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Record Number Americans, Or 46.3 Million, Lived In Poverty Last Year; 49.9 Million Without Health Insurance
The US Census Bureau has released its annual Income (not so much), Poverty (much) and Health Insurance Coverage report for 2010. The full thing is below but the highlights are as follows: i) Real median household income in the United States in 2010 was $49,445, a 2.3 percent decline from the 2009 median. ii) The nation's official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent, up from 14.3 percent in 2009 ? the third consecutive annual increase in the poverty rate. There were 46.2 million people in poverty in 2010, up from 43.6 million in 2009 ? the fourth consecutive annual increase and the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published; and iii) The number of people without health insurance coverage rose from 49.0 million in 2009 to 49.9 million in 2010, while the percentage without coverage ?16.3 percent - was not statistically different from the rate in 2009. Breaking it down by ethnicity, living in poverty were 27.4% of all blacks, and 26.6% of all Hispanics. White, non Hispanics and Asians were doing better at 9.9% and 12.1% respectively. At this point we could interject with a joke about the "wealth effect", "edible iPads", and/or "health insurance", but frankly, all those are way overused by now. Hence, we leave such creativity to our readers.
From the Census Bureau.
Summary of Key Findings
The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that in 2010, median household income declined, the poverty rate increased and the percentage without health insurance coverage was not statistically different from the previous year.
Real median household income in the United States in 2010 was $49,445, a 2.3 percent decline from the 2009 median.
The nation's official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent, up from 14.3 percent in 2009 ? the third consecutive annual increase in the poverty rate. There were 46.2 million people in poverty in 2010, up from 43.6 million in 2009 ? the fourth consecutive annual increase and the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published.
The number of people without health insurance coverage rose from 49.0 million in 2009 to 49.9 million in 2010, while the percentage without coverage ?16.3 percent - was not statistically different from the rate in 2009.
This information covers the first full calendar year after the December 2007-June 2009 recession. See section on the historical impact of recessions.
These findings are contained in the report Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010. The following results for the nation were compiled from information collected in the 2011 Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC):
Income
- Since 2007, the year before the most recent recession, real median household income has declined 6.4 percent and is 7.1 percent below the median household income peak that occurred prior to the 2001 recession in 1999. The percentages are not statistically different from each another.
Race and Hispanic Origin (Race data refer to people reporting a single race only. Hispanics can be of any race.)
- Among race groups, real median income declined for white and black households between 2009 and 2010, while changes for Asian and Hispanic-origin households were not statistically different. Real median income for each race and Hispanic-origin group has not yet recovered to the pre-2001 recession all-time highs. (See Table A.)
Regions
- Households in the Midwest, South and West experienced declines in real median income between 2009 and 2010. The apparent change in median household income for the Northeast was not statistically significant. (See Table A.)
Nativity
- Median income for households maintained by native-born householders declined between 2009 and 2010 in real terms. The change in the median income of all foreign-born households was not statistically significant. (See Table A.)
Earnings
- In 2010, the earnings of women who worked full time, year-round were 77 percent of that for men working full time, year-round, not statistically different from the 2009 ratio. The 2010 real median earnings of these men and women were not different from the 2009 earnings.
- Since 2007, the number of men working full time, year-round with earnings decreased by 6.6 million and the number of corresponding women declined by 2.8 million.
Income Inequality
- Based on the Gini Index, the change in income inequality between 2009 and 2010 was not statistically significant, while the changes in shares of aggregate household income by quintiles showed a slight shift to more inequality. The Gini index was 0.469 in 2010. (The Gini index is a measure of household income inequality; zero represents perfect income equality and 1 perfect inequality.)
Poverty
- The poverty rate in 2010 was the highest since 1993 but was 7.3 percentage points lower than the poverty rate in 1959, the first year for which poverty estimates are available. Since 2007, the poverty rate has increased by 2.6 percentage points.
- In 2010, the family poverty rate and the number of families in poverty were 11.7 percent and 9.2 million, respectively, up from 11.1 percent and 8.8 million in 2009.
- The poverty rate and the number in poverty increased for both married-couple families (6.2 percent and 3.6 million in 2010 from 5.8 percent and 3.4 million in 2009) and female-householder-with-no-husband-present families (31.6 percent and 4.7 million in 2010 from 29.9 percent and 4.4 million in 2009). For families with a male householder no wife present, the poverty rate and the number in poverty were not statistically different from 2009 (15.8 percent and 880,000 in 2010).
Thresholds
- As defined by the Office of Management and Budget and updated for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, the weighted average poverty threshold for a family of four in 2010 was $22,314.
