Poor Losers
How the poor get dinged at every turn
1 in 4 U.S. jobs pay less than a poverty-level income.
During the 1980s, 13% of Americans age 40 to 50 spent at least one year below the poverty line; by the 1990s, 36% did.
Since 2000, the number of Americans living below the poverty line at any one time has steadily risen. Now 13% of all Americans—37 million—are officially poor.
Among households worth less than $13,500, their average net worth in 2001 was $0. By 2004, it was down to –$1,400.
Bush’s tax cuts (extended until 2010) save those earning between $20,000 and $30,000 an average of $10 a year, while those earning $1 million are saved $42,700.
In 2002, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) compared those who point out statistics such as the one above to Adolf Hitler.
Bush has dedicated $750 million to “healthy marriages” by diverting funds from social services, mostly child care.
Bush has proposed cutting housing programs for low-income people with disabilities by 50%.
Among the working poor, 13% of income is spent on commuting if public transportation is used, 21% if a private vehicle is used.
Workers who earn $45,000 or more spend 2% of their income on commuting.
2 in 3 new jobs are in the suburbs.
58% of Boston-area jobs suitable for welfare-to-work participants are within a mile of public transit.
76% of Boston welfare moms don’t own a car.
1 in 3 people who’ve left welfare since 1996 did so because they couldn’t meet program requirements or they hit the 5-year limit.
1 in 7 have no work, no spousal support, and no other government benefits.
46 million Americans are uninsured—a 15% increase since 2000.
83% of those earning $75,000 or more work for companies that offer insurance, versus 24% of those who earn less than $25,000.
51% of the uninsured are $2,000 or more in medical debt. 16% owe at least $10,000.
In 1997, 3 out of 4 doctors provided some free or reduced-cost care. Now, 2 out of 3 do.
2 in 5 elderly live on less than $18,000 a year, including Social Security benefits.
Last fall, Minnesota firefighters let an elderly man’s mobile home burn down because he hadn’t paid a $25 “fire fee.”
600,000 high school students dropped out in 2004. If each had stayed in school for just one more year, the nation would have saved $41.8 billion in lifetime health care costs.
2/3 of the reported “shrinking” gap between white and black men’s wages is attributable to black men dropping out of the labor market altogether.
The true jobless rate of black men in their 20s without a high school diploma is 72%.
A prison record reduces a convict’s wages by about 15% and wage growth by 33%.
Since 1983, college tuition has risen 115%. The maximum Pell Grant for low- and moderate-income college students has risen only 19%.
52% of poor college-qualified students go to a 4-year college within 2 years of graduating. 83% of richer qualified students do.
The Consumer Price Index for urban dwellers is up 25% since the federal minimum wage was last raised.
Inner-city grocery stores sell milk for 43% more than suburban supermarkets.
80% of food stores in Brooklyn are bodegas. Only 1 in 3 sell low-fat milk or carry fruit.
Corn subsidies have helped the price of soda fall 30% since 1983. Meanwhile, the price of fruit has risen 50%.
Per capita, the nih spends $68 on diabetes, which disproportionately affects the poor, and $1,414 on Lyme disease, which is named after a suburb in Connecticut.
63% of federal housing subsidies go to households earning more than $77,000. 18% go to households earning less than $16,500.
Since 1976, the federal budget has doubled, while hud’s budget has declined by 65%.
Initially an anti-redlining effort, sub-prime mortgages have risen tenfold since 1994.
Today, 1 in 4 sub-prime lenders are predatory, charging recipients 7% in up-front fees. Conventional or “prime” mortgage users are charged only 1%.
2% of prime mortgages carry prepayment penalties. 80% of sub-prime ones do.
Since 1986, the number of pawnshops in the U.S. has increased by 142%.
13% of U.S. households don’t have a checking account. 1 in 10 don’t have any form of bank account.
In Chicago’s poorest areas, the ratio of check-cashing outlets to banks is 10-to-1.
Check-cashing fees for a worker who brings home $18,000 a year add up to about $450 —that’s 2.5% spent just to access income.
Nationwide, the number of payday lending outlets has risen 11,000% since 1990.
The average annual interest rate on a payday loan is more than 400%, costing borrowers $3.4 billion a year.
