Unspeakable cruelty
Callous indifference
Editing, brief comment by
Carolyn Bennett
Carolyn Bennett
U.S. Poverty in 2009 approached 1960s U.S. poverty
About 1 percent of all Americans
are millionaires.
In Congress, that number regularly
hovers between 40 percent and 50 percent.
This means that elected leaders
generally need not worry about the economic pressures many Americans face –
from securing gainful employment to grappling with keeping a family financially
afloat. [Center for Responsive Politics]  |
| Add caption |
Christian Science Monitor reports suburban poor
“By official measures, poverty has risen dramatically in the
United States. Between 2000 and 2011, the nation’s poor increased from 33.9
million to 46.2 million. As of 2010, 55 percent of the poor in major
metropolitan areas were living in the suburbs. Among the ‘near poor’ – those
with incomes as much as twice the poverty level – 63 percent were living in the
suburbs. 
“The rise in suburban poverty reflects long-term
demographic shifts – America is more than ever a suburban nation.” Economic
changes have widened the gap between rich and poor and have made it more
difficult for families to secure a place in the middle class. The rise in
suburban poverty is also happening as city centers across the country “attract
the young, wealthy, and well educated” and in some cases push out poorer
residents. |
| U.S. Poverty The Great Depression |
Stranded and trapped
The greatest difficulty of poor people in the suburbs is
transportation but also work inadequacy and impermanence.
“Suburbs are built for cars yet a car is beyond the means of
many poor and low-income residents.” They “catch rides with friends, ride
bikes, or use suburban bus lines with limited service.” The head of the United
Way of DuPage/West Cook in the western Chicago suburbs told the Monitor, “If
you don’t have a car, it’s very hard to get a job or to keep a job. … It is also
hard to access services.” Poverty becomes harder to escape.
Inadequate living wage
Suburbs abound in low-paying jobs in retail sales and in
services like landscaping and restaurants but these jobs typically pay too
little to enable workers to rise from poverty.
Many low-wage jobs available through temporary employment
agencies may offer a string of positions but such jobs provide no benefits nor guarantee
steady employment. Where a manufacturing base exits, suburban employers prefer temporary
labor, thus making it difficult for poor and low-income workers to earn a
living, let alone rise from poverty.
Ghettos
Poor families moving from city to suburb or shifting between
suburbs are far more likely to settle in poorer areas than in wealthier
enclaves. As a result, suburban poverty begins to look a lot like urban
poverty, with pockets of increasingly concentrated poor. Poor suburbs are
getting poorer.
 |
| This is not survival of the "fittest" This is deliberateUnspeakable cruelty Callous indifference |
The executive director of the Chicago Area Metropolitan
Tenants Organization observed that poverty is pushed from city to suburbs and like
Europe’s poor, America’s poor people cluster on the edge of cities.
Poverty nationwide 2011
Approximately 100,000 household survey
According to the U.S. Census, where reported and sampled,
the official poverty rate in 2011 was 15.0 percent: 46.2 million people in the
United States were in poverty.
T
|
he poverty rate in 2011 for children under age 18 was 21.9
percent. The poverty rate for people aged 18 to 64 was 13.7 percent, while the
rate for people aged 65 and older was 8.7 percent. None of the rates for these
age groups were statistically different from 2010 estimates.
After 3 consecutive years of increases, neither the official
poverty rate nor the number of people in poverty [where sampled and reported] were
statistically different from 2010 estimates
The number of people in poverty
rose for 4 consecutive years.
Since unrelated individuals under
the age of 15 are excluded from the poverty universe, there are 371,000 fewer
children in the poverty universe than in the total civilian non-institutional
population.
Between 2010 and 2011, poverty
rates (numbers) increased for naturalized citizens.
Poverty in the United States as Wikipedia reported
2009 January
estimate: 643,000 sheltered and unsheltered homeless people nationwide.
Almost two-thirds stayed in an emergency shelter or
transitional housing program; the other third “lived” on the streets, in abandoned
buildings or other places not meant for human habitation.
October 1, 2008-September
30, 2009: about 1.56 million people (about 0.5 percent of the U.S.
population) used an emergency shelter or a transitional housing program
2011 estimate, double
1996 levels: 1.2 percent (1.5 million households including 2.8 million
children) of the U.S. population (presuming a mean household size of 2.55
people) were in extreme poverty (i.e., households living on less than $2 per
day before government benefits),
Child poverty reached record high
levels, with 16.7 million children living in food insecure households, about 35
percent more than 2007 levels.
