Sunday, February 19, 2012

Just how bad is poverty, unemployment and debt in America?

The answer is that America is still stuck in an economic rut where the $15 trillion dollars in debt we've accumulated is a very real and heavy burden that does not appear to be going any where any time soon. However, at 8.5% unemployment, the country appears to be on a steady incline in terms of jobs, and that is indeed something to be glad for.  Of course, in order to address the increasingly larger-growing national debt, talks of cutting social welfare programs are also on the incline. In my opinion, we are still looking at major holes in the systems of healthcare and education, places where changes would make a significant impact on our people's high rates of poverty and debt. Cutting funding to such areas, that are already in such desperate need of financial assistance, will only further reinforce the gap that has "more than tripled in the last three decades" between the very rich minority and the much poorer majority. I'll go into what changes in policy I personally believe would best address these issues a little later. 
First, I think its important to examine the hard facts. The statistics show us that the people of the United States of America are in need of unemployment assistance, they're in need of better and more affordable education, the elderly have been proven to be doing relatively well only because social security has yet to be cut. 
Social welfare should be the absolute last resort on the metaphorical budgetary chopping block, and only after all other options have been exhausted.

Poverty Rate (current)
the qualifying income level of someone living under poverty level is below $22,314 a year for a family of four
below $11,139 a year for individuals 

USA- 46.2 Million in poverty, that's 15.1% of Americans (more than 1 in 5 children are currently living in poverty)

CA- higher than the national average, 16.3% of California's population is living in poverty

poverty rates by gender, race

percentage of men living in poverty: 14% women: 16.2%

percentage of single fathers: 15.8% single mothers: 31.6%  

percentage of blacks: 27.4% non-hispanic white: 9.9% hispanic:26.6% asian: 12.1%

People lacking medical benefits (2011)

USA- 49.9 million Americans lacked medical benefits

CA- 6.9 million Californians are uninsured, that's the highest in the nation

Average debt of students leaving a 4 year institution (2010)

US-$25,250 average debt of all students in the US

CA-$18,113 for 48% of graduates

OR-$23,967 for 63% of graduates

IO-$29,598 for 72% of graduates

PA-$28,599 for 70% of graduates

Unemployment rates (current)


US- has recently fallen to 8.5%

CA- at 11.3% unemployment


links to the data
poverty:
#of uninsured:
unemployment:
student loans:

No comments:

Post a Comment