Remodeling Maidiac
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U.S. poverty heads toward highest level in 50 years - chicagotribune.com
The private sector is doing fine huh?
The private sector is doing fine huh?
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Oddly enough the article contributes it partially to a "fraying safety net"
Seriously? We have more people living off the safety net and the govt even advertises the shit.
I hope Romney includes this in an ad right after the part where Obama claims the private sector is doing just fine.
According to a U.S. Census Bureau report released Wednesday, about about 15 percent of people in the United States were living in poverty in 2011. The Census Bureau defines "poverty" as having an income below $23,021 a year for a family of four. Median U.S. incomes declined 1.5 percent last year to $50,054. Washington-based Brookings Institution scholar Ron Haskins blames persistent poverty on unemployment that rose during the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, and remains stubbornly high. "It sure is taking a long time for the jobs to come back," said Haskins.
Even people like Kate, who has a job, but did not want her last name used, face difficult financial problems. "I don't know what we are going to do in the future. I don't know, we live, you know, it's a day-by-day situation," she said. Kate, her husband and three children live near Washington, D.C. She is a waitress. Her husband was a restaurant manager until an injury left him with broken bones and a concussion. Kate said he will be out of work for perhaps a year and workers compensation - a kind of insurance that helps people injured on the job - pays only 60 percent of what he made at work. "When he got injured, we started struggling and struggling," she said. Kate gets health insurance through her employer, but has to pay for it. Tens of millions of Americans receive health insurance through their work. The share of the cost paid by employers varies widely.
Wednesday's report shows that the number of people not covered by any kind of health insurance declined slightly last year to 49 million. Government-run plans covered more people, and a new law allows families to use a parent's health insurance to cover children until they are 26 years old. Rising health care costs in recent years have made health insurance a major issue when workers negotiate compensation with companies. Kate says her situation would go from difficult to desperate without health insurance. She also hopes her husband can quickly regain his health and bring home a paycheck.
Source
In a speech in politically crucial Ohio, Ryan said he and running mate Mitt Romney would work to help the one in six Americans in poverty climb into the middle class and help keep those already in the middle class on solid financial footing. But he offered no specific or new policy proposals for how they would achieve that. "In this war on poverty, poverty is winning. We deserve better. We deserve a clear choice for a brighter future," said Ryan, a congressman from Wisconsin who also is chairman of the House Budget Committee. "Many of those living in poverty today were in the middle class just a few years ago. We can help them regain the ground they've lost," he added.
Yet Ryan criticized existing anti-poverty programs for spending too much with too few results. "Just last year, total federal and state spending on means-tested programs came in at more than one trillion dollars. How much is that in practical terms? For that amount of money, you could give every poor American a check for $22,000," he said. "Instead, we spend all that money attempting to fight poverty through government programs." "And what do we have to show for it?"
A spokesman for President Barack Obama, Danny Kanner, said Ryan's speech "existed in an alternate universe. Unfortunately for Mitt Romney, no matter how they couch it, their agenda is extreme." Kanner added that, "The American people understand that Mitt Romney would take us back, and no change in rhetoric in the campaign's final weeks can change that."
In his speech at Cleveland State University, Ryan said success can't be counted in dollars and cents. "In most of these programs, especially in recent years, we're still trying to measure compassion by how much government spends, not by how many people we help escape from poverty," Ryan said. The answer, he said, is education. "Sending your child to a great school should not be a privilege of the well-to-do," Ryan said. "Mitt Romney and I believe that choice should be available to every parent in our country, wherever they live."
More Ryan: Poverty winning in 'war on poverty' | CNSNews.com
“While the global financial crisis has taken a serious toll in many nations over the last few years, most Chinese report continued economic progress,” says the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project. “Indeed, 70% say they are better off financially than they were five years ago.” The Pew survey, based on interviews with 3,177 Chinese adults, was conducted between March 18 and April 15, and the findings were released on Oct. 16. “Additionally,” the survey found, “a remarkable 92% of Chinese say their standard of living is better than their parents’ at a similar age.”
The survey also found that roughly three-in-four residents of the Communist country agree that most people are better off in a free-market economy. Chinese attitudes towards America also have changed, with positive views of President Barack Obama and the nation as a whole declining. “The Chinese public increasingly expresses reservations about relations with the United States,” Pew said. “Over the last two years, ratings for the U.S. and President Obama have declined significantly.”
Pew found that the percentage of Chinese who characterize their country’s relationship with the U.S. as one of cooperation has “plummeted” nearly 30 points since 2010, from 68 percent to 39 percent. “Still, many Chinese embrace aspects of America’s soft power, including U.S. science and technology and American ideas about democracy,” the survey said.
More www.cnsnews.com/news/article/70-say-theyre-better-they-were-5-years-ago-china
Oddly enough the article contributes it partially to a "fraying safety net"
Seriously? We have more people living off the safety net and the govt even advertises the shit.
Oddly enough the article contributes it partially to a "fraying safety net"
Seriously? We have more people living off the safety net and the govt even advertises the shit.
I'm actually inclined to agree that a 'fraying safety net" is a contributing factor. The question is: Why is it fraying?
The fact that we have so many people receiving government assistance is not an indication that the safety net is strong. To the contrary, it's become overburdened. Government assistance does next to nothing to help a person improve their lot in life. At best, it keeps them on life support until they hopefully get some kind of mildly lucky break so they can progress from the ICU to the nursing home. The more people that receive government assistance, the less assistance that can be offered to individuals.
The solutions are not simple, though not entirely complicated either. But if we want to reverse this tide we're going to have to have success in recreating a more functional income distribution gap.
Another decade of this and maybe we will be able to compete in the global marketplace?
Would not work. MOst on welfare cannot work and even if they could there is not nearly enough jobs to go around.
U.S. poverty heads toward highest level in 50 years - chicagotribune.com
The private sector is doing fine huh?
U.S. poverty heads toward highest level in 50 years - chicagotribune.com
The private sector is doing fine huh?
U.S. poverty heads toward highest level in 50 years - chicagotribune.com
The private sector is doing fine huh?
All that money we put into poverty is doing nothing but making them comfortable being lazy fucks