The Wealthy Live while the Poor Suffer

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RT News: Poverty levels are Soaring in America

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RT News: Poverty- The American nightmare

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| September 16, 2010
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One in seven Americans now live on or below the poverty line, according to figures published by the US Census Bureau. It is the sharpest annual rise for three decades, and analysts predicted next year's figures will be even worse. Rev. Graylan Hagler says that as a Pastor he sees people who have been gainfully employed their whole life and are now suffering due to the slumping economy.

The Venus Project interviewed by Karen Frandsen from Eerie Investigations - 1/6

The Venus Project: Will it really Work?

Another good example of Capitalism RT News: Record homeless rate in NYC as Bloomberg seeks another term

RT News: Increase in poverty inspires generosity

I suppose it takes millions of people to go into poverty to really see what we are all doing to each other.

College: More expensive than ever

Tuition is climbing at a faster clip than the availability of financial aid, putting a degree further out of reach for many Americans.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- College costs are higher than ever, according to a new report, putting a degree even further out of reach for many Americans.

Tuition and fees at private 4-year schools rose 4.4% in the current school year to $26,273, according to a survey released by the College Board Tuesday.

Charges at public 4-year universities spiked over 6% for both in-state and out-of state students, to $7,020 and $18,548, respectively.

"We're in a very strong sellers market for higher education," said Pat Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, who noted that the high school graduating class of 2009 was the largest in history.

"Colleges and universities are capitalizing on that more than any other institution in the economy. If you walk around a shopping mall, nobody else is raising prices at the same rate."

Tuition prices are going up at private schools at least in part because those schools have seen their endowments dwindle. Public schools are suffering from a dip in state funding, which declined 5.7% per student this year. (College Cost Finder: Get the latest tuition.)

Less grant money. At the same time, the availability of financial aid isn't keeping up with these climbing costs. Grant funding grew only 4.7% in the 2008-2009 academic year, the most recent for which data is available, which means that undergraduates' out-of-pocket costs are higher than ever.

That, combined with higher unemployment and stagnant household incomes, is making it harder than ever to finance a degree.

The good news, if it can be called that, is that about two thirds of full time students receive financial aid that doesn't need to be repaid. After taking grants into consideration, coupled with federal tax benefits, the net cost of college is much lower than the sticker price. On average, students at private schools are paying $11,900, while those attending public schools are spending about $1,600 out of pocket each year.

That still leaves a third of students paying full freight, and every undergrad is still contending with room and board costs that are also climbing, up 5.4% at public schools at 4.2% at private schools this year.

"Tuition is only one part of the picture," said Sandy Baum, a senior policy analyst at Collage Board. "Even though the net tuition might not be rising for students who get grants, the aid is not enough to cover living costs."

More borrowing. To help bridge the gap between what college costs and what families can afford, student loans are also up. Total borrowing increased 5% between the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years, the most recent for which data is available.

If these trends continue, experts say that it will become even harder to get a college degree.

"If we don't find a way to constrain costs and invest in financial aid at the same time, we won't have any gain in increasing the accessibility or affordability of higher education," said Pat Callan from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

Callan and his colleagues say that state governors and legislators have to put pressure on public colleges and universities to limit tuition hikes, while trustees must do the same at private schools.

Simultaneously, Callan adds, schools need to invest more financial aid in students who really need it. For instance, at public schools during the 2007-2008 year, two-thirds of grant money went to students without regard to financial circumstances. Students from the lowest income families got an average of just $570 in non need-based grants, while students from upper-middle income families received $730.

But the College Board's Sandy Baum is optimistic that this is one challenge that the education community can address.

"I think that the silver lining to the current problem is that we'll waste less money on kids who don't need it," she said, "and focus on kids who need the funds."

