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US poverty: chronic ill, little hope for cure By Bernd Debusmann
Wed Oct 5, 3:37 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four decades after a U.S. president declared war on poverty, more than 37 million people in the world's richest country are officially classified as poor and their number has been on the rise for years.
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Last year, according to government statistics, 1.1 million Americans fell below the poverty line. That equals the entire population of a major city like Dallas or Prague.
Since 2000, the ranks of the poor have increased year by year by almost 5.5 million in total. Even optimists see little prospect that the number will shrink soon despite a renewed debate on poverty prompted by searing television images which laid bare a fact of American life rarely exposed to global view.
The president who made the war declaration was Lyndon Johnson. "Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope, some because of their poverty, and some because of their color, and all too many because of both. This administration declares unconditional war on poverty in America."
That was in 1964. Then 19 percent of the U.S. population lived below the official poverty line. That rate declined over the next four years and in 1968, it stood at 12.8 percent.
Since then, it has fluctuated little. Last year, it was at 12.7 percent, proof that poverty is a chronic problem.
The state of poverty in the United States is measured once a year by the Census Bureau, whose statistics-packed 70-plus page report usually provides fodder for academic studies but rarely sparks wide public debate, touches emotional buttons, or features on television. Not so in 2005.
The report coincided with Katrina, a devastating hurricane which killed more than 1,100 in Louisiana and Mississippi. Live television coverage with shocking images of the desperate and the dead in New Orleans showed in brutal close-up what the spreadsheets of the census bureau cannot convey.
SCENES SHOCKED WORLD, SHAMED AMERICANS
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051005/ts_nm/poverty_usa_dc
1/3 people cant pay America 's debt
the rest of the people cant be burdened with the 36,000$ tab
foreclosure
each year another 500+ billion gets tacked on to the bill
levees crumbling from age
LA under a weight of millions of illegals
no jobs they going over seas
anything left is going to illegals
they are exterminating their poor in america
the poor left in squalor by toxic dumps to fend out a living
destitution approaching third world staus
and they just tack another$ 500 billion on to the tab each year
I feel sorry for americans 35 years old and under
they will see America the third world
it isnt a matter of when
already all the signs are there
voilence in the streets
guns in childrens hands and bombs in the scool yard
how did they ever get this hard
Wed Oct 5, 3:37 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four decades after a U.S. president declared war on poverty, more than 37 million people in the world's richest country are officially classified as poor and their number has been on the rise for years.
ADVERTISEMENT
Last year, according to government statistics, 1.1 million Americans fell below the poverty line. That equals the entire population of a major city like Dallas or Prague.
Since 2000, the ranks of the poor have increased year by year by almost 5.5 million in total. Even optimists see little prospect that the number will shrink soon despite a renewed debate on poverty prompted by searing television images which laid bare a fact of American life rarely exposed to global view.
The president who made the war declaration was Lyndon Johnson. "Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope, some because of their poverty, and some because of their color, and all too many because of both. This administration declares unconditional war on poverty in America."
That was in 1964. Then 19 percent of the U.S. population lived below the official poverty line. That rate declined over the next four years and in 1968, it stood at 12.8 percent.
Since then, it has fluctuated little. Last year, it was at 12.7 percent, proof that poverty is a chronic problem.
The state of poverty in the United States is measured once a year by the Census Bureau, whose statistics-packed 70-plus page report usually provides fodder for academic studies but rarely sparks wide public debate, touches emotional buttons, or features on television. Not so in 2005.
The report coincided with Katrina, a devastating hurricane which killed more than 1,100 in Louisiana and Mississippi. Live television coverage with shocking images of the desperate and the dead in New Orleans showed in brutal close-up what the spreadsheets of the census bureau cannot convey.
SCENES SHOCKED WORLD, SHAMED AMERICANS
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051005/ts_nm/poverty_usa_dc
1/3 people cant pay America 's debt
the rest of the people cant be burdened with the 36,000$ tab
foreclosure
each year another 500+ billion gets tacked on to the bill
levees crumbling from age
LA under a weight of millions of illegals
no jobs they going over seas
anything left is going to illegals
they are exterminating their poor in america
the poor left in squalor by toxic dumps to fend out a living
destitution approaching third world staus
and they just tack another$ 500 billion on to the tab each year
I feel sorry for americans 35 years old and under
they will see America the third world
it isnt a matter of when
already all the signs are there
voilence in the streets
guns in childrens hands and bombs in the scool yard
how did they ever get this hard