 49.1 million who fall below the poverty line and are counted as
poor, they number 146.4 million, or 48 percent of the U.S. population.
That's up by 4 million from 2009, the earliest numbers for the newly
developed poverty measure.
The new measure of poverty takes into account medical, commuting and
other living costs. Doing that helped push the number of people below
200 percent of the poverty level up from 104 million, or 1 in 3
Americans, that was officially reported in September.
Broken down
by age, children were most likely to be poor or low-income — about 57
percent — followed by seniors over 65. By race and ethnicity, Hispanics
topped the list at 73 percent, followed by blacks, Asians and
non-Hispanic whites.
Even by traditional measures, many working families are hurting.
Following the recession that began in late 2007, the share of working
families who are low income has risen for three straight years to 31.2
percent, or 10.2 million. That proportion is the highest in at least a
decade, up from 27 percent in 2002, according to a new analysis by the
Working Poor Families Project and the Population Reference Bureau, a
nonprofit research group based in Washington.
Among low-income
families, about one-third were considered poor while the remainder — 6.9
million — earned income just above the poverty line. Many states phase
out eligibility for food stamps, Medicaid, tax credit and other
government aid programs for low-income Americans as they approach 200
percent of the poverty level.
The majority of low-income families —
62 percent — spent more than one-third of their earnings on housing,
surpassing a common guideline for what is considered affordable. By some
census surveys, child-care costs consume close to another one-fifth.
Shrinking paychecks
Paychecks
for low-income families are shrinking. The inflation-adjusted average
earnings for the bottom 20 percent of families have fallen from $16,788
in 1979 to just under $15,000, and earnings for the next 20 percent have
remained flat at $37,000. In contrast, higher-income brackets had
significant wage growth since 1979, with earnings for the top 5 percent
of families climbing 64 percent to more than $313,000.
A survey of 29 cities conducted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors being
released Thursday points to a gloomy outlook for those on the lower end
of the income scale.
Many mayors cited the challenges of meeting increased demands for
food assistance, expressing particular concern about possible cuts to
federal programs such as food stamps and WIC, which assists low-income
pregnant women and mothers. Unemployment led the list of causes of
hunger in cities, followed by poverty, low wages and high housing costs.
Across
the 29 cities, about 27 percent of people needing emergency food aid
did not receive it. Kansas City, Mo., Nashville, Tenn., Sacramento,
Calif., and Trenton, N.J., were among the cities that pointed to
increases in the cost of food and declining food donations, while Mayor
Michael McGinn in Seattle cited an unexpected spike in food requests
from immigrants and refugees, particularly from Somalia, Burma and
Bhutan.
Among those requesting emergency food assistance, 51
percent were in families, 26 percent were employed, 19 percent were
elderly and 11 percent were homeless.
"People who never thought
they would need food are in need of help," said Mayor Sly James of
Kansas City, Mo., who co-chairs a mayors' task force on hunger and
homelessness.
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