Not too long ago, the New York Times asked the Census Bureau to create a special report on the number of Americans living in poverty. The Bureau revamped the formula traditionally used to include factors such as cost of living of the location, medical expenses, transportation, and work related expenses. Basically, things that people normally pay for on top of food and shelter, which is what the regular formula considers.
Using these new criteria in the formula raised the estimated number of Americans living in poverty from 46.1 million to 49.1 million. From this new data, the NYT states that 100 million people in the US live in poverty or in the near poor zone. That equates to one in three Americans and is 76% higher than previous estimates. The near poor class has incomes that are 50% above the traditional poverty income or less.
This is truly an invisible class. The government didn’t even know it existed until the special report generated these findings. The census representative expressed surprise at the size of the increase. Outwardly, they appear financially stable, but they are just one small misfortune away from slipping into the established poverty level. An illness, a divorce, a job loss could send them down.
It should come as no surprise that women are the hardest hit within the near poor class. According to 2009 income figures, the average earnings for women were only 70% of men’s. Over four out of ten adult women’s households struggle to cover housing, food, healthcare and other basic expenses. The percentage of men in the same boat worked out to 37 percent. Over 60% of single women are at risk of sliding down into the accepted poverty bracket.
The crucial cause stems from the fact that 1970’s level wages are either stagnant or declining during the last 10 years and simply do not stretch to cover today’s basic expenses. As a result, one fourth of American adult workers live with the specter of economic insecurity daily.
The study data reveals more evidence that the effects of the recession cut much deeper than the government suspected. 22 percent of the full-time employed adults with children residing with a partner who is also working full-time cannot cover basic needs. By the same token, out of the households headed by college graduates, 21 percent feel the threat of economic insecurity.
“In the past, threats to economic security were supposedly clear — dropping out of high school, being a single parent or having a large family. In today’s economy, we cannot assume we know who lacks security,” states a survey of government and industry data.
This is shocking. Granted, government workers are well insulated from the realities of a job in the private sector. They have semi-strong job security. Thus, they can be forgiven somewhat for the ivory tower mentality revealed in the surprise these figures caused them. Nevertheless, they do live in the real world outside of their job. Are they so insulated from the realities of life in today’s economic climate that they do not see what is going on around them? Are they so self-absorbed that they do not overhear the conversations that go on every day among those who are struggling to make ends meet? If so, this ought to be a wake-up call, especially for Congress. Let’s see if it even impinges on their collective consciousness in the upcoming months.