(See <http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/threshld/index.html> for the complete set of dollar value thresholds that vary by family size and composition.)
Race and Hispanic Origin (Race data refer to people reporting a single race only. Hispanics can be of any race.)
- The poverty rate for non-Hispanic whites was lower in 2010 than it was for other racial groups. Table B details 2010 poverty rates and numbers in poverty, as well as changes since 2009 in these measures, for race groups and Hispanics.
Doubled-Up Households
- Doubled-up households are defined as households that include at least one "additional" adult: a person 18 or older who is not enrolled in school and is not the householder, spouse or cohabiting partner of the householder. In spring 2007, prior to the recession, doubled-up households totaled 19.7 million. By spring 2011, the number of doubled-up households had increased by 2.0 million to 21.8 million and the percent rose by 1.3 percentage points from 17.0 percent to 18.3 percent.
- In spring 2011, 5.9 million young adults age 25-34 (14.2 percent) resided in their parents' household, compared with 4.7 million (11.8 percent) before the recession, an increase of 2.4 percentage points.
- It is difficult to precisely assess the impact of doubling up on overall poverty rates. Young adults age 25-34, living with their parents, had an official poverty rate of 8.4 percent, but if their poverty status were determined using their own income, 45.3 percent had an income below the poverty threshold for a single person under age 65.
Age
- The poverty rate increased for children younger than 18 (from 20.7 percent in 2009 to 22.0 percent in 2010) and people 18 to 64 (from 12.9 percent in 2009 to 13.7 percent in 2010), while it was not statistically different for people 65 and older (9.0 percent).
- Similar to the patterns observed for the poverty rate in 2010, the number of people in poverty increased for children younger than 18 (15.5 million in 2009 to 16.4 million in 2010) and people 18 to 64 (24.7 million in 2009 to 26.3 million in 2010) and was not statistically different for people 65 and older (3.5 million).
Nativity
- The 2010 poverty rate for naturalized citizens was not statistically different from 2009, while the poverty rates of native-born and noncitizens increased. Table B details 2010 poverty rates and the numbers in poverty, as well as changes since 2009 in these measures, by nativity.
Regions
- The South was the only region to show statistically significant increases in both the poverty rate and the number in poverty -- 16.9 percent and 19.1 million in 2010 -- up from 15.7 percent and 17.6 million in 2009. In 2010, the poverty rates and the number in poverty for the Northeast, Midwest and the West were not statistically different from 2009. (See Table B.)
Health Insurance Coverage
- The number of people with health insurance increased to 256.2 million in 2010 from 255.3 million in 2009. The percentage of people with health insurance was not statistically different from 2009.
- Between 2009 and 2010, the percentage of people covered by private health insurance declined from 64.5 percent to 64.0 percent, while the percentage covered by government health insurance increased from 30.6 percent to 31.0 percent. The percentage covered by employment-based health insurance declined from 56.1 percent to 55.3 percent.
- The percentage covered by Medicaid (15.9 percent) was not statistically different from 2009.
- In 2010, 9.8 percent of children under 18 (7.3 million) were without health insurance. Neither estimate is significantly different from the corresponding 2009 estimate.
- The uninsured rate for children in poverty (15.4 percent) was greater than the rate for all children (9.8 percent).
- In 2010, the uninsured rates decreased as household income increased from 26.9 percent for those in households with annual incomes less than $25,000 to 8.0 percent in households with incomes of $75,000 or more.
Race and Hispanic Origin (Race data refer to those reporting a single race only. Hispanics can be of any race.)
- The uninsured rate and number of uninsured in 2010 were not statistically different from 2009 for non-Hispanic whites and blacks, while increasing for Asians. The number of uninsured Hispanics was not statistically different from 2009, while the uninsured rate decreased to 30.7 percent. (See Table C.)
Nativity
- The proportion of the foreign-born population without health insurance in 2010 was about two-and-a-half times that of the native-born population. The 2010 uninsured rate was not statistically different from the 2009 rate for native-born, the foreign-born overall and noncitizens but rose for naturalized citizens. Table C details the 2010 uninsured rate and the number of uninsured, as well as changes since 2009 in these measures, by nativity.
Regions
- The Northeast and the Midwest had the lowest uninsured rates in 2010. Between 2009 and 2010, there were no statistical differences in uninsured rates for any of the regions. The number of uninsured increased in the Northeast, while there were no statistically significant changes for the other three regions. (See Table C.)
