NPR: Private opulence, public squalor: How the U.S. helps the rich and hurts the poor
March 21, 2023
By
Dave Davies
Over 11% of the U.S. population — about one in nine people — lived below the federal poverty line in 2021. But Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond says neither that statistic, nor the federal poverty line itself, encapsulate the full picture of economic insecurity in America.
"There's plenty of poverty above the poverty line as a lived experience," Desmond says. "About one in three Americans live in a household that's making $55,000 or less, and many of those folks aren't officially considered poor. But what else do you call trying to raise three kids in Portland on $55,000?"
Growing up in a small town in Arizona, Desmond learned firsthand how economic insecurity could impact a family's stress level. He remembers the gas being shut off and his family home being foreclosed on. Those hardships would later drive his research — specifically the question of how so much poverty could exist within a country as wealthy as the U.S.
( excerpt )
The poverty rate between 1964 and '74 fell by half. So the "Great Society" and the war on poverty made an incredible difference. ... These were really robust interventions into the lives of the poorest families in America. They made food aid permanent. They expanded Social Security. There were so many elderly Americans dying penniless before the war on poverty and the Great Society. And there was this massive gain in pulling older folks out of poverty. ...
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/03/21/1164275807/poverty-by-america-matthew-desmond-inequality
(We must win back full control of the government, there is no other resolve for Americans in need.)
America's poor becoming more destitute under Trump - U.N. expert
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-rights-un/americas-poor-becoming-more-destitute-under-trump-u-n-expert-idUSL5N1T406V
= new reply since forum marked as read
Jimmy Carter said it in 2015: the US is an oligarchy.
My favorite graph, from the Congressional Budget Office:
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https://www.cbo.gov/publication/58533
Money is power.
