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Almost 1 in 6 Americans living below poverty line
Thursday, 15 September 2011
REUTERS
A shantytown in Miami. The figures will dent optimism about a US economic recovery since 2008
New figures on income levels released this
week confirm what many in the United States struggling to make ends meet
already knew: it is a country in the midst of a poverty crisis that
will define a generation.
Soaring poverty rates and a decade of stagnation
in prosperity levels even for wealthier Americans emerge as the gloomy
headlines from a new Census Bureau survey showing that 46.2 million
people in the country were subsisting below the poverty level last year,
more than has been seen in any year since the surveys began 52 years
ago.
Last year an additional 2.6 million
Americans fell below the poverty threshold, set at $22,113 for a family
of four. Moreover, median household incomes dipped to a level not seen
since 1997. The US has not seen such an extended period without growth
in household income since the Great Depression.
The Census Bureau statistics amount to a study in
gloom and lost optimism. The percentage of Americans living below the
poverty threshold was the highest it has been since 1993 – 15.1 per, up
from 14.3 per cent the previous year and 11.7 per cent in 2001.
...I'm there. Been there for awhile. Rest here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/almost-1-in-6-americans-living-below-poverty-line-2354789.html
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