By claiming customers are “renting” goods, rent-to-own stores avoid usury laws that require businesses to disclose and cap interest rates—commonly over 300%.
America now has twice as many publicly available gambling devices that take money—slot and video poker machines and electronic lottery outlets—as it has atms that dispense it.
Credit card late fees are 194% higher than in 1994.
The average credit card balance for households earning less than $35,000 is $4,000.
At 11.5% apr, making the standard minimum payment of 2% per month, it takes 13 years to pay off a $4,000 balance.
In 2004, 7 million working poor families spent $900 million on tax prep and check-cashing fees to get their refunds sooner.
Average amount of time by which they sped up their refunds: 2 weeks.
1 in 7 families claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, designed to lift the working poor above the poverty line.
In 2003, the IRS estimated it “protected” $3.1 billion of revenue by cracking down on EITC filings. Half of all audits are now conducted on taxpayers earning less than $25,000.
41% of those making less than $30,000 think there is “a lot” of tension between the rich and the poor. Only 18% of those making $100,000 to $150,000 think this.
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Clara,
You seem to have overlooked what causes the most poverty in America:
(1) Illegal Drug consumption (2) Alachol abuse (3) Out of wedlock births: i. e. the immoral copulation explosion in many areas of the country
(4)the unwillingness of many young people to accept jobs they do not like or feel overqualified for (5)failure to even try to save money; it is the old "if I got it I am gonna spend it
mentality." (6)the go out to eat mentality. (All fast food is expensive and for thew most part unhealthy!!)
I am an American who started out with nothing but a willingness to work and live what I believed to be an honest and moral life that honored God and respected the laws of my country. Now, after more than 50 years in the working forces of this great country (USA) I am fully convinced that my observations given above are true. In fact, I am living proof that The American Dream is still alive and very much available to all who are willing to accept certain parameters of just clean, wholesome, and sensible living. Thanks!! ls
Amerika's underbelly is exposed, thanks to our "Mother" You folks are carryin' on an old tradition and you should be proud of yourselves. Shame on "brainless Batman" and "dumb Dora the Explorer" for not getting it...
Larry, It seems like you are the one who is overlooking certain causes, for example the fact that the economy and society in the US have changed a lot in the past 20 years and it seems like you missed it. Illegal drugs, alcohol, and "out of wedlock births" (who speaks that way) are NOT the main cause of poverty but merely a symptom of it. Certainly liberal sex, i.e what Larry calls "immoral copulation" (the facts he has to say immoral copulation says it all) has nothing to do with it. Poverty in the US is not a moral or religious issue but has more to do with bad economic and social policies. It is too wast of a subject to discuss in detail here, but suffice it to say that the American Dream is, today, a dream for the rich and wealthy and for the poor and the middle class it remains just this, a dream. Thanks Larry for so completely misunderstanding todays society and economy. Your personal conviction are sweet, but totally irrelevant to the situation of a lot of Americans who live in poverty. Clara makes some good points and points out some interesting statistics. Bad policies by conservative and religious politicians who falsly claim their religious (mis)beliefs to be moral values is ruining this country, not sex or lack of hard work. What we need are social and economic reforms as well as more equality and justice.
The "hard work" dreamers fail to see that many of their jobs are actually a direct result of a social program either through corporate welfare programs (tax forgiveness, tax free zones, or outright gov't subsidies & grants). They also fail to see that their higher education was also made available in part by gov't social programs, which not too long ago were only available to white men (affirmative action). Not to mention that all profits are actually inflated prices at the expense of many (energy co.'s break profit records while forcing us to insert their skinny hoses and squirt fluids into our trunks and charge us for that). What gives them the right to own what was the dinosaurs (God Bless Chavez for donating heating oil to poor)? At the core of this philosophy, lies a false sense of self-sufficiency and self-centeredness. How ignorantly they overlook the many blessings bestowed to them by others. How prideful to think that they themselves are the source and sole creator of all in the land of milk and honey. Is this any way to demonstrate a love of neighbor?
Refuting Refuting Larry?
Larry has some very good points, although it’s obvious from your post that his language bothered you as much as his content. Each of the factors he listed is both a symptom and a cause of poverty, hence the phrase, “The poor get poorer”.
