Poverty in America

There's some good news.

U.S. poverty rate declines significantly

The nation's poverty rate dropped last year, the first significant decline since President Bush took office.

The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that 36.5 million Americans, or 12.3 percent — were living in poverty last year. That's down from 12.6 percent in 2005.

The median household income was $48,200, a slight increase from the previous year. But the number of people without health insurance also increased, to 47 million.

The last significant decline in the poverty rate came in 2000, during the Clinton administration. In 2005, the poverty rate dipped from 12.7 percent to 12.6 percent, but Census officials said that change was statistically insignificant.

The poverty numbers are good economic news at a time when financial markets have been rattled by a slumping housing market. However, the numbers released Tuesday represent economic conditions from a year ago.

The poverty level is the official measure used to decide eligibility for federal health, housing, nutrition and child care benefits. It differs by family size and makeup. For a family of four with two children, for example, the poverty level is $20,444. The poverty rate — the percentage of people living below poverty — helps shape the debate on the health of the nation's economy.

For Milwaukee, there's some bad news.

Milwaukee has 8th-highest poverty rate

Milwaukee has the eighth-highest rate of poverty among large cities in America, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Around one in four Milwaukee residents (26.2%) live in poverty. Higher rates were recorded in Detroit, Buffalo, N.Y., Cincinnati, Cleveland, Miami, St. Louis and El Paso, Texas.

On a positive note, Wisconsin's poverty rate is below the national average. That's in spite of Milwaukee's high placement on the most impoverished cities list.

Overall, Wisconsin's poverty rate is 11%, with 591,850 people in poverty.

Lots of numbers.

What does it really mean to live in poverty in America?

I'm not saying it's pleasant, but it's certainly not as bad as living in poverty elsewhere in the world.

Robert Rector gives some details on what it's like to be poor in America.

In the past, [John] Edwards has claimed that poverty in America is a “plague” which forces 37 million Americans to live in “terrible” circumstances. According to Edwards, an amazing “one in eight” Americans lack “enough money for the food, shelter, and clothing they need,” caught in a daily “struggle with incredible poverty.”

However, examination of the living standards of the 37 million or so persons, the government defines as “poor,” reveals that America’s poverty “plague” may not be as “terrible” or “incredible” as anti-poverty crusader Edwards contends.

If being “poor” means (as Edwards claims it does) a lack of nutritious food, adequate warm housing, and clothing for a family, then very few of America’s 37 million official “poor” people can be regarded as actually poor. Some material hardship does exist in the United States, but, in reality, it is quite restricted in scope and severity.

The following are facts about persons defined as “poor” by the Census Bureau, taken from a variety of government reports:

---46 percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.

---80 percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.

---Only six percent of poor households are overcrowded; two thirds have more than two rooms per person.

---The typical poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)

---Nearly three quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.

---97 percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.

---78 percent have a VCR or DVD player.

---62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.

---89 percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.

As a group, America’s poor are far from being chronically undernourished. The average consumption of protein, vitamins, and minerals is virtually the same for poor and middle-class children and, in most cases, is well above recommended norms. Poor children actually consume more meat than do higher-income children and have average protein intakes 100-percent above recommended levels. Most poor children today are, in fact, super-nourished and grow up to be, on average, one inch taller and ten pounds heavier than the GIs who stormed the beaches of Normandy in World War II.

Rector also notes that poverty in America can be traced to a few specific factors, such as the absence of fathers in homes.

Nearly two thirds of poor children reside in single-parent homes; each year, an additional 1.5 million children are born out of wedlock. If poor mothers married the fathers of their children, nearly three quarters of the nation’s impoverished youth would immediately be lifted out of poverty.

Yet, although work and marriage are reliable ladders out of poverty, the welfare system perversely remains hostile to both. Major programs such as food stamps, public housing, and Medicaid continue to reward idleness and penalize marriage. If welfare could be turned around to encourage work and marriage, the nation’s remaining poverty could be reduced.

Another factor in poverty is ILLEGAL immigration.

Another important factor boosting poverty in the U.S. is our broken immigration system which imports hundreds of thousands of additional poor people each year from abroad through both legal and illegal immigration channels. One quarter of all poor persons in the U.S. are now first generation immigrants or the minor children of those immigrants. Roughly one in ten of the persons counted among the poor by Census is either an illegal immigrant or the minor child of an illegal. Immigrants tend to be poor because they have very low education levels. A quarter of legal immigrants and fifty to sixty percent of illegals are high-school dropouts. By contrast, only nine percent of non-immigrant Americans lack a high school degree.

As long as the present steady flow of poverty-prone persons from foreign countries continues, efforts to reduce the total number of poor in the U.S. will be far more difficult. A sound anti-poverty strategy must not only seek to increase work and marriage among native born Americans, it must also end illegal immigration, and dramatically increase the skill level of future legal immigrants.

I'm not dismissing the issue of poverty in the U.S., nor am I suggesting that people have no moral obligation to help the disadvantaged.

However, I do think it's important to understand what the poverty figures mean.

I also think it's extremely important not to be bamboozled by John Edwards' rhetoric (lies).

I strongly believe that government handouts aren't the answer to poverty. In fact, we have decades of proof that entitlements create a culture of poverty.

Welfare is not a family business to be handed down to the next generation.