Historical Impact of Recessions
Since 2010 represents the first full calendar year after the recession that ended in June 2009, one can compare changes in income, poverty and health insurance coverage between 2009 and 2010 with changes during the first year after the end of other recessions:
- Median household income declined the first full year following the December 2007 to June 2009 recession, as well as in the first full year following three other recessions (March 2001 to November 2001, January 1980 to July 1980 and December 1969 to November 1970). However, household income increased the first full year following the November 1973 to March 1975 recession, and the changes following the July 1990 to March 1991 and July 1981 to November 1982 recessions were not statistically significant.
- The poverty rate and the number of people in poverty increased in the first calendar year following the end of the last three recessions. For the recessions that ended in 1961 and 1975, the poverty rate decreased in the next full calendar year.
- After the most recent recession, there was no significant difference in the uninsured rate during the first full year after the recession. However, in the year following the recessions that ended in 1991 and 2001, the uninsured rate increased.
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nothing to see here, move along
Can't say much about the insurance thing, or about why a german would be angry when faced with beautiful titties, but the "poverty" rate is a completely contrived, meaningless statistic, on the order of "inflation." A fabrication used by certain forces to influence the will of the public.
I demand poverty insurance.
Paid for by you, of course.
Recovery, bitchez
http://azizonomics.com/2011/09/09/why-obama-is-failing/
im sorry, guys, THIS IS NOT FUNNY. i work with homeless VETS, yea, some like that life style, but most, like the ones who lost everything to this MANUFACTURED crisis, DONT. they would kill to get a job, and get thier old lives back, including thier families!
to the people who caused this, hell is too good for you
YOU RUINED PEOPLES LIVES FOR YOUR QUEST FOR WORTHLESS MONEY!
The game is power. Money is just an "I'm in fucking charge here!" certificate for them to wave at the minions.
As my late father used to say, "The last person you should ever put in charge of ANYTHING is someone who wants the job!"
I think Socrates said that too.
Does sound kinda Socratic, doesn't it? I'll have to look it up later and see if the old guy said anything else of note about the sociopathic, rent-seeking classes.
Does any of it really matter when they all have ipads and iphones and all kinds of icrap?
When are those edible ithingys coming out?
FYI.
Disgruntled and disillusioned, angry VETS make good revolutionary stock.
They have the training and what's more important, they have the courage and motivation in their HEARTS.
Why do you think the Pentagon is keeping thousands of well trained men off shore? Because there are no jobs for them here and if they came back, they just might start the process of a revolution that is long overdue.
They are fighting to protect a fascist oligarchy and they were sent off to establish and perpetuate LIES.
I can only imagine how righteously angry some of these fine men in uniform are. Fuck that pledge to protect scum and liars.
They are trying to deny returning vets their 2nd amendment rights.
...yes, let them eat cake
may you choke on your alpha... may your greed morph to fear... cold, debilitating, mind numbing fear
Nothing to see here except nice "angry" German tits! Btw I thing it's near the same number living in poverty in EU.
Is this the change we were looking for?
I know, I know, he inherited it all. Sorry.
Change, yes. With lots of lint in it.
Its called this so called Recovery is not really here. The last 3 years we have lost millions of jobs, how do you not expect the poverty level to rise.
The current situation nothing has changed but has gotten worse.
http://www.dailyjobcuts.com
-
Barry O changed his bong water for hoop season, what more can you ask of him?
Opsss. Sorry for the typo.
I agree nothing to see. I read this article about Africa where the author pointed out that despite the poverty the men all had cell phones and visited hookers. His idea was if they truly cared about the future of their children they wouldn't be so goddamned selfish.
I see every year the world produces more and varried crap. Someone buys it.
Fuck me people poor people in the US have cell phones and laptops, our poor drive to the welfare office.
Our poor are buying the many and varied crap being produced.
So why the fuck should I shed a tear for those "living in poverty"?
For centuries the poor, the real dirt farmer peon fellaheen compasino poor, not only survived but actually thrived without any of the items listed.
Here is an idea, give up your cell/laptop/40 malt liquor/weed/smokes/Grey Goose/designer clothes/designer shoes/tv/blueray/cable/ and maybe apply some of that fucking money to health care for the kids!
Cell phone and rides (car/motorcycle/...) are fairly necessary to get a job in the US these days. If you want to job hunt, it probably takes a computer, and though there are ususally some internet pos's in your local library, do you know if one has to wait in line for 1-3 hours for that? Some things you mention are a necessity in this hemisphere.
