Many above poverty line struggle to make ends meet

[HipKat]

http://news.yahoo.com/many-above-pov...182749152.html


Nearly half of all Americans lack economic security, meaning they live above the federal poverty threshold but still do not have enough money to cover housing, food, healthcare and other basic expenses, according to a survey of government and industry data.

The survey, released on Tuesday by the advocacy group Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW), found that 45 percent of U.S. residents live in households that struggle to make ends meet.

That breaks down to 39 percent of all adults and 55 percent of all children, the group found.

"This is a wake-up call for Congress, for our state policy-makers, really for all of us," said Donna Addkison, President and CEO of WOW.

"Nearly half of our nation's families cannot cover the costs of basic expenses even when they do have a job. Under these conditions, cuts to unemployment insurance ... and other programs families are relying on right now would push them from crisis to catastrophe."

The WOW survey compared 2009 pre-tax incomes to a budget of basic and essential monthly expenses for various families that it developed along with researchers at Washington University with funding from the Ford Foundation and W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

For example, in a budget for a family of one worker, it put housing expenses at $688 and food at $244. In a family of two workers with two young children, it assumed housing would cost $821 per month and food $707 a month.

It did not include nonessentials such as vacations, recreation, hobbies, college tuition, and other common expenses of the middle class.

A congressional effort to find $1.2 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years failed on Monday, raising fears that emergency benefits for the long-term unemployed would not be extended when they expire next month.

Other social programs including Medicare are also under threat as lawmakers seek to slash the nation's huge debt.

Some economists said while they agreed that the debt had to the reduced, targeting programs that helped the low income group survive the harsh economic environment was not the correct path to take.

"I am in favor of austerity, but not in this area," said Harm Bandholz, chief U.S. economist at UniCredit Research in New York. "This is the only austerity going on and this is hitting the long-term unemployed. It's not improving the long-term budget situation anyway."

Currently, the poverty threshold for the United States is an annual income of $22,314 for a family of four.

A little more than 15 percent of the country lives at or below that level, and the group wanted to look at the remainder, "many of whom live on the edge and are chronically at risk of financial crisis or falling into poverty."

More than four out of 10 adult women live in households that cannot cover those basic expenses, slightly more than the proportion of men, 37 percent.

That may be because in 2009 women's median earnings were 70 percent of men's median earnings, the group said.

More than 60 percent of single women live in economic insecurity, it added.

"While married women are more likely to have economic security than unmarried women, much of the stability is attained through a husband's earnings or other household income," the group reported, which can put those women in economic jeopardy if their husbands die or lose their job or if the couple divorces.

The group also found "that full-time work fails to provide economic security for 25 percent of adult workers," because of stagnating and falling wages over the last decade.

"A chief cause of economic insecurity is 1970s level wages that fail to cover modern expenses," it said.

While households with two full-time workers can help boost a family's economic security, 22 percent of adults with children who work full-time and have a partner who also has a full-time job cannot cover basic needs.

At the same time, 21 percent of homes headed by a college graduate lack economic security.

"In the past, threats to economic security were supposedly clear -- dropping out of high school, being a single parent or having a large family. In today's economy, we cannot assume we know who lacks security," it said.

[Dougles]

"At the same time, 21 percent of homes headed by a college graduate lack economic security."

I wonder what % of those household have 2 or 4 year liberal arts or social science degrees... 90%?

[tonym]

There needs to be common ground with all people. That common ground is understanding how the control of the money supply dilutes the purchasing power of the common man, and makes the middle class and poor, more poor. This control also powers the crony capitalism and corporatism that the people are fed up with.

The central bank, Federal Reserve, is the core cause that results in the affect you mention. The immediate solution is to have competing currencies. A stable currency and competition is a catalyst for prosperity.

Presently the control of this nations money supply is in the hands of a few, a monopoly. Hence, the actual cause of the affect, presently being interpreted in the media, as greed.

When there is too much of something it gets wasted. We have too much money in existence, so where did it go? To certain people.

Americans need to understand, money. As in, how does it come into existence. We also need to understand what is Fractional Reserve Lending. These are the core causes.


***

Watch these short easy to understand videos, about three hours worth total, and the picture becomes clear of cause and affect. videos are 10 minutes or so and then some longer ones.

Basic Monetary Theory under the heading Intellect.

[ERIEMAN]

There needs to be common ground with all people. That common ground is understanding how the control of the money supply dilutes the purchasing power of the common man, and makes the middle class and poor, more poor. This control also powers the crony capitalism and corporatism that the people are fed up with.

The central bank, Federal Reserve, is the core cause that results in the affect you mention. The immediate solution is to have competing currencies. A stable currency and competition is a catalyst for prosperity.

Presently the control of this nations money supply is in the hands of a few, a monopoly. Hence, the actual cause of the affect, presently being interpreted in the media, as greed.

