I feel its important to share with you just to get an idea of where our country is at because I think its actually pretty scary.
The result is simple--- poverty is rising in America. We have been given some of the highest levels since the Census even began starting to collect data. Most shockingly, 2009 has been proven to be one of the worst years in poverty levels in 51 years... that's more than half a century. The national poverty rate has rose from 13.2% in 2008, to 14.3% in 2009. With that said, 43.6 million or 1 in 7 American citizens in our country are living in poverty. Also it has been found that 31 of 50 states have increased poverty levels. Shocking.
Here is a very interesting map chart, from The New York Times that shows specific regional poverty rates in the United States:
From the map we can see that the hardest hit states are in the south. The highest was Mississippi where residents living in poverty reached 21.9%. Another 10 southern states had poverty rates that exceeded 15%.
Here are some pictures of poverty stricken areas in the south:
This is not to say that the south has exceedingly higher rates than the rest of the country. There are only 5 states which have poverty rates below 10%, which are Alaska, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, and New Hampshire at the lowest with 8.5%.
Also, although southern suburban areas account for 1/3 of Americas poor, the large popular cities like New York, Miami, and Los Angeles, have seen the effects too. Residents of these cities have seen some of the biggest drops in personal income within the last year.
Poverty and income deficits are just everywhere, causing a shrinking middle class America. And because of this, there has been many disturbing effects:
1. Income levels have been destroyed especially in the housing business. Therefore it has been assumed that industries, such as the construction business, may never return to their pre recession levels.
2. Threatened states are cutting out crucial services. Arianna Huffington, author of "Third World America," says, "According to a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, at least twenty-nine states have made cuts to public health programs, twenty-four states have cut programs for the elderly and disabled, twenty-nine states have cut aid to K–12 education, and thirty-nine states have cut assistance to public colleges and universities."
Those are strong effects that would affect a lot of people.
3. The amount of layoffs due to the recession, have caused millions to loose their employee-provided health insurance.
With that said, 16.7% of Americans live with no health insurance. Again, Arianna Huffington explains in her book that with a rates as they are now, every 30 seconds, someone in this country files for bankruptcy after a serious illness.
4. Infrastructure is crumbling. The Transportation Construction Coalition has determined that badly maintained roads are responsible for $217 billion worth of car accidents annually, and of the 42,000 car accidents 53% are due to road conditions.
Currently we are spending $70 billion a year on improving road conditions when we need to be spending about $186 billion. We just don't have enough money to pay, and basically people are dying because of it. Scary.
5. The education system is in crisis. The system is failing. A goal of 100% proficiency in reading and math has been set in the No Child Left Behind law, but we are no where near that goal. For example, in Alabama only 20% are efficient, in California only 23%, and in New York, only 34%.
We just don't have the money to put into our education programs to improve.
Links/sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/29/11-poorest-states-in-the-_n_742967.html#s146769
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/the-poorest-states-of-america/?src=mvhttp://news.yahoo.com/s//huffpost/20101019/cm_huffpost/767734_201010190954/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/09/8-surprising-facts-about_n_675545.html#s124108
