(Image Source: U.S. Census Bureau)
BY IRIS ZHANG
You're watching multisource news analysis from Newsy.com.
The Census Bureau says-- 1 in 6 Americans now live in poverty.
That’s according to data collected in 2010.
CNN has more.
“This number has been growing over the past four years. What's poverty? It's described as a family of four living on just over $22,000 a year. As far as the poverty rate goes, that's 15% of Americans, the highest since 1993. It's a huge percentage.”
Bloomberg says Asians, African Americans and women are the three groups hardest hit by rising poverty.
“If you dig into those numbers a little bit, the biggest drops are among Asians. Their income's down 3.4%., followed by African Americans. They’ve had a 3.2% drop in income. And there is also evidence that women are carrying more of the burden of the household income.”
Among other causes, CNBC focuses on how government influences the poverty rate.
“The other thing you will find here, which is the fodder for the political debate, is how much government programs are involved in basically keeping people above the poverty line. So if some of these go away, you’ll have a rising poverty rate…”
And the LA Times says-- the timing of the report is sure to direct attention at politicians.
“The report, coming shortly after President Obama’s proposed package… is almost certain to intensify the debate over the government’s role in helping the poor and unemployed at a time of budget deficits and painful cutbacks in public services.”
But a contributor for Forbes says-- the root of the problem goes back to the Lyndon B. Johnson presidency-- an era when many social services were born.
“The so-called War on Poverty has undermined economic progress by trapping people in lives of dependency. And this certainly is consistent with the data in the chart, which show that the poverty rate no longer is falling and instead bumps around between 12 percent and 15 percent.”
In total- 46.2 million people are living below the poverty line in the U.S.
Transcript by Newsy.
...