When there is too much of something it gets wasted. We have too much money in existence, so where did it go? To certain people.

Americans need to understand, money. As in, how does it come into existence. We also need to understand what is Fractional Reserve Lending. These are the core causes.

I've been thinking about this a bit lately, specifically the statement in boldface. As you stated, the media is certainly attributing the money supply imbalance to greed. I do think, however, that the blame is being put too heavily on the shoulders of the corporations themselves, and not enough blame is given to consumers. I keep coming back to one question - how is our money being filtered into the hands of a few people?

It's worth noting that one of the many causes of the Great Depression was consumer greed. People simply spent more than they earned. The generations following the Great Depression became much more thrifty than their parents were. People saved money for retirement and stopped buying things that weren't needed. I realize that there were many factors involved in allowing this to happen, such as the "golden age" of unions, but that's for another discussion. At the present time, people spend money on EVERYTHING. People have become superconsumers. Everyone has a $1200 TV (or two), an iPhone, an internet connection for their computer, an internet connection for their iPhone, etc. Given the choice, most folks today would rather pay $70 per month for a mobile phone than put that money into a retirement account.

All of the money spent on unnecessary items ends up in the hands of a few. Until enough people start realizing that their current rate of spending isn't sustainable, the economy is going to continue it's downward spiral. Unfortunately, it's probably going to take another depression for people to start realizing that.

Edit: Good post, by the way.

[Dougles]

People tend to forget it was the middle class that demanded cheaper goods.

[tonym]

I think people want cheaper goods because they can't afford things. We have to buy inferior products due to the loss of our purchasing power.

An example of me: I belong to a co-op, I get what I call Real food (organic). My family members will say, "It's too expensive, I can't afford it." Well, this is the cost of real food. What my family members (me included) can only afford, is what I call "tampered with" food, I believe it is inferior quality. Either GMO, pesticides, chemicals ... That's the trade off - cheaper but not as good.

We can't afford good furniture anymore. Look how much of that chinese fall apart furniture we see in the trash on garbage day.

This is the hidden tax destruction of inflating the money supply. It is decaying every aspect of our lives in a very slow generational loss. And, it is not going to get better. No leaders of a nation would let this happen to their people if they actually cared about them. The well-to-do people don't mind inflation because they can afford dishing out more bills, that is why they don't bring up The Fed or don't want to get rid of it.

Even though there was a partial audit of the fed, not a full one, which we need and want, we did get some info.

Hands of the few, are those that get that money first, when the cash is at its full value. It trickles down to us a year or so later. After that money gets into the system it dilutes the value of the rest and then we get the scraps and have to dish out more bills to pay for things.

The bailouts are a great example of the few. Then the partial audit revealed all those international banks received money. It's like a big buddy system they have going.

This buddy system I believe starts in the parties, that is where it is maintained. The local parties follows orders from the top. The parties back the obedient candidate, who gets touched by the lobbyist or influential insider, just like an incumbent does. The incumbent lawmaker pushes legislation where the cash gets funneled to the companies that benefit from that legislation. The lawmaker that got touched and help push the legislation gets something out of it, either donations, jobs for family, ceo after politics - the crony capitalism thing.

The legislation forms the monopolies. This pushes out the small business. It's the regulations leaving what seems like the corporations as only being viable. And then corporations leave because of other regulations placed upon it and go to other countries to getaway from the regulations. Hence, the attack against greedy corporations. That's what I'm learning. And it hurts to learn it because I'm a nobody who is getting ripped off in all of this. I don't see corporations as bad, I see the regulations partnering with the Fed and its control of setting interest rates and supplying cheap money as the culprit.

A good example, the Boston tea party. This is no different than today. The West Indies Tea co. doesn't like that there is competition and goes to the british crown and lobbies for regulation that "protects jobs". The crown forms the partnership with the Tea co. and puts into play the regulations giving the Tea co. the advantage, the basis of a monopoly. The colonists (small business owners) know this is bad stuff and respond. And respond they did.

***

Check out at least the first 4:40 of this video which is 7 minutes in length. It's about Why Prices Rise. This is just from last month or so. This Professor Sabrin guy, I never heard of him before this video, gives a great easy to understand explanation of what has been done to us. This is the common ground the teagop'rs and occupiers need to start realizing. We all do.

One more thing, Fractional Reserve Lending. If we all go to the bank to withdraw our money, is it there? Can we do it? No. Why? Because it doesn't exist. Think about this. It is the ultimate ponzi scheme. Every time we borrow money through this lending system, more money magically comes into existence, from nothing. It then goes into circulation and makes us more poor. The ones who benefited are those who brought the money into existence.

The Fed is the core cause of our problems. The people just don't know it, and we need to.