The rich got richer, poor got poorer

From the blog Modern Schools

There are more than 4 million more Americans in living in poverty than previously reported and they make up 15.7% of the population, not 14.3%, as earlier estimated. The new figure takes into account actual costs of living that include medical expenses, transportation and childcare, putting the U.S. total at 47.8 million living in poverty. Keep in mind that even these estimates are artificially low, as they use the ridiculous figure of $22,050 annual income for a family of four as the threshold, when in cities like New York and San Francisco, a person would be lucky to pay $12,000 per year just for their rent.

Over 16% of seniors and 18% of children are now living in poverty and over 6% are now living in “deep” poverty, with family incomes of less than $11,000. Meanwhile, according the Economic Policy Institute, the wealth of the richest 1% of Americans was 225 times more than the median family net worth in 2009. According to the report, the bottom 20% of families saw their income grow only $200 for the entire period from 1979 to 2005, whereas families in the top 0.1% saw their income grow by nearly $6 million.

As a result of unemployment, wage cuts, furloughs, increased health costs (insurance premiums have increased 131% in the last 10 years), and overall growing immiseration, 1.53 million Americans filed for bankruptcy last year, an increase of 9%. It should be pointed out that in 2005, bankruptcy laws were changed, making it much more difficult and costly for families to file for bankruptcy, making the increase even more appalling.

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