The ranks of America’s poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net.
[….]The analysts’ estimates suggest that some 47 million people in the U.S., or 1 in 6, were poor last year. An increase of one-tenth of a percentage point to 15.2 percent would tie the 1983 rate, the highest since 1965. The highest level on record was 22.4 percent in 1959, when the government began calculating poverty figures.
What the hell is wrong with some people that they want to go back to a pre-LBJ world of rampant poverty?
Moochers and looters, all of these serfs. Nothing wrong here that a dose of sacrifice and free market realism can’t solve.
jheartney
This is just a marker along the road to the real goal, which is Great Depression-level poverty.
Baud
Why do you hate FREEDOM, DougJ?
superdestroyer
What was the birthrate of the poor pre-1960 and what is it today? Compare that to what the birthrate of the middle class pre-1960 and what is it today.
When the poor are having children at a much higher rate than the middle class or upper middle class, is it any surprise that the portion of the population that is poor will grow?
Corner Stone
@superdestroyer: WTF?
aimai
I lurk and post on a public bulletin board that consists of women struggling with family issues of various sorts. They are every economic level and they often recommend to other women in abusive situations that they get out, apply for government assistance/WIC/heating assistance or whatever and get back on their feet. I routinely point out that the social services that they all imagine exist for other women in need simply has been shredded. You can’t just walk out of an abusive relationship and get section 8 housing, you can’t get los of shit because the Republicans forced the dems to trade it away to get unemployment insurance extended or something else. I really wish the Obama campaign and the dems were targeting sites like this so that every time keywords came up you would get an add along the side saying “Looking for help with Heat this winter? The Republicans voted that out of existence in your state!” “Looking for help with a domestic violence situation? The republicans are cutting DV spending in your state!” “Looking for medicaid for your uninsured children? Looking for pre and post natal care for yourself and your family? Sorry: in your state that part of the budget was slashed.”
I feel like I’m the lone voice crying out that there are real consequences for real people in the politics that most of them think happens far away among senators and congressmen who have nothing to do with their lives.
aimai
PeakVT
NB4 tax cut jokes… but not race-war trolls. Ugh.
Steeplejack
@Corner Stone:
Nice to see you back. Have you been gone, or have I just been missing you?
Yutsano
@aimai: Yesbut the bebehs must be protected. And teh gheys might infect my children. So I’ll still vote Republican cause that scares me more.
Corner Stone
And if you consider the report by the former Chief Economist of Mckinsey & Co to be accurate, the imbalance of wealth inequality is even worse than previously measured.
Tax Justice Report
Some 91,000 people, or 0.001% of all population own $9.8T of all the liquid wealth held in offshore tax havens.
Estimates range conservatively from $21T to $32T in all offshore accounts outside of circulation.
Emptywheel’s been talking about it as it relates to Romney. I think it’s bigger than just sheer politics.
Josie
@superdestroyer: Bullshit. The number of poor is increasing because of middle class people who are falling off the economic cliff into poverty. I speak from close observation and personal experience.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack: Working 18+ hour days for the last 4+ weeks trying to wrap up implementation of something. Then I’mma pull a Steepman and tell them to F off I Am Out!
Valdivia
Oh I think this one is easy DougJ: all these people read Dickens and thought it was a how-to manual. Bring back the poor-house.
Comrade Mary
/waves hand in arcane figure
This is not the vacation you’re looking for, Doug ..
But yes, this is awful.
Corner Stone
Watching the end of The Open Championship while my son is at the pool and I’m doing QA on some final drafts.
Already know who wins but it’s still good background noise.
Svensker
Here’s a FB post from a wingnut cousin:
He, of course, supports massive military expansion, bombing furriners and giving lots of money to Israeli settlers. (He also wants to see Obama’s real birth certificate, as well as his college transcripts.)
You would assume, of course, that he is a proud Galtian entrepreneur, creating jobs right and left, wouldn’t you. Sadly, no. He’s a cop on early retirement for a disability caused by being 150 pounds overweight. Lovely pension and health care benefits, though.
karen
Because that’s the only way they can feel good about their own life.
Corner Stone
Through History’s Greatest Monster I saw this and thought it was awesome!
“”If you’re concerned about it, maybe there’s a reason we should be flying over you, right?” said Douglas McDonald, the company’s director of special operations and president of a local chapter of the unmanned vehicle trade group. “But as soon as you lose your kid, get your car stolen or have marijuana growing out at your lake place that’s not yours, you’d probably want one of those flying overhead.”
Drone company authoritarian puke bastard.
Nutella
If you’re wondering where all the money went, here’s the story. No one who’s been paying attention will be surprised by this but superdestroyer and Corner Stone think it’s more fun to blame the victims of this racket rather than the perpetrators (Rmoney and friends).