(1) Illegal Drug consumption & (2) Alcohol abuse
If you’re wealthy and addicted to a drug you are likely to get real medical treatment for your addiction, including long term psychological aid to keep you from relapsing. The poor don’t get either. On the other hand, if you’re poor and you’re abusing drugs or alcohol, there is a very good chance that you are self-medicating for psychological illnesses that have gone undiagnosed and untreated. Oh, and if you’re poor and use drugs, you’re more likely to get caught: if you’re poor and caught you’re more likely to go to prison; if you’re poor and have a prison record . . .
Solutions: Provide health care to poorer Americans; provide jobs to convicts; create a system of justice that does not discriminate against the poor.
(3) Out of wedlock births
A single mother with a professional level income can pay for childcare while she works, but a minimum wage earning single mother has to quit even that job to take care of her baby. This is exacerbated by her partner’s failure to pay child support. If she does manage to keep working while pregnant and while raising a child, it will be difficult with little to no sick-time available from her employer. Oh, and the fact that she has a child in the first place? That’s more likely due to her lack of knowledge about or access to effective birth control than any association between poverty and promiscuity.
Solutions: Provide healthcare and health education to poorer Americans, enforce child support payments, living minimum wage law.
(4) The unwillingness of many young people to accept jobs they do not like or feel overqualified for.
If you’re smart or talented but poor, you are still likely to attend a poor school where you get a poor education. The same person with a good education is likely to find suitably challenging employment.
Solutions: An education system that teaches the poor as well as the wealthy, and which motivates students to pursue higher education and appropriate careers.
I could go on, but each one of these points is worthy of its own article.
Lot of dry wood there. All that's missing is a spark to set this country to flames. The rich won't be listening to anyone until they personally feel the heat. Am I advocating violence? No, just stating what will have to happen before there is any real change.
This is all too true. I've had to work substantial overtime and/or multiple jobs since I graduated just to survive. People shouldn't have to work 7 days/90+ hours a week just to eke out a living. Not that I'd call this "living".
Larry,
No offense, but without any example of how you "started with nothing", most of us are going to assume you're a little full of it. While you may have started with what felt like less than others, without meeting you I feel confident enough to say that if you made it, you had some form of help along the way, some of it likely tied to the government.
This is late, but I hope you'll come back and provide some backup for the 6 causes of poverty you cite; maybe an institution study or research paper or something. They just don't sound right. Observation is okay, but I've observed that the #1 cause of poverty is being born poor.
Likewise, I wish Clara would cite her sources for this list. If anyone's curious, I did find the story behind the MN "fire fee" here: http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051016/news_1h16fire.html. Although it is tragic, I don't think it really belongs on this list, other than to "fan the flames" of outrage.
this is what the country should be focusing on and the subsequent and core issues resulting from the compassionate conservative regressive policies.... instead we focus on john edwards hairdo and ombama and hilary's catfights... shame on us!!!
The poor in America use to do the hard and dangerous work. It was difficult for them but it helped them survive. Now the Chinese poor do the hard and dangerous work for even less money then our poor did. And our poor don't make enough to survive at retail and fast food jobs.
Now that opens up a topic I've been chewing on for some time. I was born poor and I am still poor, some of which I caused by poor choices, most of which is caused by regional circumstance.
Where I live (and have always lived) used to be a farming/manufacturing area. Today, most of the farms are gone (a couple high tech corporate farms remain) most of the factories have closed.
But...
Retail is still here, peddling wares and flashing sale signs and fighting amongst themselves over the few spare pennies people have left after being soaked for higher housing costs, utility costs, insurance costs (not just medical, car insurance isn't cheap) food costs, child care costs and so on and so forth. Those spare pennies aren't in the pockets of retail employees.
Oh, we have the doctors, lawyers and government employed crowds... but it is almost as if the poor population needs to be maintained. After all, if too many poor servants were educated and did break the chains of poverty... who would serve those living a comfortable life?
Just something that has been on my mind. I don't really mind working in the retail industry but then I am highly amused by the observations I make on a day to day basis. A little over minimum wage and free entertainment; what more could a poor woman want?
Amerika's underbelly is
Amerika's underbelly is exposed, thanks to our "Mother" You folks are carryin' on an old tradition and you should be proud of yourselves. Shame on "brainless Batman" and "dumb Dora the Explorer" for not getting it...
