More kids in poverty now than during recession
By Jennifer Calfas, USA Today
A higher percentage of children live in poverty now than did during the Great Recession, according to anew report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation released Tuesday.
About 22 percent of children in the U.S. lived below the poverty line in 2013, compared with 18 percent in 2008, the foundation’s 2015 Kids Count Data Book reported. In 2013, the U.S. Department of Human and Health Service’s official poverty line was $23,624 for a family with two adults and two children.
“The fact that it’s happening is disturbing on lots of levels,” said Laura Speer, the associate director for policy reform and advocacy at the Casey Foundation, a non-profit based in Baltimore. “Those kids often don’t have the access to the things they need to thrive.” The foundation says its mission is to help low-income children in the U.S. by providing grants and advocating for policies that promote economic opportunity.
This information is not surprising, and I personally believe it. It is clearly not in sync with the barrage of rhetoric from political and government sources about how much better the economy is doing, growth is happening etc.
I think the constant buzz about economic improvement is driven by constantly changing assumptions and varying indices, and is an effort to justify the perceived need to raise interest rates. Higher interest will benefit banks, not necessarily the economy in general I fear.
Higher interest has the potential to slow spending that is connected to borrowing….real estate, automobiles, high bucks recreation gear etc.
Two classes are emerging; the wealthy and the growing numbers of poor. The only thing growing is the government which the founders of our country warned would be the demise of freedom. The real numbers of those not working and on the welfare system, including illegals, is the problem when that system runs out of other’s money to pay them and the chaos that will result from it. It is reported the SSI system is broke in 2016 and this will be trouble.