“There is something tragic about Edwards’s failure to break through. Today, 37 million Americans live below the poverty line, 12 million more than at the time of Kennedy’s death. And yet Edwards’s call of conscience has not resonated. By all rights, Edwards, the son of a millworker, should have an easier time talking about poverty than did Kennedy, the son of a millionaire. His difficulty speaks to the candidate’s inability to connect. It also speaks to the nation’s inability to be moved.”Going by Newsweek's figures, when Bobby Kennedy was murdered in 1968 the population was a bit over 200 million. Today the US population is over 300 million.
So, if you go by Newsweek's figures the poverty rate has declined from 12.5% in 1968 to 12.3% in 2007.
Official government figures have the poverty rate at 12.8 in 1968 and 12.6 in 2005.
Here is a look at the Historical US Poverty Rate:
Also... To give you a better idea of how things are today, according to US Census Bureau Figures the poverty rate during the Bush years is much lower than during the Clinton years!
No wonder Pony's "Poverty Tour" tanked.
So... Maybe the reason America is "not moved enough" by John Edwards' theatrics is because America knows better!
And, then there is this from The Heritage Foundation as noted below in the comments:
For most Americans, the word "poverty" suggests destitution: an inability to provide a family with nutritious food, clothing, and reasonable shelter. But only a small number of the 35 million persons classified as "poor" by the Census Bureau fit that description. While real material hardship certainly does occur, it is limited in scope and severity. Most of America's "poor" live in material conditions that would be judged as comfortable or well-off just a few generations ago. Today, the expenditures per person of the lowest-income one-fifth (or quintile) of households equal those of the median American household in the early 1970s, after adjusting for inflation.1Pat Dollard and NewsBusters have more on the poverty shame card being played by the media.
The following are facts about persons defined as "poor" by the Census Bureau, taken from various government reports:
** Forty-six percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
** Seventy-six percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
** Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
** The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
** Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.
** Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
** Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
** Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher.
Update: In related news the US economy grew faster than expected over the past three months (3.6%) recording the best quarterly performance since early 2006- BBC.
Update 2: President Bush spoke about the excellent economic numbers today in Washington.
The White House reported:
Americans Are Working And Taking Home More Pay
** Real After-Tax Per Capita Personal Income Has Risen By 9.9 Percent – Nearly $3,000 Per Person – Since President Bush Took Office.
** Real Wages Rose 1.1 Percent Over The 12 Months Ending In May. This is faster than the average rate during the 1990s, and it means an extra $729 in the past year for the typical family with two wage earners.
** The Economy Has Now Experienced Over Five Years Of Uninterrupted Growth, Averaging 2.9 Percent A Year Since 2001. Real GDP grew a strong 3.1 percent in 2006.
** Since The First Quarter Of 2001, Productivity Growth Has Averaged 2.8 Percent. This is well above average productivity growth in the 1990s, 1980s, and 1970s.
** Purchasing Managers Reported Manufacturing Expansion For The Fifth Consecutive Month In June. The Institute for Supply Management manufacturing index rose to 56 in June.
More:
** Strong Economic Growth Has Helped Produce Record Levels Of Tax Revenue, Which Is Helping Reduce The Federal Deficit And Meet Our Goal Of A Balanced Budget. Record tax revenues helped us reach the President's goal of cutting the deficit in half three years ahead of schedule. Receipts have increased nearly 35 percent since the tax relief was fully implemented in 2003, and the deficit has declined by $165 billion in the last two years.
These numbers wildly overstate the true rate of poverty in this country. According to the Heritage Foundation:
ReplyDelete"If poverty means lacking nutritious food, adequate warm housing, and clothing for a family, relatively few of the 35 million people identified as being "in poverty" by the Census Bureau could be characterized as poor. While material hardship does exist in the United States, it is quite restricted in scope and severity.
The average "poor" person, as defined by the government, has a living standard far higher than the public imagines. The following are facts about persons defined as "poor" by the Census Bureau, taken from various government reports:
-- Forty-six percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
-- Seventy-six percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
-- Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
-- The typical poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
-- Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.
-- Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
-- Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher.
Overall, the typical American defined as poor by the government has a car, air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave. He has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV reception, a VCR or DVD player, and a stereo. He is able to obtain medical care. His home is in good repair and is not overcrowded. By his own report, his family is not hungry, and he had sufficient funds in the past year to meet his family's essential needs. While this individual's life is not opulent, it is equally far from the popular images of dire poverty conveyed by the press, liberal activists, and politicians.
Of course, the living conditions of the average poor American should not be taken as representing all of the nation's poor: There is a wide range of living conditions among the poor. In contrast to the 25 percent of "poor" households that have cell phones and telephone answering machines, ap-proximately one-tenth of families in poverty have no phone at all. While the majority of poor households do not experience significant material problems, roughly a third do experience at least one problem such as overcrowding, temporary hunger, or difficulty getting medical care."
