Unemployment is due to remain at 9 to 10% and the nation’s poor continue to increase. Incomes across the board have declined over the last several years but the poor show a greater loss than the rich. As Hope Yen points out in an article for the Associated Press, the statistics behind this phenomenon are abundant and all point to the fact that one in six Americans, 46.2 million people are now living in poverty and those without health insurance are at a 20 year high of 49.9 million.
The figures just released by the Census Bureau show the numbers increasing faster than in the early 1980s when we had severe government cutbacks creating high inflation, unemployment, high interest rates and an energy crisis. Mississippi claims the largest share of poor people at 22.7 percent and New Hampshire the lowest at 6.6 percent.
The official poverty level in 2010 was an income of $22,314 for a family of four. The calculations behind that benchmark include only income before tax deductions. Capital gains or accumulated wealth items like home ownership do not count nor does government aid like food stamps and tax credits. In October the government will revise the poverty numbers to factor in food stamps, tax credits, and some everyday costs like commuting. Child poverty increased from 20.7 percent to 22 percent while those 65 and over stayed steady at 9 percent mostly due to Social Security and cost of living increases. All ethnic and racial groups saw an increase in the number of impoverished except for the Asians. The median income for young adults in the 15 to 24 year age group fell as more of them stayed in school. In the 25 to 34 age group the rate was 8.4 percent. It would have been much higher if they did not live at home buffering their lack of income with that of their parents.
Americans without health insurance have increased every year for the last 3 years. The increase in the uninsured is directly related to the increase in the unemployed. For some, Medicare and Medicaid have been the only recourse. One bright spot according to Brett O’Hara, chief of the Health and Disability Statistics branch at the Census Bureau, was the change in the law allowing young adults to be covered under their parents’ health insurance policy until the age of 26.
Looking into the short-term future things could get worse as indicated by the rising demand for food stamps and the long-term unemployed who have run out of benefits. Currently, the United States Postal Service which employees hundreds of thousands Americans is on the verge of bankruptcy and major institutions like Bank of America are eliminating tens of thousands of jobs. Even a loss of half a million jobs would be devastating to the economy. President Obama would like to offer subsidies, however, the Congress is in no mood to fund anything.
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