Increasing poverty in the United States

August 30th, 2005 | by aobaoill |

A useful article on the Business Week site gives the latest figures for poverty in the United States, with some intereesting additional information.
The numbers in poverty increased in 2004 to 37 million, bringing the rate up to 12.7%. The authors note that It marks the fourth straight increase in the government’s annual poverty measure. (When Clinton left office, by contrast, 31 million were in poverty.) The numbers living without health insurance are also up, by 800,000 to 45.8 million.
Incomes have remained flat, with the median household income remaining at $44,389, unchanged from 2003. When one considers inflation, that figure would mean a decrease in real incomes. The Business Week piece includes plenty of other numbers, breaking the figures down by race and region – the numbers come from the Census Bureau‘s Current Population Survey where I imagine far more detailed inforamtion can be got.
I should note, as I always do, that the poverty rate in the United States is based on fixed income rates for various sizes of household, based on a survey of household spending patterns. This is somewhat problematic because the survey has not been updated to reflect changes in spending and costs – if it were, poverty rates would probably increase. Other means of measuring poverty include percentage poverty levels – measuring the number of households with income less than a fixed percentage of the median household income, such as the 50% or 60% level. The US system has the advantage that it can distinguish by size of household, but by measuring poverty in a somewhat absolute measure it ignores changing social patterns that influence how poverty is perceived, how it comes to life. A better method than either of these two is to use social exclusion measures, looking at the extent to which people are able to participate in various aspects of social life.
Oh, and in closing I should note that consumer confidence is up in the United States. Feel better?

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