The US: 80% Of US Adults Are Near Poverty, Rely On Welfare, Or Are Unemployed
■ Despite consumer confidence at a six-year high, the latest AP survey of the real America shows a stunning four out of five U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, are near poverty, or rely on welfare for at least parts of their lives amid signs of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream. Hardship is particularly on the rise among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among whites about their families' economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987.
■ "Poverty is no longer an issue of 'them', it's an issue of 'us'," as 'the invisible poor' - lower income whites - are generally dispersed in suburbs (Appalachia, the industrial Midwest, and across America's heartland, from Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma up through the Great Plains) where more than 60% of the poor are white.
■ More than 19 million whites fall below the poverty line of $23,021 for a family of four - accounting for more than 41% of the nation's destitute - nearly double the number of poor blacks and as one survey respondent noted "I think it's going to get worse."
Andre Damon: Four in five Americans economically insecure - The figures are based on statistics compiled by Washington University professor Mark Rank, to be published next year by Oxford University Press. The report notes that, based on the current growth rate of poverty, 85 percent of all working-age adults will experience economic insecurity at some point in their lives by 2030. The survey defines the “economically insecure” as those who have had an income below 150 percent of the poverty line, were unemployed, or relied on antipoverty programs such as food stamps for up to a year or more. By that definition, 79 percent of the US population qualifies as “economically insecure,” including 90 percent of nonwhites. The report notes, however, a significant rise in poverty among the white population, with 76 percent classified as economically insecure.