Bad Getting Worse:

[EV_Ares]

BAD GETTING WORSE: There are more Americans living in poverty today than there are total people living in the state of California, the most populous state in the nation. The number of poor Americans has grown by five million in the past six years, while inequality has reached historically high levels. In 2005, the richest one percent of Americans had the largest share of the nation's income -- 19 percent -- since 1929, while the poorest 20 percent of Americans had only 3.4 percent of the nation's income. Though the number of Americans in deep poverty has climbed slowly but steadily in the past three decades, a study by the American Journal of Preventative Medicine found that since 2000, "the number of severely poor has grown 'more than any other segment of the population.'" In 2005, 16 million people -- 5.4 percent of all Americans -- had incomes below half the poverty line. The number of Americans living in such extreme poverty grew by over three million between 2000 and 2005, and the share of poor people living in extreme poverty is now greater than at any point in the last 32 years. Without urgent action, these numbers are on course to continue growing. The federal minimum wage has remained static for nearly a decade. At $5.15 an hour, it is at its lowest level in real terms since 1956. The federal minimum wage was once 50 percent of the average wage, but is now only 30 percent of that wage. If Congress were to restore the minimum wage to 50 percent of the average wage -- about $8.40 an hour in 2006 -- it would help over 4.5 million poor workers and nearly nine million other low-income workers.

NOT JUST A 'POOR PERSON'S' PROBLEM: Poverty is not isolated to those who are currently experiencing it and the tens of millions who hang on the precipice of falling in. Economist Rebecca Blank, a member of the poverty task force, has found that a third of all Americans will "experience poverty within a 13-year period. In that period, one in 10 Americans are poor for most of the time, and one in 20 are poor for more than 10 years." Furthermore, "large numbers of Americans -- both low income and middle class -- are increasingly concerned about uncertain job futures, downward pressures on wages, and decreasing opportunities for advancement in a globalized economy." Employment for millions of Americans is now less secure than at any point in the post-World War II era. Women and minorities are much more likely to feel the sting of poverty than are white Americans. African-Americans (24.9 percent were poor in 2005), Hispanics (21.8 percent), and Native Americans (25.3 percent) all have poverty rates far greater than those of whites (8.3 percent). With a poverty rate of 14.1 percent, women are substantially more likely to be poor than are males (11.1 percent). If a national agenda to reduce poverty were implemented, it would benefit more than just the poor, as it would promote opportunity and security for millions of other Americans, as well.

MAKING WORK PAY: As history has shown, poverty is conquerable if smart steps are taken. During the strong economy of the 1960s and the War on Poverty, the poverty rate fell from 22.4 percent to 11.1 percent between 1959 and 1973. In the 1990s, a strong economy was combined with policies to promote and support work, and the poverty rate dropped from 15.1 percent to 11.3 percent between 1993 and 2000. Fighting poverty does not require extensive new bureaucracy or more government programs. The Task Force on Poverty found that there are four principles that should guide a strategy to cut poverty in half: 1) "People should work and work should pay enough to ensure that workers and their families can avoid poverty, meet basic needs, and save for the future." 2) "Children should grow up in conditions that maximize their opportunities for success; adults should have opportunities throughout their lives to connect to work, get more education, live in a good neighborhood, and move up in the workforce." 3) "Americans should not fall into poverty when they cannot work or work is unavailable, unstable, or pays so little that they cannot make ends meet." 4) "All Americans should have the opportunity to build assets that allow them to weather periods of flux and volatility, and to have the resources that may be essential to advancement and upward mobility. Read the Task Force's 12 key steps to cutting poverty in half here.

From:
Center for American Progress Action Fund
http://www.americanprogress.org/

[Why Syzygy]

1. K&R

[Recursion]

2. I knew it was bad, but I had no idea how bad

In 2005, the richest one percent of Americans had the largest share of the nation's income -- 19 percent -- since 1929

That's ominous

:scared:

[roguevalley]

3. someone on the news, where I can't remember, say that 1 0f 6

Americans live on $6 a day. I am flat on my face over this.