A report just issued by the United States Census Bureau (Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the U.S.: 2009) has shocked America with the news that one in seven Americans lived in poverty in that year. The number of working age Americans officially poor in that year was also the highest since the 1960’s. That raw score makes an especially chilling statistic – there were 43.6 million poverty-stricken Americans in 2009, up almost 4 million compared to the previous year. Unlike many European countries, the United States measures poverty in absolute, not relative terms. Thus, the report defines poverty as a family of four people with an annual income below $21,954.

Foreclosures for August 2010 were also at their highest rate since boom turned to the most recent bust. Lenders took back over 95,000 homes that month, up 3% from July. This represents a 25% gain year-on-year.

The hardening foreclosure rate is likely to alarm Americans more than the news of increasing poverty. This is because most of us understand that recession and redundancy mean less spending money to keep the family above the poverty threshold. Many would also not have been surprised to hear that their Asiatic fellow Americans were statistically the wealthiest, and their Black compatriots the poorest.

President Obama would have been all too aware that the Census Bureau report covers his first year in the White House, when he said:

“Our economy plunged into recession almost three years ago on the heels of a financial meltdown and a rapid decline in housing prices. Last year we saw the depths of the recession, including historic losses in employment not witnessed since the Great Depression.”

These are among the most worrying findings contained in the report by the United States Census Bureau:

  • The number of Americans living in poverty last year was the highest since records began 51 years ago. It has increased sharply since the 2007 bust.

  • The extent of poverty in the age-18 to age-65 group rose from 11.7% to 12.9%. This is the highest level since the 1960’s.
  • Between 2008 and 2009, the total number of Americans who did not have health insurance jumped by 4.4 million. At the end of the year, there were 50.7 million Americans without this basic life-style cover.

Since the end of 2009, President Barack Obama has successfully pushed through his overhaul of the United States Health Care system. Unfortunately, much of this only comes into effect in 2014. Thus, this achievement is hardly likely to be foremost in the mind of poverty-stricken Americans when they cast their votes in the mid-term elections looming. (Information provided by )

Similar Posts:

Share