Diversity Statistics -- January 2012

“Lost Decade” has many ethnic minorities walking a tightrope above poverty

by Geena Lappin

Many Americans are barely hanging on above the poverty line. In September of 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 2.6 million citizens fell below the poverty line. Again in November of 2011, the Bureau released another statement that 49.1 million Americans are destitute.

The bureau’s findings on poverty aren’t what many Americans expected. These findings bring the “Lost Decade” into full view, indicating the fall of economic success for the middle-class has been occurring since the early 2000s. Not since the Great Depression has the median household income not risen over such a long period (this time since 1996, 16 years). The middle and lower classes, overcome by the crisis of the recession, have lost of their income and employment. The hardships faced especially by Americans who are minorities do not begin to expose the losses of this decade.

Although the economy seems to be regenerating, the downward direction of the impoverished is increasing to alarming levels. Trudi J. Renwick, the Census Bureau’s chief poverty statistician claims, “These numbers are higher than we anticipated.” The rise of the impoverished is creating a new class of people, the “near poor” as they are called, which indicates more American citizens clinging to the poverty line. These Americans are unable to benefit from any form of a regenerating economy.

Although many Americans are facing poverty, ethnic minorities and the elderly have been impacted substantially. Being jobless, without education, and at the sharp edge of the cutting knife (for example, states cutting health benefits like Medicare for the elderly) cause overall poverty for those already fragile.

Poverty among Today’s People of Color and Elderly

• 27% of African Americans have the highest poverty rate of ethnic minorities, up from 2009 at 25%
• 18% of African Americans are the “near poor” class, living just above the poverty line.
• 26% of Hispanics have the second highest poverty rates, also up from 25%
• 9.9% of whites live in poverty, up from 9.4%
• 12.1% of Asians, unchanged, live in poverty.
• 15.9% of those who are 65 years or older live in poverty due to the decrease in funding of Medicaid.

16% of the nation lives in poverty. Without jobs or income from the government, many people are falling below the poverty line. 48 million people ages 18 to 64 did not work one week during the entire year of 2010.

51 million people have incomes that are less than 50% of the people above the poverty line. That is 100 million people, 1 in 3 Americans, in poverty or barely hanging on to stay above it.

Government benefits, like food stamps, unemployment benefits, and Medicaid have aided those who normally would be in poverty to escape it.

3.2 million fewer children are facing poverty because of government benefits.

98 million Americans in the low-income group were lifted above poverty with government benefits.

Countless Americans are jobless, underpaid, or underutilized. Even if Americans take advantage of the antipoverty programs that still exist in the United States, such as food stamps, Medicaid, tax credits, and jobless benefits, they offer but a raggedy safety net to protect them from falling below the line of poverty. Once on a tightrope, you want to keep balance and stay on top, if you fall, you go under.

Sources:

Tavernise, Sabrine. “Soaring Poverty Casts Spotlight on ‘Lost Decade.’ New York Times. 2011. 1/5/2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/14census.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all>

Tavernise, Sabrine, Gebeloff, Robert. “New Way to Tally Poor Recasts View of Poverty.” New York Times . 2011. 1/5/2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/us/poverty-gets-new-measure-at-census-bureau.html?ref=censusbureau>

DeParle, Jason. “Older, Suburban and Struggling, ‘Near Poor’ Startle the Census.” New York Times. 2011. 1/5/2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/19/us/census-measures-those-not-quite-in-poverty-but-struggling.html?ref=censusbureau>

Tritch, Teresa. “Reading Between the Poverty Lines.” New York Times. 2011. 1/5/2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/opinion/sunday/reading-between-the-poverty-lines.html?ref=censusbureau>