In 2009 the number of people who
were in poverty was approaching 1960s levels that led to the national War on
Poverty.
November 2012 (U.S. Census Bureau report): more than 16
percent of the population lived in poverty in the United States, including
almost 20 percent of American children ─
…up from 14.3 percent
(approximately 43.6 million) in 2009; and
…to its highest level since 1993
In 2008, 13.2 percent (39.8 million)
Americans lived in poverty.
“Poverty
is
|
a state of privation or a lack of the usual or socially
acceptable amount of money or material possessions.”
The U.S. government’s definition of poverty, an official
threshold adjusted for inflation using the consumer price index, is based on
total income received: poverty level for 2012 was set at $23,050 (total yearly
income) for a family of four. “Most Americans (58.5 percent) will spend at
least one year below the poverty line at some point between ages 25 and 75. Poverty
rates are persistently higher in rural and inner city parts of the country as compared
to suburban areas.”
“About 1 percent of all Americans are millionaires.
In
Congress, that number regularly hovers between 40 percent and 50 percent,
meaning elected leaders generally need not worry about the economic pressures
many Americans face – from securing gainful employment to grappling with
keeping a family financially afloat.”
Consider whether
millionaire leaders in legislative and executive branches of government ─ also
bent on making war, chaos and crises and funding conflicts across the world ─ concern
themselves with basic needs of the states, cities, communities and people of
the United States of America.
C
|
enter for responsive Politics (Open Secrets) Reports
Head of state/legislator millionaires
Compare: Median
net worth (latest Census Data) of the “typical” American household is $66,740.
U.S. President’s net worth
Net Worth of U.S. President Barack
Obama (D) 2011
Net Worth: From $2,566,014 to $8,265,000
Rank: 8th in Executive Branch Members
Assets: 9 totaling
$2,566,014 to $8,265,000
Net Worth of U.S. Congress
Median net worth of the 94 incoming U.S. lawmakers (according
to data collected from personal financial disclosure forms) at the end of 2011
was $1,066,515.
The median net worth for Democratic members is $990,508, compared
to a median net worth for Republicans of $907,014. 
In the U.S. House of Representatives, where the median net
worth is estimated to be $856,009, Democrats are wealthier than Republicans:
Democratic members’ median
estimated net worth $910,505
Republicans members’ median
estimated net worth $789,008
In the U.S. Senate, where the median estimated net worth for
all members is $2.5 million, the Republicans have the edge over their
Democratic colleagues:
Republicans $2.56 million
Democrats $2.47 million
Democrats $2.2 billion
Republicans $2.3 billion
Richest Members of Congress of
United States
Name
Michael McCaul (R-Texas)
Darrell Issa (R-Calif)
Mark Warner (D-Va)
Jared Polis (D-Colo)
John K. Delaney (D-Md)
Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa)
Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn)
Vernon Buchanan (R-Fla)
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif)
Chellie Pingree (D-Maine)
|
Minimum Net Worth
$306,437,919
$215,550,040
$86,024,219
$83,065,361
$46,886,140
$63,082,021
$79,606,299
$-63,427,724
$7,776,073
$23,747,064
|
Average
$500,624,461
$480,325,019
$228,129,609
$214,946,679
$139,025,569
$102,706,012
$100,190,174
$95,327,629
$94,162,532
$88,544,030
|
Maximum Net Worth
$694,811,003
$745,099,999
$370,235,000
$346,827,997
$231,164,999
$142,330,003
$120,774,049
$254,082,982
$180,548,992
$153,340,997
|
Sources and notes
“Face of U.S. poverty: These days, more poor live in suburbs
than in cities: The rise in suburban poverty reflects long-term demographic
shifts – America is more than ever a suburban nation – as well as economic
changes” by Richard Mertens, Correspondent / September 11, 2013, http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2013/0911/Face-of-US-poverty-These-days-more-poor-live-in-suburbs-than-in-cities/(page)/1
U.S. Census: Poverty Highlights
The data presented here are from the Current Population
Survey (CPS), 2012 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC), the source of
official poverty estimates. The CPS ASEC is a sample survey of approximately
100,000 household nationwide. These data reflect conditions in
calendar year 2011. http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/about/overview/index.html
Poverty in the United States, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States
Office holders’ financial data Center for Responsive Politics
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/01/new-congress-new-and-more-wealth.html
http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/CIDsummary.php?CID=N00009638&year=2011
“Personal Finances, Why does it matter?” http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/why.php
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