Cell phone and rides (car/motorcycle/...) are fairly necessary to get a job in the US these days. If you want to job hunt, it probably takes a computer, and though there are ususally some internet pos's in your local library, do you know if one has to wait in line for 1-3 hours for that? Some things you mention are a necessity in this hemisphere.
health care is is now just another ponzi..errr...business model.
take control of your own health with natural remedies, save mony and live longer.
they dont call em croakers for nothing, if they really had your best interests at heart
they'd be informing you of things like this:
Ailments from A-Z - Earth Clinic
Dr. Wu's Anti-Jew Medicine
I believe Obama has a program that basically gives away phones to the "needy".
Nothing to see here... because it's nothing compared what it will be.
Sounds like a good story for www.newamericanpoverty.com
Obamacare will take care of you!
The President can only ask, it's Congress who makes it or breaks it. What have the Republicans come up with so far? Continue tax breaks for those living far above the medium.
Oh well heres the grease applied to skids for far more 'social program' spending, just on the heels of Zerobamas latest bill.
Fascism full throttle.
Real 'Merikans are out of work. Congress (especially the Republicans, who I'm told are the ones I'm supposed to hate this week), please stop playing games with our seniors!! Pass this bill NOW! </sarc>
'Merikans should all wear Merkins in protest. That'd get someone's attention.
Ok. Maybe only my attention... But they should still try it.
Never understood that one. If you want a beard on the bloody clam, why did you shave it off in the first place??
The Oxford Companion to the Body dates the origin of the pubic wig to the 1450's. Women would shave their pubic hair and wear a merkin to combat pubic lice, and prostitutes would wear them to cover up signs of disease, such as syphilis.[5]
Merkin
I never know WTF I will learn here next. Here I thought merkins came along for theatrical and film uses...
Trickle up poverty.
Rally on!!! All the indices are green, so ignore that man behind the curtain over there. I am the great and all powerful OZ!!!!
President Harrison J. Bounel... i mean Sotero....I mean Obama...shit just that bloke living in the WH must be proud. Job well done Sir!
The Fall Guy they picked.
Step right up, Step Right up, COME GET YOUR NEW EDIBLE EVO 4G 3D!! NOW YOU CAN HAVE YOUR CAKE AND PRETEND TO EAT IT TOO!
Looks like the South is doing the worst. Serves them right......keep sending more zionist republicans to D.C.
Certainly, they would have been much better off to send some Anti-Semitic Democrats.
theyre all whores for israel.
Dual Citizenship -- Should we be worried?
No matter who you vote for the Illuminati wins. Democrat or republican. We need a new anti-oligarchy party.
There already is one, but we are called "Homegrown Terrrrrrrrists."
pods
aahh.......is that a new oligarchy?
Wall Street firms paid $20.8 billion in cash bonuses to their employees in the state in 2010.
where's the problem?
You're not one?
I hate poverty only slightly less than Jamie Dimon.
You must love poverty then, because JD makes big bucks on teh food stampz.
Obviously the War on Poverty (like the War on Drugs and the War on Terrorism) has been a huge success.
I can only hope that the eventual War on Gold fails just as dramatically...
dup
Kinda like the wars against economic slowdowns, recessions, and now collapse.
thank you very much, PTB......
look what did to your countrymen....
TPTB are not your countrymen (though some of their lackeys are).
.
The Power Hungry hold no allegience to any country nor to any men.
Clearly what we need to do is raise taxes on people who have any capital money left, to sustain those who don't. And make sure Obamacare stays the law of the land. Clearly.
The effects of Obamacare have yet to even be seen in the economy - got any more scarecrows you wanna pull out? Nice of you to support the oligarchy - are you one of them? Own/run a fund that makes billions, you only get a meager hundred mil or so cos of the tax loophole you paid for?
Sooner, rather than later, the raging poverty we see in 3rd world countries will be here - children by the tens of thousands in each city thrown away, wandering the streets along with the elderly and all the poor, including most of what use to be called the middle class.
There's more than one way to get to Armegedon, and nope - you don't get your rapture; you get to deal with it all on your own, whether you be poor or filthy rich.
"children by the tens of thousands in each city thrown away,"
Let the message go forth, if you can't afford the expensive luxury of children, please don't have them.
Of course we'll have to look elsewhere for future soldiers.
Those "Children" pay for seniors' Social Security, ya know.
Of course, one cannot expect consistency of logic from someone that supports Govt programs...
And of course those poverty calculations are based in part upon the government's grossly understated inflation numbers.
From www.shadowstats.com
... so you would be comfortable with your family living at the high end of the scale... and of course none in your family would accept any relief if it was extracted from the poor Wall Street billionaires as that would be evil socialism... the brain washing is complete.
I spot the insidious creep of posting graphics, and I've only been here for 14 weeks.