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/BG1713es.cfm
Terrific information, Anon.
ReplyDeleteThanks- I will link.
Important news, kids: The fact that, in the richest country in the world, one out of every eight citizens lives in poverty is nothing to be concerned about.
ReplyDeleteIgnore this reality. Gateway Pissant and his fellow compassionate conservatives certainly do.
Meatbrain? Perhaps that should be scrambled egg brain.
ReplyDeleteThose who are now considered "poor" live a hellofa lot better than I did as a kid and we were considered "middle class". I wonder how many of those "poor" people would like to live as I did? Here is an example:
We had one car. One for the whole family. Once only did my family ever have a new car.
We had one telephone. It was located in the hallway.
We had one bathroom and two bedrooms. When I got older, my parents allowed me to put a bed in the attic so that when the weather was not too cold/hot, I could sleep there. Funny how everyone managed to get ready for work and school with only one bathroom.
We had one TV. It was in the living room and my parents were in control of what we watched.
We also had a radio. One.
Food was not wasted. When you put something on your plate, you were expected to eat it. No leftovers and no garbage from the plates.
There was no public health care and so my parents had a savings account so that if one of us got sick, we could pay the doctor and buy our medicines. There was no such thing as "company paid" insurance. You got a paycheck. End of story. My dad worked construction so there were weeks when he was rained out. The standard in our family was to save 10% of his paycheck every week so that when he missed a week, they could pay their bills.
My mother worked after I got older and she had seven dresses in her closet; five for work, one cotton "house" dress for Saturdays and cleaning and one "church" dress. My mother bought really good dresses and would replace them every 4-5 years.
I had two pair of shoes; a pair of Keds, a pair of school shoes that also doubled as "church" shoes. When I came home from school, I was expected to put on my Keds so that my "school" shoes could air out.
We lived in an "upper" middle class neighborhood and although my parents could have afforded a better house (two bedrooms/TWO baths) they perferred to spend that extra money on parochial school education for us kids. We did have things that were considered middle class: a refrigerator, TV, a freezer, but we had no airconditioning and my parents did not get airconditioning until the late 80's.
The average "poor" person, compared to the living standards of just 30 years ago, rarely exists.
Do you even know what "poverty" level is? Do you even know that anyone who lives under the poverty line pays no taxes and in some cases are eligible for a tax refund of upwards of $4,000 over and above what they paid in?
You want poverty? Go to some third world nation and learn what poverty really is.
No response Meathead? Idiot.
ReplyDeletePete,
ReplyDeletemeathead is little more then the internet equivalent of a screeching feces flinging monkey.
Do not expect anything more then that out of him. The best thing to do when confronted by a feces flinging monkey is not to had it a banana, all that does is serve to encourage it's behaviour. The best thing to do is ignore it, all he is seeking is attention anyway.
Well of course the short bus riding meat brain won't have a reply since the original posting was just so full of nonsense to begin with...
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing Jim's blog traffic is driving lying libtard up a wall... Does the meat brain have a blog that panders to fellow travelers but gets little if any traffic?
Anyway speaking of poverty did you see that here in St. Louis the local poverty pimps had their collective hand out listening to four dim-witted Dems vying for a chance to defile the Oval Office?
Professory Perry over at the Carpe Diem blog site notes the following: "Two Americas," And They're Both Getting Richer
ReplyDelete"The U.S. is a rich nation getting richer. According to Census figures, the average inflation-adjusted income in the top quintile of American earners increased 22% between 1993 and 2003. Incomes in the middle quintile rose 17% on average, while the incomes in the bottom quintile increased 13%."
It might be interesting to update the 1964 definition of poverty directly rather than just using today's definition which has been altered politically (not mathematically) several times since then.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that if we used an updated definition we'd find that poverty is vastly lower than in 1964.
Dave said: "It might be interesting to update the 1964 definition of poverty directly"...
ReplyDeleteInteresting point...
Consider the following from the Census Bureau: Weighted Average Poverty Thresholds for Families of Specified Size 1959 to 2005
This is also from the Census Bureau: Poverty statistics presented in this report are based on a definition developed by Mollie Orshansky of the Social Security Administration (SSA) in 1964 and revised in 1969 and 1981 by interagency committees. This definition was established as the official definition of poverty for statistical use in all Executive departments by the Bureau of the Budget (BoB) in 1969 (in Circular No. A-46); after BoB became Office of Management and Budget, this was reconfirmed in Statistical Policy Directive No. 14
Maybe you know one of those sites that can recalculate old dollar amounts into present day dollar values...