With gratitude to JeffR, Hannah Bell, maryf, dajoki, Two Americas and Nancy Greggs.

[flamin lib]

Poverty, the Cliff Notes version.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25:

"(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection."

– adopted and proclaimed December 10, 1948 by the General Assembly of the United Nations


January was the federally recognized Awareness of Poverty Month. Didn’t know that, did you. Neither did I and I’m plugged into more progressive websites and think tanks than anyone should be, DU included.

The mainstream media hides poverty from us. It’s not cute. It’s not blond and sexy. Over a three-year period the three major networks and cable news shows did a total of 58 stories on poverty in America. Not one of those stories featured someone in poverty. They all focused on talking heads, politicians, think tankers and opinion columnists. Half or more of these “experts” were conservative republicans.

Well, here are some facts for you.

The official poverty level in the United States for a family of four is, rounding up, $20,000 a year. That number was set in 1960 and has been adjusted for inflation once.

Most Federal Assistance programs apply to households making twice the official federally recognized poverty level. That would be $40,000 for a family of four.

The median household income in the United States, that point where ½ of incomes are less and ½ are more, is $44,000 a year.

Almost half of American families qualify for some form of Federal assistance.

Think about that for a minute.

If all the household incomes of the United States were spread across a footfall field, the family at the fifty-yard line would earn $44,000 a year. At the ninety-five yard line the income is $100,000 a year. At the ninety-nine yard line the income is $300,000. In the last foot the income reaches a million dollars.

And it goes up from there.

The people represented by the last one inch on that imaginary football field control half of the wealth in the United States.

According to official numbers 38,000,000 people live in poverty in the United States. Based on the official poverty rate of $20,000 for a family of four. One in six children in America live below the poverty line. Based on the official poverty rate. More than one in five will go to bed hungry sometime this year. Based on how their little tummies feel.

Twenty percent of the homeless are military veterans. Not just Vietnam vets but Bush 41’s Gulf War vets and Bush 43’s Gulf War II vets. One in five homeless people wore the uniform of our country, most volunteered so your children and mine wouldn’t be drafted, and they are homeless.

If we, as a country, could fix this one thing everything else would fall into place.


edit to add link to the series: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4958698

[midnight]

1. To hear the republican response to a request to these

entitlements per the 25th article, we are lazy. I agree that the bases of our ills would fall into line after this article was addressed. Thank you for posting this.

[nichomachus]

2. The simplest solution is to lower the poverty level -- problem solved

:sarcasm:

[flamin lib]

3. Yeah, it's the same Republican answer to Social Security;

Raise the retirement age to 95.

That's how they handled Agent Orange from Vietnam.

That's how they are handling Gulf War Syndrome.

Let 'em all die off before we have to fulfill the promises made . . .

[Joe Chi Minh]

4. K&R.

[wellstone dem]

5. Absolutely

what a wonderful effort by each of them.

[ColbertWatcher]

6. KICK AND REC! n/t