Cost-of-Dying Adjustment bitchez!
"The rich stay healthy, the sick stay poor".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WhzPRmvVcM&feature=related
"We glorify the past when our future dries up".
Bono is a ponce. The second quote is clever and nothing else, the first is an universal truth.
Some artists do not know that they do enough for the world by being artists. Bono got in over his head with saving Africa, and he is now lost in the erratic sea of politics.
bono hewson=one more talentless tax dodging joo rock star, is there any other kind?
would be interesting to know where all that save africa cash ended up. tel aviv perhaps?
Unforgivable Liar
Textbook wealth redistribution under an out of control government.
Gee where have I heard all this script laid out before? OH YEA now I remember 'The Communist Manifesto'.
The Communist Manifesto is the perfect example of why a philosophy should never be instructed as a fix for society; philosophy is for the individual, and what the individual does with it is one's choice. No problem is the same for everybody, therefore everyone needs a different solution to their individual problems.
Unfortunately, your position is a philosophy LH... with anarchy as the core value. In theory it makes sense, but so does Rand's Objectivism, which falls apart in the real world, as the core ethical thread is missing.
Clearly the solution is comprimise, and in the middle... but the extremes continue to demand compliance... and the resulting chaos is the world we live in.
>Clearly the solution is comprimise, and in the middle
Clearly you fell for the argumentum ad temperantiam fallacy
Why do you need a core ethical thread when you have a decent, admittedly not perfect, generic moral framework? I realize the golden rule fails where one would really and truthfully allow others to steal, harm, kill him (thus allowing him to do the same to the rest of the world), but this is the exception and not the rule... Most of these types of people are like the nihilists on the big lebowski... admire the philosophy, but fail to implement it (due to inherent hurdles, e.g. that pesky heart). [arguably, everything falls apart in the real world... our minds are simply not sufficient proving grounds for the world].
The solution, as far as I can see it, isn't so much compromise given a solution, in some types of problems (certainly financial ones) isn't available... or, I should say, any sort of palatable one... As far as government is concerned, the solution to me seems to be for the government to allow, facilitate, and foster compromise at all levels of the populace... The hope being manipulation, etc., is checked by self interest or, alternatively, the understanding of the boundaries of one's self interest.
Practically speaking, governance is really impossible, at this juncture... real governance with a large % buy-in from the populace and that maintains some static level of approval... these things are just temporary... we end up viewing the system from our own lenses rather than whether the system is fair for all (fair not meaning equally shitty). It doesn't take long to topple the apple cart... and then we go stacking again... never choosing the harder path, to design a better cart.
Well said.
Because you don't have either Macho... it's the 5 (10, 20)% that use the ethics, morals (take your pick) of the rest for personal gain, at any cost, that stands in the way of any agreement on that cart design... thanks for a thoughtful reply.
"The time is coming when everyone must choose between what is right and what is easy." -- Albus Dumbledore
There were 46.2 million people in poverty in 2010, up from 43.6 million in 2009 ? the fourth consecutive annual increase and the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published
...using anywhere near the same metrics?....I don't think so. For starters I'm pretty sure 46.2mm is a much smaller %age of the national population than it was in 1959.
But I suppose even this won't be allowed as an argument against importing even more third world poor into this country...since anecdotal evidence suggests that they can be trained to vote.
This sounds bullish.
Not.
pods
Who gives a shit, I got hemroids!
Well...everything must go to the banks. None left for food etc..
Who can afford Health Insurance? That is if your Company is not paying the premium. Most people do not have an extra $800. a month laying around.
I have not had Health Insurance for about 15 years. I was self employed and healthy. Anything i needed to take care of was out of pocket. Most years it did not go over $500.
That is why Obama wants National Health Care so healthy people who do not buy Health Insurance support those that are unhealthy and those on Medicade (who do not pay a premium, deductable or co pay).
Very soon I will be on Medicare so I guess I gambled and won.
I think the best thing to do is to get a policy with like a 10K deductable. It's not that expensive, compared to other policies. So at least if it's anything major, you don't get saddled with the debt. In some cases it won't be discharged even in a bankruptcy. God, the system we live in is so unfair to the little guy.
You can either be a fat-fuc welfare recipient firmly implanted on the couch by noon everyday to work on your diabetes by eating high fructose corn syrup "food" or you can have the fedz take money from your paycheck to pay for the lifestyle and medical care of the fat-fuc diabetic welfare recipient on the couch.
Or you can opt out of the whole thing and stop paying taxes and eventually men with guns will come to your house at o'dark thirty and shoot you dead for not paying taxes, and then posthumously take all of your property.