Quarks
@superdestroyer: Or, just a possibility that a combined lack of funds/lack of health insurance has made birth control a bit harder to get. According to this page from Planned Parenthood, for instance, an IUD costs between $500 to $1000, which is a hefty chunk of money even for people above the poverty line:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth-control/iud-4245.htm
And that’s assuming you can reach a Planned Parenthood during the hours where you aren’t working.
Before you mention other methods, yes, a diaphragm is significantly cheaper (same website says $15 to $75) but it’s not as effective (same website says 6 out of 100 women will get pregnant anyway even while using it correctly.) Similar problems happen with other birth control methods — either high initial costs or not as reliable.
Corner Stone
@Nutella: May I ask how you came to this conclusion, on my part?
Sawgrass Stan
@Svensker: Yeah, that’s the problem– the right wing has been very successful at driving people to blame “the moochers, the bloodsuckers, the lazy bums living off my taxes.” I hear this when I talk to Log Cabin Republicans, BTW, so the argument has universal appeal.
Mnemosyne
@superdestroyer:
Why don’t you Google it and get back to us instead of making us do your work for you?
Hint: the fertility rates of the poor and the middle class pre-1960 are not nearly as different as you seem to think. There was an interesting little invention that was approved by the FDA in 1960 — can you rack your tiny brain to try to remember what it was and how it could have affected birth rates?
Villago Delenda Est
@superdestroyer:
Your a complete and total, utter idiot. Did you know that?
“Oh, this can’t possibly be a horse. It must be a zebra! Yeah, that’s the ticket!”
Answer is right in front of fuckwit’s nose here, and he blames the poor for having a higher birth rate. Hint: the ranks of the poor are increasing because formerly middle class people are seeing their incomes drop as parasite vermin like Ovenmitt take more and more wealth from them.
My loathing for natural serfs like superdestroyer is nearly as great as it is for the parasites of the 1%.
Mnemosyne
@Quarks:
My favorite is, “But condoms are cheap!” Yeah, assuming you can convince your boyfriend/husband to use one. Lots of men out there are convinced that avoiding pregnancy is solely the woman’s responsibility and if she gets pregnant because he refused to use a condom, that’s not his problem.
Steeplejack
@Corner Stone:
Trust me, it will feel so right.
Steeplejack
@Corner Stone:
Nobody wanted it. Tiger tanked, Scott tanked. Els snuck in from nowhere with a really good round.
I love to see the pros hacking their way out of those sheep-shelter traps.
Steeplejack
@Nutella:
I don’t think Corner Stone is on Superdestroyer’s side in this. Unless “WTF?” means something different from what I think.
jwb
@Corner Stone: See what happens when you take a break from this place.
srv
How else are you going to get these lazy folks off their lazy boys and do the work the Mexicans we’re kicking out are doing?
Think of all the reality TV options for the nuevopoor
Corner Stone
@jwb: I’ve always been a misunderstood anti-hero. One day El Cid shall immortalize me in Shakespeare-ian iambic pantimeter, and I will be absolved of my burden.
But til then, it’s my lot in life.
Citizen_X
@Corner Stone: Being lumped in with Supertwit? Completely unwarranted. That still doesn’t excuse you for watching golf.
(Yeah, yeah, I know: it’s background noise. I’d rather listen to static.)
Sawgrass Stan
Nutella and Corner Stone: great links! Thanks, though it’s disturbing to realize how big the 0.001%’s secret Money Bin really is.
$21 Trillion hidden in offshore acct.s
I’ll probably use something like this as an argument against my right-wing-relatives when they start dragging out the “illegals and welfare queens and bucks are what’s making my taxes too high,” but I’m not expecting much in the way of results.
Knowledge is power, but Ignorance is Strength.
Svensker
@Corner Stone:
5 crotch? Well, that is unusual!
Just Some Fuckhead
Waitaminutehere.
WTF and FTW don’t mean the same thing?
Baud
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Fuck the what, Just Some Fuckhead. Fuck the what.
Corner Stone
@Svensker: Some of us choose paths, and pants, not often taken.
At least I won’t be immortalized in iambic Hammerpants.
I shutter at the thought.
PurpleGirl
According to one measure (US HHS) the poverty threshold for a single adult is $11,170.
According to the Social Security Administration the current average retirement benefit is $1,229 monthly. That’s $14,748 per annum. (That’s less than what my NYS maximum unemployment benefit was.)
GxB
Doug – get back on vacation.
SuperD – get back on thorazine.
Any bets on who this new treat is? New alias or true fresh troll meat?
Publius39
The shame about this data is that in the pursuit of ever-higher profit margins, the right wing has conveniently forgotten that America experienced the greatest economic expansion in the 50s and 60s. That was the same time where marginal tax rates for the top earners was somewhere around 90%, and that damn left-wing socialist Eisenhower was in office.
