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Are things
returning to "normal"?
Well, the poor
are getting poorer --
"Extreme
Poverty In The U.S. Has Doubled In The Last 15 Years"
(Think Progress)
According to
the latest Census Bureau data, nearly 50 percent of Americans are either
low-income or living in poverty in the wake of the Great Recession. And a new
study from the National Poverty Center shows just how deep in poverty some of
those people are, finding that the number of households living on less than
$2 per day (before government benefits) has more than doubled in the last 15
years:
The number of
U.S. households living on less than $2 per person per day — which the
study terms “extreme poverty” — more than doubled between
1996 and 2011, from 636,000 to 1.46 million, the study finds. The number of
children in extremely poor households also doubled, from 1.4 million to 2.8
million.
and the rich
are getting richer --
"Striking
it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States"
(Emmanuel Saez)
From 1993 to
2010, average real incomes per family grew by only 13.8% over this 17 year
period (implying an annual growth rate of .76%). However, if one excludes the
top 1 percent, average real incomes of the bottom 99% grew only by 6.4% from
1993 to 2010 (implying an annual growth rate of .37%). Top 1 percent incomes
grew by 58% from 1993 to 2010 (implying a 2.7% annual growth rate). This
implies that top 1 percent incomes captured slightly more than half of the
overall economic growth of real incomes per family over the period 1993-2010.
So, for those
who believe that America has been on the road to ruin for some time, I guess
the answer is "yes" -- right?
Michael J. Panzner
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