"About 44 million Americans - one in seven - lived last year in homes in which the income was below the poverty level, which is about $22,000 for a family of four. That is the largest number of people since the census began tracking poverty 51 years ago.These numbers are grim, in that they signal the hard times we have ahead of us. Hard times, I might add, that are unavoidable. No matter how much money the feds pour into the economy the fact remains that the market is cyclical in nature, and attempting to siphon off all the negative inertia of the market only delays the inevitable crash, and makes it worse in the process.
The snapshot captured by the census for 2009, the first year of the Obama presidency, shows an America in the throes of economic upheaval.
Since 2007, the year before the recession kicked into gear, the country has almost 4 million fewer wage-earners. There are more children growing up poor. And for the first time since the government began tracking health insurance in 1987, the number of people who have health coverage declined, as people lost jobs with health benefits or employers stopped offering it.
With midterm elections less than two months away, the statistics bare the reality fueling much of the anger toward Washington.
In the Washington region, Virginia's poverty rate rose the most, to 10.5 percent from 8.6 percent. Maryland's edged up half a percentage point to 9 percent. The District's rate was the highest, but it declined from 18 percent to 17 percent."
If there is a silver lining though, it may be this. America's poverty level is opulent enough to put to shame, for instance, the entire continent of Africa.
This is what Capitalism has given this country: Success in such extreme amounts that the poorest are still wealthy (by the world's standards). Explain to me again why we've all of a sudden decided to quit?
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