Showing posts with label Poverty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poverty. Show all posts

Thursday, May 7, 2015

BERNIE SANDERS WILL RESTORE THE MIDDLE CLASS


Bernie Sanders stands for the middle class and this is nothing new, it has been his mantra for the 25 years he has spent in Congress. If you're looking for consistency, Bernie is it. As the middle class has declined, the wealthy have just gotten wealthier, at the sake of the middle class and the poor. When we have corporate CEOs in this country making upwards of $300 million annually and over 600 thousand in the U.S. homeless, not to mention the 16% of the population below the poverty level, there is something very wrong. The middle class demise was accelerated by the Wall Street crash of 2008, with Sen. Sanders exclaiming that no bank should be allowed to get too big to fail.

To quote the candidate: "Today, we have more wealth and income inequality than any major country on earth. We have one of the highest childhood poverty rates and we are the only country in the industrialized world which does not guarantee health care for all. We once led the world in terms of the percentage of our people who graduated college, but we are now in 12th place. Our infrastructure, once the envy of the world, is collapsing." Wages and total income for the working public are decreasing while the rich get richer. As President, Bernie sanders would demand that Congress address these issues and you can depend on him keep driving until the job is done. 

Friday, October 17, 2014

Billionaires impel Social Democracy

Let's take a look at two recent stories on CNN. One, "The richest person in all 50 states," which lists Bill Gates from Washington at the top of the list followed by Warren Buffett from Nebraska. Conservative dirty money king, David Koch, is fourth. Gates comes in at $81.5 billion with the lowest from the state of Wyoming at $340 million.

The second story, "Over 48 million Americans live in poverty," which is self-explanatory by the title, sort of makes you wonder about the first story. "The official poverty line was $23,283 last year for a family of four," according to the article, which is defined by a conservative as "discouraging." Just discouraging? It looks more like a tragedy to me, and that still takes into consideration the philanthropy of these billionaires and millionaires.

I am not a socialist but to those 48 million souls in poverty, a Social Democracy might be very appealing.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Frightening numbers from the U.S. Census on poverty

In 2010 the nation’s poverty rate was 15.1 percent or 46.2 million people doing without food, living on the streets or suffering a multitude of other challenges to their dignity.  That’s a 14.3 percent increase over 2009 and you can bet that this increase includes many of those who are out of work due to the recent economic crisis.  These are current figures from the Census Bureau

There are some that have been in poverty for years; a disgrace.  Others are simply homeless and happy on the street; also a disgrace that we allow it to happen.  Child poverty rose from 20.7 percent to 22 percent; clearly the worse disgrace of all.  For those age 65+ the numbers were basically unchanged at 9 percent, but also surging in 2009 during the economic downturn.

Median income was even down 2.3 percent to $49,445, and there are 49.9 million Americans without health insurance.  Health reform was passed by a mixed Congress in 2010 but the major aspects of the legislation don’t take effect until 2014.  One benefit was available last year and that allows young adults 26 and younger to obtain coverage from their parent’s health insurance.

There was some sunshine in media coverage from a local columnist, E.J. Montini, who writes for the Arizona Republic in Phoenix.  Montini met a panhandler called Mr. Lucky on the street who asked him for change and the reporter gave up 57 cents, including two pennies.

Mr. Lucky treasured the pennies because he would place them where others could find them and experience the old saying: “Find a penny, pick it up, and all the day you’ll have good luck.”  That’s why he was called Mr. Lucky.  This man’s generosity flies in the face of Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer and the state Legislature refusing to extend federal unemployment benefits to the unemployed.  On top of that, the Arizona Court of Appeals had to overturn a Phoenix ordnance prohibiting panhandling.

Crunching numbers in ethnic groups, Hispanics in poverty increased from 25.3 percent to 26.6 percent.  Blacks, from 25.8 to 27.4.  Whites from 9.4 to 9.9.  Asians were flat at 12.1 percent.  Mississippi had the highest rate of poor followed by Louisiana, D.C., Georgia, New Mexico and Arizona.  A public policy professor at the University of Chicago says the worst may be yet to come due to the increased demand for food stamps this year and the significant numbers of those unemployed more than 26 weeks.

If the American economy continues to spiral down, and unemployment remains high, those affected will eventually come to the conclusion that their future might well be better off in a Social Democracy.

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