Economy

We’re Number One!

According to Census data released this week, 1 in 2 Americans is now either living in poverty or close to living in poverty.

A record number of Americans, nearly 50 percent, are either in poverty or considered low-income, according to Census data released this week. The data show a shrinking middle class beset by years of stagnant wages, high unemployment, rising health care and living costs, and a fraying government social safety net. “The reality is that prospects for the poor and the near poor are dismal,” Sheldon Danziger, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan, told the AP. “If Congress and the states make further cuts, we can expect the number of poor and low-income families to rise for the next several years.”

And the federal poverty level is low-balled in my opinion. A family of four living off of less than $30 thousand per year is more than likely struggling paycheck-to-paycheck even if they aren't technically under the federal poverty level which is $22 thousand.

Of course the obvious solution is to slash $1 trillion from the federal budget, shutter multiple federal agencies, fire 10 percent of the federal workforce, dismantle the social safety net, privatize what's left, and clutch our copies of Atlas Shrugged in our arms as the world collapses.

At least, that's what the Republican candidates for president will tell you. Each of them has proposed one or more, or all, of those things.

Because both parties are the same.