Svensker
@Corner Stone:
Curtains for you, buster.
Ash Can
@GxB: That cretin’s been around for a while. Courageously drops a turd, then runs away. Never sticks around to try to defend said turd because it knows it’ll get its delicate ass kicked sideways. Just pie-filter it and ignore.
Gypsy howell
You think it’s bad now? Wait til the republicans and their democratic enablers get rid of Social Security and Medicare. Look at the poverty statistics for the elderly before those two programs, and add that to the mix.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Svensker:
It panes me that you missed his reference.
Narcissus
The gilded age is the goal.
Citizen_X
@Svensker: I louvre that comment so much it blinds me.
fuckwit
@superdestroyer: There are lots of theories from evolutionary psychology– a lot of which are pretty sketchy. But the one that makes the most sense to me is to look at the survival rate and life expectancy.
Let’s say you live in a gang-infested ghetto in an American city, or a starvation-and-disease-plagued desert in a third-world country. Your newborn son has a high, perhaps even greater-than-50%, likelihood of dying (or going to jail) before he reaches adulthood.
What do do? Have no kids at all, or have more to try to beat the surivability odds?
Almost all living creatures choose the latter strategy, with good reason, including humans.
Cain
@aimai:
That’s not a bad idea.. maybe by adsense ads that point to sites like these. It should be one liners. “Looking for rape kits, the republicans slashed the budget for them in your state”
Use technology as much as possible. If we can’t make the media do it, then start using the tech tool on hand to do it. (before net neutrality gets defeated)
russell
what i think is going on is that everyone who remembers what it was actually like to live through the depression and pre-new-deal american culture generally is either dead or so old that nobody listens to them anymore.
“kick those new deal, big government, nanny state welfare programs to the curb! i don’t need them! the government is taking money out of my pocket and giving it to that guy over there, and i hate that guy!”
86 the whole shooting match. medicaid, medicare, social security, TANF, food stamps. all of it. that’s the goal. seriously, how bad could it be?
nobody remembers how bad it could be. the folks who do remember how bad it could be are a dying breed.
my money says we will get to relive all of that soon enough. we’re more than halfway there now.
TenguPhule
Fond memories of 1950s black and white movies and imagining that they’ll be the stars of the screen this time.
27% of our country is too stupid to be allowed to live.
TenguPhule
blockquote>What do do? Have no kids at all, or have more to try to beat the surivability odds?
You’re trying to respond to a lunatic troll that thinks Sex is a privilage of those rich enough to afford babies without birth control.
d0n camillo
@Sawgrass Stan:
I am so going to steal that!
gex
What’s wrong with us is that most white men in America think that they won’t be among the poor when that happens. We all know what poor people look like after all.
superdestroyer
@Mnemosyne:
Actually, I know that the birthrate for the middle and upper class used to have the same fertility as the lower classes. However, as it has become more costly to avoid being near poor people in the U.S. the birthrate for the middle class as collapsed. However, the birthrate for the poor has not dropped at near the same amount as the poor.
One of the reasons taht the underclass is growing is that there are more poor children and fewer middle class childrne.
superdestroyer
@Villago Delenda Est:
Being poor means that people have more children and have them at earlier ages. http://www.wbur.org/2012/05/21/teen-birth-rate
I thought progressives were supposed to be reality based. What part of demographics is so hard to understand?
superdestroyer
@fuckwit:
the birthrate dropped during the depression because having children lowered one’s chance for survival. Yet, after the great society, poverty resulted in higher birthrates instead of lower birthrates.
One of the reasons that the percentage of the population that is poor is growing is that poor people have multiple children whereas the rich generally have few, if any, children.
russell
What the study superdestroyer links to actually asserts is that *income inequality*, not poverty per se, appears to correlate with a higher rate of *teen births*, specifically.
In places where the level of income inequality is less, the correlation is less. And in some places where income inequality is high but other factors — for instance education — are favorable to social mobility, the correlation is less.
What the author of the study takes away from this is that if young women don’t have much of a future to look forward to, they are more likely to have kids as teenagers.
Unclear if that translates to more kids overall, or if it translates into an overall birth rate that is sufficiently higher to skew the overall ratio of poor folks to middle class folks, in either the long or short term.
Last but not least, being poor is not a congenital condition. Some poor people move up, some wealthy and middle class people move down.
When reading about “studies” that “prove” things, it can be helpful to read and understand what the words actually say.
Just a little dose of sanity from the reality-based community for y’all.
russell
The other thing I note from the study is that the rate of teen births in the US overall is MUCH higher than in other developed countries.
Hey, we’re number 1!
Just another case of the US leading the developed world in our resemblance to a second or third world nation.
Kimberly Smiths
That’s what you called FREEDOM. Heard of it..