==> Very soon I will be on Medicare
That's what you think.
Good luck with that when Medicare crumbles.
==> so I guess I gambled and won.
Yeah, sort of. You didn't pay premiums those 15 years, so you won that, but Medicare will be a smoking crater in the next decade. We're ALL gonna have fun with that one. Nobody wins, and everybody loses. As it was meant to be, as so it shall be.
Why are you so upset that I did not pay premiums for 15 years? Are you afraid to gamble and not pay premiums yourself?
As far as Medicare (which I did pay into for 50 or so years while not receiving any benifits) it will be there for a while at least. And if I have to pay more in premiums for Part B well I guess with the savings of not paying premiums for 15 years at about $10,000. a year or $150,000., I have that money to fall back on. That should carry me a while.
Not upset at all. Good on ya. Seriously.
Just wanted to say: That's all well and good (not paying premiums (Good on ya!)), but watchout for your future plans. Medicare will be dead. D-E-A-D. Within a decade. Guaranteed.
If you're prepared for it, then good on ya for that one too.
What a bummer. That is a lot of people in poverty and especially a lot of kids.
Income goes down while prices go up -- a double whammy.
Of course, corporate profits have also gone up, which seems hard to understand until you realize that all the work is now done by robots and slaves.
But Wall Street is buying bigger Yachts this Year.
It's all about how much the Fortune 500 wants to pay for useless dependents.
How much you reckon that is?
Then they'll act all surprised when the deflationary depression goes terminal.
dupe
The Greatest Depression
We are Worse than Japan Now.
But stocks are green, and thats all that matters.
Or something like that.
I thought it was "always look on the bright side of life" and then you whistle.
don't forget to bring the depleted ukranian shells for your tank
Comrades, abide the battle cry!
On to the final battle
The International
fights for the rights of man
(i like this angry Comrade!)
nothing that a little printing can't fix. How bout it Mr Beestank can we get more please ? If all else fails ust raise taxes that will help.
The vast majority who live in poverty get a government check and dont work.
Elderly who didnt save for their retirements.
So called "disabled" individuals who show no obvious disability but would rather live on a $600 per month SSD check, get almost free housing, free health care and food stamps.
Single mothers on government support cause they cant be bothered to use birth control.
Those people should live in poverty if they dont want to work and insist on living off the taxpayers.
But thats so unfaaaaair....and highly raaaaacist you see.
youre killin' me, dog!
Didn't save for retirement? Well, a family's got to have its cable TV.
Seriously. 15 years ago i used to do 401k enrollments and sit down with people and discuss their finances in terms of how much they could save in their 401k. 35 year olds making $25k / yr with families would have $110 monthly cable bills ahead of their 401k with a match.
With negative realized returns on 401(k) stock purchases, "saving" in a 401(k) is an absolutely horrible way to plan for retirement. These funds are churned for the sake of transaction fees by the "manager" of those funds, while insiders and HFT trading platforms squeeze more out of each move. insiders sell a the peak of the stock cycle and leave 401(k) "investors holding the bag of soiled shit.
Placing one's monoey into overvalued equities and being the last man on the debt totem pole is no way to prosperity for anyone other than Wall Street.
While I understand your point on the lack of saving capital by my generation, the cable zombie generation's ignorance, along with the baby boomer's upcoming drawdown of their 401(k) plans, will result in the zombie generation's greatest accidental and ignorant decision.
Holding paper money in paper funds is no different, at least for the ignorant outsider of Wall Street looking at nominal gains over realized losses, than gambling in Vegas - the House ALWAYS wins. Only difference is that the girls serving drinks in Vegas have nice jigglies, while those Wall Street pimps wear different suits with no jigglies.
"Stupid is as Stupid does" -- Momma Gump
Those damn poor people with their fake diseases (paralyzed? your legs look ok to me), living like kings on $600 a month. Why don't they just crawl off and die while I look the other way?
Wheelchairs only for those who can afford them. That's freedom rock, man.
Workers deserve to live better than peoole who dont work and live off the government. If living off the taxpayer would pay as well as work then why work? Peoole on government checks who dont work should be at the bottom of the income scale.
And for every paralyzed person on SSD there are a hundred on it for very vague reasons.
I am too tired to work....chronic fatigue syndrome.
I am too sad to work.....depression.
I get angry at people telling me what to do...bipolar disorder.
My back hurts.
My feet hurt.
Etc.
