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New Census Numbers Paint a Pathetic Picture for the Future

It has been three decades since the United States suffered a double-dip recession. This phenomenon could be happening again and when what may eventually be known as Great Recession I hit the country, there was general political agreement that it was incumbent on the government to fight back by stimulating the economy. With the economy entering what may become known as the Great Recession II, it has provoked a completely different response. Now the politicians are squabbling over how much to cut spending. After months of wrangling, they passed a bill aimed at forcing more reductions in spending over the next decade. Unfortunately, when a government reacts drastically, something will feel the consequences.

The figures released in a recent Census Bureau report offer somber snapshots of the economic well-being of U.S. households for last year when joblessness hovered above nine percent for a second consecutive year. According to the report, nearly one in six Americans are now classified as poor. For the record, an individual making $11,000 or a household of four with a total income of $22,500 is not considered poor.

After further analyzing the data, this disturbing news is confirmed. The data reveals that there were 46.2 million people, 15.1 percent of the population, living in poverty in 2010, and there were about 50 million people without health care coverage.  From 2009 to 2010, 2.6 million more Americans fell into poverty and median incomes declined by 2.3 percent, bringing the poverty rate to the highest it has been since 1993.

Unfortunately, the disturbing news gets even worse. The nation’s most vulnerable communities have been hit the hardest. The number of Hispanics in poverty increased from 25.3 percent to 26.6 percent; for Blacks it increased from 25.8 percent to 27.4 percent; and child poverty rose from 20.7 percent to 22 percent. “These numbers confirm what millions of Americans have long felt. The recovery is not trickling down to the average worker, with communities of color, women, and single-parent households still feeling the harshest effects of the Great Recession,” said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “We cannot expect these trends to reverse themselves; concerted action is needed to create jobs and invest in vulnerable families if we are to ensure shared prosperity and opportunity for all.”

These numbers are especially seen throughout the southernmost portion of the United States. Counties along the U.S.-Mexican border remained among the worse off nationally, despite improvements during the decade. In Starr County, Texas, for example, the poverty rate was 44 percent in 1998, the worst in the nation, though down from 50 percent in 1993. During a period when the median household income nationally increased 24 percent, income levels declined in rural or isolated parts of the Great Plains and Alaska.