Tag Archives: poverty

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Cain’s 9-9-9 Means Less Pizza For Average American

The Tax Policy Center did an analysis of Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan. It does reduce taxes – if you make more than $200k.:

Go ahead, take a close look. If you are making more than $200k a year, you’ll see from 3.8% to 15% reduction in taxes.

Of course, that’s not where most of us sit. In fact, if you make less than $40k per year, you’ll see double digit tax increases. Surprise.

It shouldn’t be a surprise, however. A tax plan that uses the same formulas as the default in SimCity is likely just as bad as the game’s plan.

When this kind of “plan” is his signature proposal, and when he has shown that he has no foreign policy knowledge, including a lack of understanding how Uzbekistan fits into the US security picture, it is frightening that he actually is giving Romney a run for his money.

But remember, they want to call things like #OWS “class warfare”. Cain says that if you aren’t rich, it’s your fault. He just wants to makes sure that if you’re below the poverty line, you’ll stay there. Why else would the tax rates on those who make less than $20k a year be subjected to a nearly 18% increase in effective tax rate?

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EFC Live – Social Issues: Homelessness, Poverty, and Mental Health

In case you missed the live show, you can always watch it on replay 24/7!

Tonight’s show featured a discussion on some issues that don’t get much play in the media. They’re not sexy topics but they are topics that really need more attention.

Let us know what you think – post comments below, or on our Facebook page at facebook.com/EditedForClarity

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Social Issues: Poverty – It’s Here

Most of the time, when we hear the word poverty, it conjures up images of third world countries, of malnourished children whose ribs prominently stick out of emaciated bodies. But we don’t need to look that far away to see the effects of poverty. It’s right here at home.

In the latest statistics which summarize the data from 2010, 17.2 million households are considered to be food insecure. That’s 14.5% of the households in the US. To make this a little more concrete, it’s one in seven households. But that doesn’t mean you can look down the street and every seventh house is having trouble feeding their family. Instead, these households tend to be centralized, creating pockets of insecurity. But the scary part of this number is that it is the highest total number of households facing food insecurity ever recorded in the US.

6.7 million households (about 5.4% of American households) had very low food security, meaning they do not have the resources to ensure they will get adequate meals on a daily basis. They may have to reduce their intake, skip meals, and normal eating habits are disrupted. Of these, 3.9 million households were households with children.

In terms of poverty, there are now over 46 million people below the poverty line, and of these 2.6 million fell below that line in the last year alone. This is the highest level in 52 years, as long as this data has been published. And it isn’t likely to get better. Middle class median household incomes fell to the lowest point since 1996. For the median to fall, more people have to be making less than the median. Of the 46 million below the poverty line, 20.5 million are considered to be in deep poverty, where their household income is less than half of the defined poverty line. That means 20.5 million people have a household income of less than $11,000 per year for a family of four.

Children are especially casualties in this area. 22% of children live in poverty. When you see those commercials of undernourished kids in third world countries, remember that here at home, more than 1 in 5 kids live in poverty and may face significant problems with getting enough to eat. Right here.

How did we get to this condition, where large segments of Americans have dropped into a state of poverty? There are a number of reasons, mainly economical.

The first is access to jobs. As the economy has foundered, so have job opportunities. When businesses were starting to feel a pinch from flagging sales, they laid off workers or stopped hiring. But in recent months, corporations have been showing record profits, yet have done little rehiring. They are reaping the rewards of lower payroll requirements, while asking their remaining employees to work longer and longer hours rather than hire more people.

Some companies that have begun to rehire are doing so at a much lower wage, offering the lowest amount of pay they can, knowing there is a glut of workers and a scarcity of jobs. The minimum wage comes into play here as well. The poverty level for a family of four is just shy of $22,000, but a worker at a full-time job that pays only minimum wage will only bring home $15,000, 31% below the poverty line.

Another issue that exacerbates the problem is that these numbers are based on national averages, not local conditions. For example, someone in Bismarck, ND getting 15,000 a year might pay $740 a month in rent for an apartment. In Orange County, CA  - the non-TV show portions – that same apartment is more than $1,600 a month in rent. And in Mobile, AL, that rent is only about $600 a month. Yet the classification for each of these areas in terms of poverty is exactly the same. That reflects in assistance to these folks, such as food stamps. The level for receiving food stamps is equal for all, but the higher cost of living areas will not receive more money to help.

At some point, our caring for those in need has fallen by the wayside, and our focus has turned to ourselves. It’s human nature, of course, to put our attention on ourselves first, but there seems to be less and less attention on the plight of others. Regardless of how you feel about “welfare”, public assistance to those in need, food stamps, Social Security or any of the other “safety nets” that we have created over the last six to seven decades, is it really so difficult to understand that for a growing number of people, “get a job” or “they’re just lazy” isn’t an adequate or even accurate response.

We see these commercials, usually late at night on TV when we can’t sleep, asking for a dollar a day to help those in other countries. Perhaps, just perhaps, we should give a dollar a day to help those in need right here at home.

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Social Issues: Why Do We Look The Other Way?

This week, we’ll be focusing on social issues, but not the big hot button topics. Let’s face it, some of these topics get plenty of attention. Reproductive rights, unemployment, healthcare in general – they all get plenty of media coverage, lots of lip service from politicians.

But what about those social issues that don’t end up in the limelight. Like homelessness. Or poverty. Mental care is another. These are all issues that seem to have few champions and get little real attention. They aren’t glamorous. They aren’t easy to fix, nor is there much to gain from being on opposite sides if these issues. So, if there isn’t that much controversy, why isn’t more being done to solve them, or at least improve them.

