Nearly One Quarter of American Children in Poverty. Anti-Poverty Measures Scrapped under Obama’s ‘Sequester Budget’
Thursday, 24 July 2014
Nearly One Quarter of American Children in Poverty. Anti-Poverty Measures Scrapped under Obama’s ‘Sequester Budget’
‘A total of 16.3 million children live in poverty, and 45 percent of children in the US live in households whose incomes fall below 200 percent of the federal poverty line.
The annual report, tilted the Kids Count Data Book, compiles data on children’s economic well-being, education, health, and family support. It concludes that, “inequities among children remain deep and stubbornly persistent.”
The report is an indictment of the state of American society nearly six years after the onset of the financial crisis in 2008. While the Obama administration and the media have proclaimed an economic “recovery,” conditions of life for the vast majority of the population continue to deteriorate.’
The situation in the UK is very, very similar. What economic growth there is is benefiting the wealthy 1% (or even 0.1%) - it isn't going to the poor, or the 'squeezed middle' class, who will end up being the poor of the future, impoverished, just as Marx predicted. The low-paid temporary & part-time jobs, zero-hours contract 'jobs' and self-employment are not providing millions of people not on the dole with adequate incomes sufficient to provide decent living standards for themselves or their families. As for those who are on the dole, benefit sanctions and late payments frequently drive them to Food Banks (how are you supposed to be 'available for work' when you're starving?), and - for the disabled, such as myself, we have Work Capability Assessments, cuts in benefits, cuts in services, and things like the Bedroom Tax to contend with. I remember Tony Blair's election campaign, and D-Ream's 'Things Can Only Get Better'. What a sick joke that turned out to be!
ReplyDelete