From 2000 – 2008 poverty grew at a rate twice that of population growth. Not surprising, really. During that period, there was a massive transfer of wealth from us to a few elites.
Of course, the economy got even worse in 2009, so the poverty rate is certainly even higher now – as Wall Street paid themselves record bonuses after getting bailed out by a complaint federal government.
If this doesn’t make you angry, it should.
Hartford CT and Youngstown OH are tied at 33.5% for highest poverty rate in primary cities.
I grew up near Hartford and lived there again in 2007. It’s been circling the drain since I was a kid.
Something like 33% of children in Hartford have one or both parents in prison. It’s appalling. And their supposedly reformist, progressive mayor was indicted twice on corruption charges last year.
If anyone could have figured out how to bring back Hartford, it would have happened already. It’s the classic donut of urban theory, well-off suburbs surrounding a collapsing city in the middle. The banksters have made things worse for the poor, as witness the accelerating poverty rate, but these problems have been worsening for decades.
“That’s pandering populism,” [Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.)] said during an appearance on CNBC in response to some Democrats’ and Republicans’ criticisms of the Fed chairman. “There’s a lot of populism going on in this country right now, and I’m tired of it.”
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/77761-gregg-blasts-bernanke-opponents-for-pandering-populism
Of course, I’d say that there’s not nearly enough…
Sad that a senator from the “Live free or die” state would toe the GOP line like that. Having grown up there, I bet populism is alive and well in NH, and that Sen. Gregg is putting his party before his people.
“They only call it class war when we fight back.”
You state that it is the federal government that bailed the banks out. We should always make it quite clear that in America, as in Britain, it is not the government that bailed out the banks, it was the tax payers and we will have to foot the bill with massive cuts to social spending and job loses. The governemt will sail along changing the face of its leader every now and again, but we will have to carry the can. The wealthy stay wealthy, the poor get poorer.
Actually they will probably try to (continue to?) inflate their way out of debt. The U.S. money supply has nearly doubled since 2000, meaning that every dollar owed by the Fed (and every dollar we earn) is worth half as much. It can be expected to double again over the next decade– every dollar owed (and earned) will be worth only 25 cents. That’s a nice deal for an indebted government, but not so good for its wage earners.