Let’s look at some statistics:

Homelessness: I went looking for statistics. Mind you, homelessness is a difficult thing to measure. The criteria for someone to be considered homeless vary from institution to institution. I know this first hand. When we went through a rough patch late last year and my daughter and I had to stay with friends for a few months, the school district considered us homeless. We had a roof over our head, but as far as they were concerned, we were homeless.

As a rule, when government organizations count the homeless, they do so based on shelter usage and soup kitchen attendance. But this method can significantly underestimate the total number of people. When soup kitchens or shelters turn people away because they have hit their capacity, those individuals aren’t counted.

And there’s not a whole lot of data to back any of the estimates up. It’s just not a priority. Information is dated and likely underreported. A 2007 study by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty estimates that 3.5 million people, nearly a third of them children, are likely to find themselves homeless in a given year. This is based on 2007 data. That number is quite likely much higher now.

There are folks trying to help. One guy, Mark Horvath has started a site, invisiblepeople.tv, where he highlights the plight of homeless folks on video. He’s just one guy. There are many others. But still, they don’t get the media attention they need to really effect change.

Poverty: According to data released on Sept. 13th , 2011, the number of people living below the poverty level in the United States climbed to it’s highest since 1993. At 15.1% of the population, more than 1 in 7 people live in poverty. That’s in this country, approximately 43.6 million people.

For a family of four, that’s living on an income of less than $22,350 annually. It does not take into account cost of living, just the income available. For example, in some areas, such as Southern California, where the median home price is over $500,000, housing costs are far higher. Yet the poverty measurement does not adjust for this. Therefore, it is quite likely that although the income level for determining poverty is the same, many more people live in effective poverty as the cost to maintain a household is far higher, even for renters.

This disparity means that like homelessness, poverty is likely underreported and is more severe a problem than we realize.

Mental Health: It is estimated that 25% of the adults in the US population are diagnosable for one or more disorders. Nearly 6% (1 in 17) would be considered severe diagnoses. Of those 25% of adults, slightly over a third are getting treatment (36%) thorough healthcare, with another 5% receiving some other form of treatment. That leaves 59% of adults that should be getting treatment going without it.

The range of mental health issues requiring some form of treatment is vast, including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders – a long list. And yet, it is another topic that gets very little attention from the media, until someone with a mental disorder does something sensational enough for the evening news.

Whether mental health, poverty or homelessness, there is a common thread: We don’t like to talk about them. But why?

Perhaps it is fear. We look at some of these folks in their tattered clothes, their dirty faces, and we fear. Or we see people wearing obvious hand-me-downs and reflexively turn away. Or we see someone with a vacant look in their eyes, speaking at the sky. And we fear.

The fear is a natural reaction. They are different, and humans fear that which is different. We have trouble processing it, and that trouble, that uncertainty raises fears within us.

But perhaps the reason we look the other way is also rooted in shame. We can do something for these folks, but most of us don’t. We can help the homeless – but we don’t. We can do something about those living in poverty – but we don’t. We can do something about helping those with mental illnesses – but we don’t.

So maybe the reason we look away is because we’re ashamed that we haven’t done more.

Fixing the fear is as simple as facing it. Talk to someone who is enduring these hardships. Find out who they are as individuals, not just another homeless person. Find out how they got there.

Then you can solve the second problem – doing something about it.

 

This week we are featuring stories on the issues of homelessness, poverty and mental health. If you have a story you’d like to contribution, send it to submissions@editedforclarity.com. It can be a sentence, a paragraph, a full blog post, even a video. We want to hear your stories.

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Call For Posts – Social Issues: What Needs More Focus?

This week at Edited For Clarity, we’ll be putting a focus on social issues that need more attention. Many of these things are hot button topics: abortion/reproductive rights, healthcare, unemployment.

But there are many that don’t get the attention they need, like homelessness, poverty and mental health.

We’ll be digging for stories ourselves, but we’d like to also try something different. If you have the desire, the passion, the knowledge to write on these topics, and would like to submit a post, we’re looking for submissions this week.

Or perhaps you’ve already written a post elsewhere, like your own blog. That’s just as good. We’ll promote your post on your blog as well, or you can crosspost it here.

Either way, let us know in the comments, send an email to submissions@editedforclarity.com, or tweet us at @edited4clarity

These issues need to be covered. You have the personal experiences. Help us tell the stories.

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Under Rick Perry, Workers Compensation Ranks Dead Last #EFCpolfacts

If you are injured while working, it is probably best if it isn’t in Texas. Under Rick Perry, Worker’s Compensation coverage is the lowest in the United States (from a report by the Texas Legislative Study Group).

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Texas Under Rick Perry Is #2 In Food Insecurity – #EFCpolfacts

According to the Texas Legislative Study Group, Texas is #2 out of 50 states in food insecurity. Food security is defined as:

Food security for a household means access by all members at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. Food security includes at a minimum (1) the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and (2) an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (that is, without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other coping strategies). (USDA)

Food insecurity is the absence of those conditions. Texas is ranked #2 in food insecurity, behind Mississippi, with 16.3% of households reporting food insecurity.

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#EFCpolfacts Under Rick Perry, TX Has Highest Rate Of Adults Without HS Diplomas

Noted in a report from the Texas Legislative Study Group, Texas has the highest percentage of adults over 25 without a high school diploma.

Individuals without a degree have a higher rate of unemployment and lower income.

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#EFCpolfacts TX Under Rick Perry Has The Fourth Highest Poverty Rate Among States

Governor Rick Perry announced his candidacy for President on August 13th, 2010. At that time, the state of Texas was ranked 4th out of 50 states for having the highest level of poverty. The only states with higher poverty levels were Mississippi, Arizona and New Mexico. The District of Columbia also had a higher rate of poverty.