Poverty
Related: About this forumWell America - How's that NAFTA and Deregulation doing for ya? 1 in 2 Americans now Poor or Low
income. As a 55 year old long term unemployed, now working a custodial job 15 hours a week to survive, I have seen a once prosperous almost self sufficient country in the 60s and 70s continually change from a manufacturing power to a 2nd rate service industry nation.
For over 200 years we had policies in place to protect our workers and their jobs. It seemed to have worked as we grew into a country the rest of the world only dreamed of. Now since deregulation starting in the 80's and NAFTA put into place in the 90s... it has been downhill ever since. Over 55,000 manufacturing companies have left the U.S taking with them 100s of thousands of jobs since NAFTA became the policy of the land. Now we have the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer as Americans try to complete with 3rd world countries and the dirt poor wages.
Read it and weep....
http://news.yahoo.com/census-shows-1-2-people-poor-low-income-054325860.html
>snip<
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.
>snip<
Not bad for the "richest" country in the world.
YM
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Free trade is a cruel joke.
Yooperman
(592 posts)I have lived through the decline of our country. When I grew up...it was the Soviet Union that abducted people and put them in secret prisons... It was the Soviet Union that tortured people....
The USA was a unionized nation..... giving people a living wage and safe work enviroments. Now .. we have degressed to a corporatocrasy. Run by a handful of the elite wealthy.
Thanks for your K & R.
guthenson
(8 posts)If half the population is considered "near poor" then I think people are being way too greedy and materialistic. If everyone thinks they need three SUVs and a five bedroom McMansion and new phone every year, then we'll be ruining the planet a lot faster than we had ever though we would.
Can't someone whose income is near the median be satisfied with what they have? My income is less than 199% of the poverty level, but I eat pretty well, I sleep in a heated home under a roof that doesn't leak, I take a hot shower every day, and I at least have a halfway decent health insurance policy. If I had more money, I don't see how my life would be better. I suppose I might be able to afford cable TV, but that might actually make my life worse, not better!
Yooperman
(592 posts)I agree... however, you state that you have "halfway decent" health insurance. Do you know that most likely if you had a catastrophic heath issue with halfway decent insurance..you most likely would lose everything you have come to own in your life.
I believe that what this information is telling us... is that if for a large majority of our population that they are living from paycheck to paycheck...and if a serious event happened in their lives... they would be homeless or depending on others to survive.
Whether that event is a natural disaster... a heart attack...or a serious downturn in the job market... many people are living on the edge.
As long as things maintain.... you are correct... they have a roof over their heads and food to eat every day.
That doesn't mean they are ready to handle a serious event in their lives should it occur.
Thanks for your imput... I appreciate reading your post.
Peace Love
YM
TheKentuckian
(26,314 posts)How is the retirement fund stacking up?
Can you absorb replacing an appliance or a major car repair without debt?
Is your deductible "on hand"?
Could you keep a friend off the street if they needed your help?
Can you take a vacation? Do you have money for recreation, can you buy a book or a video game every now and then? Could you afford to date?
Subsistence isn't living, it is surviving. Being able to eat, having regular shelter, being able to keep clean, and having essential access to health care are basics. Being above the essentials and a McMansion and a fleet of new SUV's are far apart to my mind.
I also think location is a fairly significant factor, which people seem to have little problem grasping when discussing higher incomes but on the lower end, it goes out the window.
Riftaxe
(2,693 posts)even in it's new incarnation, it will fall on deaf deaf ears I pretty much suspect.
But even on DU2 this forum always has had plentiful access to deafened ears.