Don't fall off the ladder, laissez-faire capitalist. Don't get sick or lose your job. You don't want to rub shoulders with those lazy poor people, delivering pizzas or washing cars, or waiting to see a welfare doctor about your cancer. Then you might learn that poverty isn't a scam to milk you for money; and your old pals on ZH will call you a lazy parasite.
And people on SSI are at the bottom of the income scale. You should be pleased.
My own take on it is that poverty isn't being specifically created on purpose...but... since it benefits those at the top of the system, they aren't exactly gonna work very hard to alleviate it. Especially as it's mostly the taxes of the middle classes that pay for the welfare programs that line the elite pockets, since the elite don't actually pay any taxes if they, their accountants and lawyers can avoid it.
People on SSI should be at the bottom of the income scale. The guy that delivers pizzas or washes dishes should live better. For that I am pleased.
The problem of working poor, a small subset of total poor, not having insurance is a different matter. It is unfair that if you dont work it is easier to get insurance than if you do work
It does seem ironic that people that work cannot afford Health Insurance. Yet, people that do not work, get Health Insurance for free.
Hang out in welfare housing much?
Didn't think so.
Come back to us and talk about it after you've lived there for a year or three. BTDT. Your eyes will be opened. You'll change your mind. In a hurry, too.
Actually I work with welfare people, people in hud housing, and others living on government checks once a week in the public clinic.
I still say that work should pay more than nonwork. If you dont work it is only fair that you dont get any more subsidy from the taxpayer than the bare minimum.
I rent a 2 apartment house in a so called Welfare housing area. Most people rent to Section 8 Housing. All apartments have to be inspected before a Section 8 person moves in. The inspection is VERY thorough. Section 8 pays about $900. a month for a 1 bedroom apartment. I do not rent to Section 8 as I do not like the damage that is caused by most of the Section 8 Tenants. So, I rent for less and get good and stable Tenants.
These apartments are not slums. They are carpeted, come with Refrigerators, Washer & Dryers, many have new kitchens, new windows, nice size yards, etc. Although, it is true almost all of the residents have Big Screen TV's. They all have Cabel too.
" Elderly who didnt save for their retirements. " ...here is where i step in to reply. i'm going to assume you are young or very young. have you ever tried saving money just to see your purchasing power evaporate ? have you ever tried saving money only to have to write out checks to the tune of $4,000 / mo. for your elderly husband who is now in a nursing home because you have too much in a bank to qualify for assistance ? have you ever tried saving money (especially the past 10 years) when you are getting shit/squat on your savings in a (criminal) banking system ?
I will NEVER FORGET in the late 1970's when i was trying to save for my first home. At the time i didn't understand ! no matter how hard i tried, i just couldn't get that 10% downpayment........... everytime i saved more, the prices of the damn houses went up ! well, i get it now. the 20th century will be known as the century of inflation........ & WE ALL KNOW WHY ! those s.o.b.'s have robbed savers .........
now, tell me again that the elderly didn't save enough ...... whippersnapper !
The elderly didn't save enough as it relates to the politicians that generation continued to place into office. They didn't save enough as it related to fighting back against social security/medicare lies, endless wars, paper currency domination, and an ever encroaching police state. They didn't save enough as it relates to trusting Wall Street with their retirement funds and trusting that stuffing a bank with fiat dollars would be the safest store of one's capital.
The largest voting block in this country continues to endorse the doctrine of pre-emptive war and killing all brown people in view. Our militarism is one of the largest avenues of money laundering and deficit spending, yet very few of the past generations said a word (aside from Viet Nam). All hail the military. “They are keeping us FREE!” is the elderly doctrine I have heard ad nausea. Unfortunately the elderly voting block is still pulling for the likes of Neocon Bushites and Obamafile Democrats that smell and taste like the same Bushite bullshit being shoveled into the mouths of over 130 countries and 900 bases throughout the world.
I didn't and still don't see the elderly generation questioning the logic of the welfare/warfare state that has been endorsed for the past 33 years of my life. It is finally time for your voting block to wake the fuck up or enjoy the cat food dinner that you allowed to happed through your endorsement of this R asshole or this D asshole. The lesser of two evils is always evil in the end and I never saw any hint of the elderly fighting back like my generation has just begun to do. You should have saved your freedoms instead of worrying about saving DOHllars.
You young'ns are welcome to step up anytime and put a stop to all that foolishness us elderly folks didn't stop.
Don't bitch about us not stopping it until you stop it.
It's so easy to blame everyone else.
Why does that make you to feel entitled to demand that young people give you their hard-earned money?
unfortunate. And yet the rich get richer in this country.
