If USA is so wealthy why does 30% of their citizens live below the poverty level?

Question

It is a fact the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Details from the Economist Magazine.

Answer 1

It's because poverty breeds poverty and the rich take advantage of this by putting in people like Bush who will make things easier for them and harder for the poor.. You don't have to go to Communism to help the poor for all you dumb jerks who think that. They just need extra help to break the cycle. Like entitlements, educational incentives, racial quota's. The very thing republicans can't stand because I guess they think it's communism. They don't know what communism is.. They think I am a communist..Hey Re/cons...I am not a Commie...Just ask Joe McCarthy

Answer 2

Do you really believe all that twaddle that the general public are fed? We will never know how many people in the USA are below the poverty line, or any other country for that matter!

The real facts are that no government in any country has yet succeeded in reducing the number of people living in 'deprived' circumstances and 'below the poverty level' - and please don't expect them to start now, because they are too busy looking after themselves to really have any genuine care about the people they serve.

There probably is real poverty in the USA and real poverty like we don't have in the UK because we have enough money to pay state benefits to all the immigrants who arrive with their families without jobs. Of course we don't have enough money to improve our National Health Service as the funding gets stuck in wage rises at state employee offices before it reaches the hospitals.

- and State 'benefits' are NOT benefits from the State - we all make compulsory payments all our working lives to National Health Insurance and the State Pension. Nothing is a free benefit in the UK - that's just a spot of brainwashing!

- and since this appears without an avatar - for the records this was posted by Guineapig. And now that damned avatar is back just to make me look stupid again!

Answer 3

What is definition of poverty , Only owning one plasma Screen TV, and a 2 year old car. Poverty definition is subjective criteria because no persons poverty is another persons wealth. The things that have gotten more expensive over the years is mainly housing, and healthcare. Cars are 20% less in cost verse 20 years ago, Tv is 40% less in cost than 20 years ago, and Video Games are 50% less for a cheap one than 20 years ago. Trickle down economics works just the problem is the top 2% get the benefit windfall.
Well, that is free markets they are doing thier job. Poverty matters, but its should be definition based on decent housing, decent acess to education, healthcare, and basic transport. Not comparing a CEO income verse a Jantior income.

Politicans epesically some populists democrats are a bigger danger to American economy than a libearls, and free-market libertrains. The more open trade we have the bigger the income gap, but the standards of living will rise because food, electronics, transportation till become a lot cheaper even for the lowest of 10% of wage earners.
The goverment be wise to increase the productiivty of healthcare, housing construction, instead of playing favorties with primtive economic policies that are outdated..

Answer 4

First of all - like anything the British media prints about the US the information is intended to give a negative an misleading impression of us.

The Economist simply arbitrarily set the 'poverty level' at a number that suited the answer they wanted.

Typical European reporting . . .

Answer 5

Who set the standard for poverty?
What is the poverty line in usa?
do they set their own?
in which case their poverty line is still probably leave an individual in a better position than those below the poverty line in Sudan.
Get real, you preaching anti american propaganda ,
You are a misinformed and naive leftist who blames amercia for the worlds ills even though its being our greatest ally for the last 100 years.

Answer 6

I doubt that 30% of Americans live below the American standard for poverty--which is approximately a household of 4 earning less than $10,000 a year. The true number is probably around 10-15 percent. Then again, poverty in by American standards is a much stricter defintion than say 3rd world country standards. A "poverty-stricken" American most likely eats at least 3 big meals a day and their kids still go to school (public education is FREE in the states). Also, they actually are entitled to very cheap government basic health/dental care and, if "poor" enough, their government will actually send them a welfare/unemployment check/food stamps worth several hundred dollars a month. All the government asks is that you provide them proof that you are "actively" searching for a job--which could mean that you emailed ONE resume to a job site per month. If you are homeless, you are entitled as a citizen to temporary housing and food/basic medical care.

Of course, european and Canadians get even BETTER benefits than Americans.

Answer 7

Because the Country is built on greed, and regardless of the fate f 30% of their own country people, these oh so all might America people, walk around the problem, with full pockets and fuller bellies, with no cares whatever.

Thisis the society they want to implant all over the world, the same greed culture of the Romans, and one can understand why so many resist this evil and uncultured Nation.

Answer 8

The assertion that "30% of their citizens live below the poverty level" is FALSE and your lack of research is IRRESPONSIBLE.

The poverty level in the US is closer to 12.7% as of 2004, not THIRTY, and you could not have gotten your info from The Economist.

Roughly 35 million people are considered "below poverty level," BUT ONE THIRD of those are children related to the head of the household; they are under 18 living with their families. They are NOT heads of households as is often assumed.

Household income in the US has CONSISTENTLY increased since the mid-1960s.

(Amazing that only ONE person who has responded to this nonsense doubted the "30%" figure.

_______

Kute, C=JD made no mistakes. Whatever I posted I took directly from the link I posted from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Yes, poverty levels went up from 12.5 to 12.7 in the last couple of years.

Perhaps you have been living in a cave since 2001. Do you remember that minor incident also known as 9/11/01 and the recession that followed?

Answer 9

the wealth is in the hands of a few for certain, communism is not a valid option as it is repressive and does not work, the middle class is fastly dissapearing and our jobs are being outsourced. Free education maybe an answer, not just to the high school level, but a guarentee that if your grade point acverage is say a 3.0 you can continue towards a four year degree,? If I really had the answer id be much wiser than I am and would run for office

Answer 10

C = JD made some big mistakes with his statistics.

"Household income has gone up since the 1960's" - while AVERAGE household income hase gone up steadily, MEDIAN household income has DROPPED for the last five years. What does that mean? The income for the richest people has gone up a lot, but income for the bottom half has actually dropped. Look at it this way - if Bill Gates walks into a homeless shelter, the AVERAGE income is over $1 million a year, but the MEDIAN income is still next to $0 and only Bill has seen his income go up for the last 5 years.

Meanwhile, the % of people in poverty has increased steadily since 2001. It was actually in decline since 1995, but took a big turnaround during the last recession.

So, yes, if you like to play games with statistics, you can make it look like everythings fine. But for those not in the top 5%, its getting worse.