- Ranks of poor Americans at record high even with aid, By Frank Bass, November 14, 2012, Businessweek: “The ranks of poor Americans remained at a record high number last year, even after government-aid programs such as food stamps, housing vouchers and heating subsidies were included, the U.S. Census Bureau said today. The bureau said 49.7 million Americans, or 16.1 percent, are in poverty, up from 49.1 million, or 16 percent, in 2010, according to a new measure the government is using to supplement the official figures released in September. The new method, designed to offer a more comprehensive measure of poverty, includes government aid as income, while subtracting child-care costs, work-related expenses and medical out-of-pocket fees. The official measure, which includes only pretax cash income and is used to determine eligibility for aid programs, put the poverty rate at 15.1 percent, the bureau said…”
- Alternative measure sees more people living in poverty, By Ben Casselman, November 14, 2012, Wall Street Journal: “There were 46.2 million people living in poverty in America last year. Unless there were 49.7 million. Earlier this fall, the Census Bureau released its annual look at poverty in the U.S. According to that report, there were 46.2 million people in 2011 living below the poverty line of about $23,000 for a family of four. The official poverty rate was 15.0%. But on Wednesday, the Census put out another report showing that the official figures leave out some 3.5 million people whom many experts argue should properly be counted as ‘poor.’ If those people were included, the poverty rate would be 16.1%…”
- Latinos poorer than official estimate, By Emily Deruy, November 15, 2012, ABC News: “A new Census measure shows that nearly 50 million people in the United States live below the poverty level, including nearly three in ten Latinos. The new number, released on Wednesday by the Census Bureau, is part of a new supplemental poverty measure that takes into account medical costs and work-related expenses. From 2009 to 2011, the average official poverty rate was 15 percent. Using the supplemental measure, the poverty rate jumps to 15.8 percent. Officials estimated that about 15.1 percent of the population, or 46.6 million people, were below the poverty line in 2011. With the supplemental measure, that number jumps to 49.7 million, or 16.1 percent of the population…”
Day: November 16, 2012
Income Inequality in the US
- Michigan income gap growth report: Rich didn’t get richer, but poor got poorer, By Jonathan Oosting, November 16, 2012, mlive.com: “The rich didn’t get any richer in Michigan between 1998 and 2007, but the state’s income gap continued to grow as middle- and low-income families got poorer, according to a new report released Thursday by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute. Most Michigan households saw average incomes drop in that decade, but the report indicates that the state’s poorest families were hardest hit by the economic downturn…”
- Study: NM income inequality continues to grow, By Russell Contreras (AP), November 14, 2012, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “The gap between wealthy households and low-income families continues to grow in New Mexico, and the difference between their incomes is now the largest in the nation, according to a study released Wednesday. From 2008 to 2010, the richest 5 percent of households had average incomes that were nearly 17 times higher than the bottom 20 percent of households, according to the report from the Washington, D.C.-based groups Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute. That’s a jump from two years earlier, when the difference was around 14 times. In addition, household income for the richest 20 percent of households in New Mexico was 9.9 times greater than for the poorest 20 percent, the report said. That’s the highest ratio in the nation…”
- Gap between rich and poor Ohioans widens, By Cornelius Frolik, November 15, 2012, Dayton Daily News: “The economic gap between the richest and poorest households in Ohio has widened in the last three decades, because the incomes of the poor have stagnated while the incomes of rich have soared, according to a national report released on Thursday. The richest 5 percent of households in Ohio on average earn almost 11 times as much income as the poorest 20 percent, according to the report by the Center on Budget Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute. The income disparity is a product of the richest households seeing their incomes grow by 85 percent between the peak economic years of the late 1970s and the mid-2000s, while the poorest saw no gains…”
Extended Jobless Benefits
2 million could lose unemployment benefits unless Congress extends program, By Michael A. Fletcher, November 12, 2012, Washington Post: “More than 2 million Americans stand to lose their jobless benefits unless Congress reauthorizes federal emergency unemployment help before the end of the year. The people in danger of having their unemployment checks cut off are among those who have benefited least from the slowly improving job market: Americans who have been out of work longer than six months. These workers have exhausted their state unemployment insurance, leaving them reliant on the federal program. In addition to those at risk of abruptly losing their benefits in December, 1 million people would have their checks curtailed by April if the program is not renewed, according to lawmakers and advocates pushing for an extension…”