16 million Americans live in severe poverty
Just when all those big corporation CEO's are hitting obscene highs never seen before -- Morgan Stanley's CEO bonus just totaled $41.4 million .. Goldman Sachs' CEO received more than $54.3 million, setting a record for Wall Street CEO remuneration .. Exxon gave Lee Raymond one of the most generous retirement packages in history, worth $400 million.
(Not to mention all thoses billions in subsidies our government gives to the big oil companies.)
While millions of working poor are dropping to depths not seen in decades. US severe poverty reached 32-year high -- 16 million people. Will they soon be nearing third world status?
And it all accelerated during the Bush years.
From Yahoo news:
"WASHINGTON (AFP) - The gulf between rich and poor in the United States is yawning wider than ever, and the number of extremely impoverished is at a three-decade high, a report out Saturday found.
"WASHINGTON (AFP) - The gulf between rich and poor in the United States is yawning wider than ever, and the number of extremely impoverished is at a three-decade high, a report out Saturday found.
Based on the latest available US census data from 2005, the McClatchy Newspapers analysis found that almost 16 million Americans live in "deep or severe poverty" defined as a family of four with two children earning less than 9,903 dollars -- one half the federal poverty line figure.
....The surge in poverty comes alongside an unusual economic expansion.
"Worker productivity has increased dramatically since the brief recession of 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged behind. At the same time, the share of national income going to corporate profits has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries," the study found.[..]
And my rightie friends are always bragging about how well the economy is doing .. the job market is great .. sure, if you want to work in fast food or at Wal-Mart.
Righties say even a full-time job at McDonald's would bring in $12,000 or so .. two adults doing it would double that.
Okay, say these two adults work for minimum wage .. but then McD's keeps them at less than full time. Less benefits are paid to part-time workers. So, McD's saves a ton of money that way .. by hiring only part-time workers. The laws are such that corporations can take advantage of the workers.
Also, that same $12,000 didn't account for taxes. FICA and SS being deducted .. leaving less than 10 grand (9300 seems about right). Then, for two people working, factor in child care costs. Any idea how much child care is? Then divide the rest by 4 people for food, housing, transportation, insurance, clothing, utilities.....
Wal-Mart was another culprit in the part-time worker scam .. and they used to require part-time employees to work 2 years before they qualified for the same health coverage as full-time workers get. Now they've changed that to *only* a year. There's one other catch for part-time Wal-Mart workers. They can get coverage for themselves and their children -- but not their spouse.
And what if dad gets laid off from his minimum wage job? Then mom gets sick or needs an operation? What if their prescription drug bill is $1,000 a month? Nothing can spiral you into the depths of poverty faster than a serious illness.
BTW -- wasn't it nice that Wal-Mart received 1.2 billion dollars in subsidies last year to build more stores?
There was a time in this country when someone with just a GED (or not even that) could get a decent paying job with decent benefits. I don't think those times were all that bad for the American consumer .. but then we didn't have the outrageous disparity between the wages of upper management and the workers as we do today.
The outsourcing of our jobs has nothing to do with providing the lowest price to the American consumer .. it has everything to do with upper management raping the company for all the loot they can squeeze out.
Look no further than Ken Lay, Bernie Ebbers, Dennis Kozlowski, etc. .. for each one of them there are hundreds of others taking hundreds of millions per year for average leadership.
That certainly could contribute to the increase in US poverty. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Wall Street might be booming .. but the poor working stiff on Main Street is struggling.
Wall Street might be booming .. but the poor working stiff on Main Street is struggling.
