Myth #5: Most of the poor are older Americans. About 10 percent of people 65 years and older are poor, but 35 percent of the poor are children under 18. Between 2000 and 2008, the incomes of people ages 25-54-especially men-decreased about 11 percent but increased by 8 percent for men ages 65-74. Myth #6: The poor get special advantages. The poor pay more for goods and services than do wealthier people.
There is less opportunity of jobs than before. If immigrants become citizens it would mean more people looking for jobs. Despite the improving economy, we still have millions of citizens out of work. Whether it's lack of skills or lack of opportunities, many of those citizens will be forced to take the low-paying unskilled jobs. If you pump in millions of new workers seeking jobs, it decreases the amount of work available.
Poverty has increased due to a high unemployment rate, lower wages for many people, and a decreasing amount of public assistance benefits. Since the start of the recession, many people have lost their jobs and have been unable to find new employment or have been forced to work for wages far lower than they had previously been paid. In 1996, the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, which provided cash assistance to poor families with children, was replaced with a grant program called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). This program has not been able to keep up with inflation causing a higher poverty level among the already poor which has resulted in families not being able to afford housing (“Why are People Homeless,”
Jeff Doyle Sundol WRC 1013-11 1 Nov. 2010 Are Poor Americans Actually Poor? The number of Americans in poverty today is rather shocking. There are currently thirty-seven million Americans who are classified as being "in poverty" (Rector 2). Many Americans are classified below the line of poverty, but in retrospect to the rest of the world, Americans seem far from poor. America is considered to be upon the most prominent and successful nations in the world; so, why is over a tenth of our population deemed as "poor" by our government?
Chapter 39: The Stalemated Seventies A. Describe the economic situation going into the 1970s- The baby boom generation would be making less money than their parents but as the economic growth crested, the American spirit gave an unaccustomed sense of limits. I. Sources of Stagnation A. List a few reasons economists speculate could be the cause of the slump in productivity increasing presence in the work force of women and teens (had lower skills, less likely to take full time jobs),declining investment in new machinery, general shift of American economy from manufacturing to services B.
Size of the economic pie The size of the economic pie in America is shrinking, and the share of the pie for those that are poor is shrinking a lot faster than the share of the pie for those that are wealthy. According to the Washington Post, the average yearly income of the bottom 90 percent of all U.S. income earners is now just $31,244. When you look at the ratio of employee compensation to GDP, it is now the lowest that is has been in about 50 years. At this point, the poorest 50% of all Americans now control just 2.5% of all of the wealth in this country. Big corporations are recognizing the change that is happening to
Cyclical unemployment occurs during a recession, as we have recently encountered. Firms aren’t achieving their potential output, which leads them to cut workers. And even after a recession it’s hard for these unemployed to find jobs again. When they report their incomes, it heavily tips the income equality scale as the unemployed have next to no income. The first step in dissolving income disparity is aiming to normalize unemployment rates, which for America would be around 5-5.
One of the myths are that people on welfare do not want to work when in fact, Women on welfare do work but normally obtain minimum wage. Statistics show that mothers on welfare held on average 1.7 jobs while almost half (44%) held two or more jobs. Another myth is that people who get on welfare never get off, 30% get off within two years permanently. Some of the problems that we face are that many of the people on welfare have a lack of education, which creates more unskilled workers. We live in a society where we say that everyone able to pull himself or herself up by there bootstrap and create the life that they want.
By many I mean, in the year two-thousand seven there were approximately 45 million people who do not have insurance in the United States; and the number was continuously growing; as a matter in fact in two thousand eleven the number had reached to a total of 48.6 million people without health coverage. The majority of uninsured individuals remain that way because it is out of budget, meaning they cannot pay for it and small or family run companies do not offer medical coverage. Mostly, the lower incomes are those who suffer from lack of insurance including, part-time and seasonal, and anyone in the service industry. Obviously we need services such as people to help with daily needs, or daycare; yet, they are the individuals who do not have health coverage. Those who can be considered middle class, while having insurance, are underinsured and if a mishap were to happen, the middle class family would struggle; especially with the escalating price of medical assistance such as
The decline of workers contributing to Social Security means there will be less benefits that will be replaced. Currently the Baby boomers have the highest labor force participation of any generations in American history. (Crain, 2006) The generations following the Baby Boomer generation will not have the numbers to replace the Baby Boomers place in the workforce. According to Crain (2006) nearly 90% of the Baby Boomer generation works, which is over half of the entire workforce in the nation. About 80% of female Baby Boomers worked which was also a contribution to the two income family.