Well if we're abandoning government except for the Police State and Imperial Bases, we'd damn well better get some competition into the rent-extracting sectors: education, health care at the top of the list.
Beijing University and Brazilian health clinic branches on every corner, bitchez! Let's globalize!
I totally agree.
We need fairness and balance.
I am a.doctor too, and I know the healthcare system needs competition. It is the biggest rent extractor of them all.
Plus 100 jm!
Yeah, I am getting tired of the ultra-local 'roots n berries' model or the 'endless twilight of grinding poverty' model of post-banksterism. Never mind the Mad Max Collapse (TM) model. The smart kids in the Jakarta slums would laugh at these models.
Let's use the resources we do have and route around the damage.
Looks like Wall Street had better start working harder so they can steal every last penny from the middle class...
100% FUBAR.
Does anyone know if Apple has improved the taste of the iPad yet?
This is one boring market. ZZzzzz
Right, theyre making sure theres no flustered nervous 401K/pensioners out there getting any funny ideas to sell, not before Bernank faceplants on QE3 in a week....then they can try to sell to a collapsed bidless market all they like.
That's how they want you... asleep. Stay sleepy little Sheepy.
Poverty is racist and should go back to its klan meeting.
Stupid doesn't play favorites though; Bob's living proof!
That was a real zinger. I just wanted to congratulate you.
Not so Hopey Changey...I imagine this report will ignite a rally as traders will be convinced the Fed MUST enact QE3 immediately! This is pathetic...I would trade Hopey Changey for a little integrity in Washington DC ANY DAY!
fubar
The poor should buy stocks so they can get free bennie bucks.
Poverty? I don't think americans know much about it to be honest, but they're going to learn
YEA no doubt! REAL poverty? Even 'poor' americans are rich compared to the average person in Somalia, or the 60% of the worlds population that lives on an average of $2 a day. But americans WILL SOON know what real poverty is all about!
this is all planned! if americans aren't well behaved, you'll be kicked out of your homes, no more food stamps, you get sick, and unable to afford health care, you die! so you all behave, and be good little americans now!
Right, and when it does all implode one morning soon, people will get a taste of what living in a forced labor debt camp is all about as well.
Until then, america zombie walks thru day to day, commenting about last nites utter crap NFL game.
Is it just me or does anybody else believe that one of our countries problems in the first place is insurance? The way I see it if there never was insurance we would deal directly with the health care provider. Insurance provides an arificial cost to health care due to people on both side of the issue abusing it. If I as a consumer, know I have to pay out of pocket I am less likely to go to a physician with every little sniffle. A physician is less likely to charge as much knowing tht they don't have the deep pockets of the insurance companies to get into. Of course this is all a mute point if something isn't done about the abusive trial lawyers. Granted they are needed to represent those people who have had a wrongful injury, but the punative damages and the abuse to the system need to be adressed.
You are correct.
But as a doctor I ask that you keep your new found insight to yourself.
Please dont tell anybody!
Trickle up poverty - this is what people voted for in 2008.
Because voting for Old and Dumber would've turned out differently? Pull the other one.
1971
Compare that to how many Europeans are living in poverty and without health insurance and you have a winner!
The efforts to discredit the European currency and the EU model are astounding to say the least.
Take the drug trade out of Florida, and compared to Italy alone you have a 3rd world nation. Close all the military facilities across the Continental US and much of the Southern States will turn into something like Haiti or Ruanda real quick.
Facts, folks. Facts.
Of course what you say about america is true.
It doesnt make the southern european problem go away nor does it make the problem smaller.
Your point is?
I am not a europhobe, but honestly, if the euro disappears, what will southern Europe look like then?
http://www.nber.org/aginghealth/summer04/w10466.html
"Enacted in 1935, the Social Security system experienced rapid benefit growth in the post-WWII era. In fact, there is a striking association between the rise in Social Security expenditures per capita and the decline in elderly poverty..."
LMAO! I missed that piece from The Onion, good one!
Yer welcome! The Onion is working overtime...
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1863
"Social Security reduces the proportion of elderly people living in poverty from nearly one in two to fewer than one in eight... in 1997, nearly half of all elderly people — 47.6 percent — had incomes below the poverty line before receipt of Social Security benefits. After receiving Social Security benefits, only 11.9 percent remained poor."
...............................
NOTE: these facts are NOT intended to impugn the obvious and undeniable evil of big government, liberalism and Keynesianism, and the reality that the unfettered free market would do a MUCH better job of keeping people out of poverty -- just as it did in 1885 and 1936.
We have too much government. Pare back the other things first and you'll see that SS is an effective program and quite affordable.
4 more years !