A recent McClatchey News analysis found that the percentage of Americans living in poverty is at its greatest level in 32 years. The number of severely poor Americans (equivalent to a family of four with two children living on less than $10,000 year) has risen by 26% since 2000.
Clearly, the difference between the "haves" and "have-nots" is increasingly the difference between homelessness and squalor and 2500 square feet of living space, three cars and a boat. That poverty rates are soaring 3 years into a 10 gazillion dollar war and 10 years after the misdirected Clinton-Era war on "Welfare as We Know It." A third of those living in severe poverty are children, and half are women. According to The Luxembourg Income Study, the United States has more children living in poverty than any other of the 31 industrialized nations surveyed.
Whatever the cause or the solution to poverty, one thing is clear. It is highly likely that many of us (at least 58% of us) will experience poverty at some time in our lives. As the social safety net is increasingly replaced by the boot straps mentality, there will be fewer and fewer places for people in need to turn.
