Poverty in US: American Dream Now Nightmare for Millions
I found this to be one of the most revealing articles I have read in the last few months...
One in Five Americans Live on Less than $7 per day
by William Shanley
Global Research, April 23, 2007
Thomas Paine's Corner
New Haven, Connecticut (April 16, 2007) From Combined News Services and Evolution Solutions Newsroom — A 2004 analysis of data by the US Census reports that 60 million Americans now live on less than $7 per day. That's one in five in the U.S. living on less than $2,555 per year. At the same time, the richest 1 per cent now garners about 16 per cent of national income, double what they earned in the 1960s.
While global income inequality is probably greater than it has ever been in human history, with half the world's population living on less than $3 per day, and the richest 1% receiving as much as the bottom 57%, the fact that so many Americans are living on so little, is particularly confounding.
The so-called "wealthiest, most abundant nation on Earth" now has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation.[2] In light of the fact that one dollar spent in the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia buys what $3 or $4 does in the U.S means the quality of life for tens of millions of Americans is now on a par with huge populations living in the developing world.
And there's more bad news to report from here. There has been no increase in non-supervisory wages since 1972. Twenty-five million Americans now depend on emergency food aid.[3] This rapidly increasing trend is a brutal reminder of how the extreme political right has eviscerated the social safety net in the U.S. over the last 25 years. At a time when globalization is in full gallop, and its destructive effects are being felt in many working-class communities from Detroit to Connecticut, the national crisis is being exacerbated by the rising power and stature of a winner-take-all culture that celebrates greed and egotism by rewarding the super-rich at the expense of the poor.
With only 6% of global population, the US consumes 25% of the world's resources. A profile of Connecticut, one of America's richest states, is quite revealing. It possesses islands of some of the greatest wealth in the world throughout Fairfield County, yet has three of America's ten poorest cities, Hartford—the capitol—Bridgeport and New London. The New Haven-Meriden corridor has the 7th greatest gap between rich and poor in the US–in close running with some of the Old South's poorest and most segregated states, Mississippi and Alabama.
Across the nation, the price of this economic dysfunction is an increase in the level of insecurity and pain for everyone, and there is almost no place left to live without encountering violent and non-violent crime, proliferation of drugs, guns, mental illness, lost hope, cynicism and corruption. At the same time, the middle class is being forced to bear the brunt of the economic cost for courts, police, prisons and welfare through taxes. While the median price of a home has doubled in the last five years, and with interest rates now on the rise, home foreclosure rates for first-time homebuyers are skyrocketing. Rents have followed suit, pushing millions more into economic hardship, poverty and homelessness. For too many Americans, the litany of violence, punishment and suffering seems unending, and the American Dream is now a uniquely Made-in-America Nightmare.
Global Research Articles by William Shanley
Original source - http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... cleId=5471
One in Five Americans Live on Less than $7 per day
by William Shanley
Global Research, April 23, 2007
Thomas Paine's Corner
New Haven, Connecticut (April 16, 2007) From Combined News Services and Evolution Solutions Newsroom — A 2004 analysis of data by the US Census reports that 60 million Americans now live on less than $7 per day. That's one in five in the U.S. living on less than $2,555 per year. At the same time, the richest 1 per cent now garners about 16 per cent of national income, double what they earned in the 1960s.
While global income inequality is probably greater than it has ever been in human history, with half the world's population living on less than $3 per day, and the richest 1% receiving as much as the bottom 57%, the fact that so many Americans are living on so little, is particularly confounding.
The so-called "wealthiest, most abundant nation on Earth" now has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation.[2] In light of the fact that one dollar spent in the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia buys what $3 or $4 does in the U.S means the quality of life for tens of millions of Americans is now on a par with huge populations living in the developing world.
And there's more bad news to report from here. There has been no increase in non-supervisory wages since 1972. Twenty-five million Americans now depend on emergency food aid.[3] This rapidly increasing trend is a brutal reminder of how the extreme political right has eviscerated the social safety net in the U.S. over the last 25 years. At a time when globalization is in full gallop, and its destructive effects are being felt in many working-class communities from Detroit to Connecticut, the national crisis is being exacerbated by the rising power and stature of a winner-take-all culture that celebrates greed and egotism by rewarding the super-rich at the expense of the poor.
With only 6% of global population, the US consumes 25% of the world's resources. A profile of Connecticut, one of America's richest states, is quite revealing. It possesses islands of some of the greatest wealth in the world throughout Fairfield County, yet has three of America's ten poorest cities, Hartford—the capitol—Bridgeport and New London. The New Haven-Meriden corridor has the 7th greatest gap between rich and poor in the US–in close running with some of the Old South's poorest and most segregated states, Mississippi and Alabama.
Across the nation, the price of this economic dysfunction is an increase in the level of insecurity and pain for everyone, and there is almost no place left to live without encountering violent and non-violent crime, proliferation of drugs, guns, mental illness, lost hope, cynicism and corruption. At the same time, the middle class is being forced to bear the brunt of the economic cost for courts, police, prisons and welfare through taxes. While the median price of a home has doubled in the last five years, and with interest rates now on the rise, home foreclosure rates for first-time homebuyers are skyrocketing. Rents have followed suit, pushing millions more into economic hardship, poverty and homelessness. For too many Americans, the litany of violence, punishment and suffering seems unending, and the American Dream is now a uniquely Made-in-America Nightmare.
Global Research Articles by William Shanley
Original source - http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... cleId=5471
Comments
I call BS on the statement that 20% (60 million) of Americans live on less than $7 a day when there is a robust Welfare system! OR, it means that 20% of Americans work an average of 1 hour a day.
Dont get me wrong, I am very sympathetic about poverty conditions in other countries, but in stating this about the US is a misleading statement.
At least thats the only rational way I can see this being true...even illegals working under the table make more than $7 bucks a day.
Once you have worked with poor people (especially children) you get a whole new outlook on the situation.
That's just more sweeping it under the carpet.
How many people really make it to the everything else page.
EconE - You are right about much of the poor in America, yet even a min wage job would bring in 2080 X $5.25 = $10,920 which is about 4 times the $2,555 amt that was quoted.
When I had kids come to me right before class and ask if they could go get breakfast in the cafeteria as they don't get to eat at home, or have children panic because they couldn't find their coat in the coat-room stating that they would be beaten if they didn't come home with it it really hit me hard as to how some people live. There were even students that would forgo recess in order to do their homework assignments stating that their family didn't even own a dictionary and they would be unable to complete the assignments at home.
I still think that this should be in the economics section and could/should make for an interesting and necessary conversation topic.