Full Article at CNN

US Census Bureau report: 40 million living in poverty

September 30, 2009The overall poverty rate in the US rose to 13.2 percent in 2008, as workers across all sectors of the economy became jobless and increasing numbers of families were forced into destitution, according to a new government report. Real median household income also declined by 3.6 percent.The report released Tuesday, part of the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, is the most recent to measure the recession’s impact on working class families and the poor. Based on the changes between 2007 and 2008, the first full year of the recession, its findings do not reflect increases in poverty and joblessness this year as the consequences of the crisis have become even more acute.The official poverty rate of 13.2 percent in 2008 was up from 12.5 percent in 2007. This figure translates into 39.8 million people in poverty across America. The official poverty level is set at $22,000 annually for a family of four with two children or $12,000 for an individual, an absurdly low threshold. This means that far more people than indicated by the survey do not have adequate resources to pay for food, shelter, medical care and other basic necessities.The poverty rate rose across virtually all demographic groups. Poverty among Hispanics climbed from 21.5 percent in 2007 to 23.2 percent in 2008. Non-Hispanic whites saw poverty rise from 8.2 percent in 2007 to 8.6 percent in 2008, while poverty among Asians was up from 10.2 percent in 2007 to 11.8 percent in 2008. African-Americans were the only group where poverty remained statistically unchanged at a staggering 24.7 percent, or about one in four people.The Census Bureau reported a rise in poverty in 31 states and the District of Columbia. Two of the four most populous states—California and Florida—saw poverty rates rise by 1 percent, to just over 13 percent in each state.Connecticut saw the largest increase in poverty, rising to 9.3 percent, with an additional 1.4 percent of the state’s population living in poverty. Connecticut’s proximity to Wall Street, the center of the financial collapse, contributed to the state’s poverty as spending cuts by bankers and other financial employees in the New York City suburbs were reflected in declines in income for the lowest paid workers.William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, commented in an interview, “People don’t go from being a CEO or a hedge fund manager into poverty, but there is a trickle-down effect when these groups of people start to cut back on their spending. In many places, the first people to go when things get tight are the lowest-earning workers.”Michigan, which has been devastated by the collapse of the auto industry, is the only state that has seen poverty increase for two years in a row, with the rate now standing at 13 percent. The industrial states of Pennsylvania and Indiana also saw significant increases in poverty, along with Oregon and Hawaii.The South remained the most impoverished, at 14.3 percent, up slightly from 14.2 percent in 2007. Mississippi, with 21.2 percent in poverty, saw the highest rate of any state, while poverty in Kentucky, West Virginia and Arkansas hovered around 17 percent. * A d v e r t i s e m e n t * efoodsThe Midwest poverty rate rose to 12.4 percent from 11.1 percent the previous year. The West saw the largest increase in poverty, up by 1.5 percent, rising from 12 percent in 2007 to 13.5 percent. The Northeast, which saw an increase in poverty in 2007, saw the rate remain statistically unchanged, at 11.6 percent in 2008.The rate of poverty among America’s children is alarming, with 19 percent—14.1 million children—affected in 2008, up a full percentage point from a year earlier. This rate increased in 26 states and in Washington, DC. Children in families headed by a single female suffered the highest rates of poverty: 43.5 percent of those under 18 years of age live in poverty, while 53.3 percent of children under 6 years are poor.Increasing numbers of families, both the jobless and workers facing shrinking hours and paychecks, are turning to food pantries and the Food Stamp program. Food Stamp use in 2008 jumped 13 percent to nearly 9.8 million US households, led by Louisiana, Maine and Kentucky. Two cities—Pharr, Texas, and the former General Motors production center, Flint, Michigan—each had more than a third of their residents on food stamps. Families with two or more workers accounted for 28.4 percent of food stamp recipients in 2008, up 1.5 percent from 2007.Following three years of annual income increases, real median income declined in the US by 3.6 percent between 2007 and 2008, falling from $52,163 to $50,303. The Midwest and South saw the biggest declines in median income, 4 percent and 4.9 percent respectively.The gap between the richest and poorest Americans is also widening as the economic crisis ravages household budgets. An Associated Press analysis of the Census Bureau statistics shows that the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans, those making $138,000 or more a year, earned 11.4 times the $12,000 made by individuals living below the poverty line in 2008. In 2007, the richest 10 percent made 11.2 times more.The jump in poverty and income inequality comes as the job market continues to shrink, even as government and economic analysts speak of a turnaround. According to US Labor Department figures from July, job seekers now outnumber openings six to one, with only 2.4 million full-time, permanent jobs open while 14.5 million people are officially unemployed and looking for work.Many companies remain cautious about hiring new workers in the uncertain economic environment. Having trimmed back workers’ hours and laid off temporary workers, even if businesses do expand in the future they are likely to increase output by increasing the workload on existing employees.Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told the New York Times, “They have tons of room to increase work without hiring a single person. For people who are out of work, we do not see signs of light at the end of the tunnel.”From December 2007 through July 2009, job openings have declined in every area of the country: 45 percent in the West and South, 36 percent in the Midwest, and 23 percent in the Northeast. According to the Times, since the end of 2008 virtually every sector of the economy has been hit by the collapse in job openings, which have shrunk 47 percent in manufacturing, 37 percent in construction, 22 percent in retail, and 21 percent in education and health services.While it is estimated that the government could spend in excess of $23 trillion to bail out the banks, and hundreds of billions to pursue its military conquests in Iraq and Afghanistan, nothing of any substance is being done to help the millions of Americans being plunged into joblessness and poverty.The National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group, estimates that 400,000 Americans nationwide could exhaust their unemployment benefits by the end of September and 1.4 million long-term unemployed could stop receiving checks by the end of the year.In some states, such as California, where the unemployment rate hit 12.2 percent in July—the highest level since 1940—workers laid off early in the recession have received three extensions on the regular 26 weeks of benefits, bringing them to a maximum of 79 weeks of payments.The US House recently passed a $1.4 billion bill to provide another 13 weeks of jobless benefits in high unemployment states like California. The legislation still faces a vote in the Senate. The extension in benefits, however, would not cover many of the newly unemployed, or those yet to lose their jobs.In California, for instance, hundreds of thousands who filed claims after June 14 of this year would be eligible for no more than 39 weeks of benefits. A House bill that would have provided longer extensions through 2010 was scrapped because it would have cost $70 billion, a price tag the lawmakers were unwilling to authorize.

US Census Bureau report: 40 million living in poverty

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1 billion people without food

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