Are We Better Off

New Census Numbers On Poverty, The Uninsured

The Census Bureau yesterday released new numbers on poverty, income and health insurance. Bottom line: The recovery from the 2001 recession has been a long hard slog. Many Americans are struggling, more are living in poverty, more are having trouble meeting basic needs. Here’s your basic tool kit for today’s Big Issue: Are We Better Off?

Facts For The Good Fight

Here’s the new Census data on poverty, income and health insurance.

[Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; Progress Report]

ONE — POVERTY

There are 37 million Americans living in poverty. That number is up 5.4 million since 2000. And 1.3 million of those people are children.

TWO — HEALTH INSURANCE

There are 46.6 million people in America living without health insurance. That’s up 6.8 million since 2000.

THREE — INCOME

Wages and salaries have grown at a slower pace than inflation, meaning a reduction of median income since 2000 of 2.7%. Median income fell by over $1,800 between 2000 and 2004; while it went up by $509 last year, that’s only a fraction of the overall loss.

FOUR — GDP

Wages and salaries are so low that they now make up the “lowest share of the nation’s gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947.”

FIVE — TAX CUTS

The Bush tax cuts gave millionaires an average tax break worth over $100,000. That amount could provide health insurance for 50 kids (with an average cost of health insurance of $2,000 per child.)

People Are Talking

Statement of John D. Podesta on Today’s U.S. Census Numbers

Washington, D.C. — Today’s economic numbers expose the Administration’s record of neglect that existed long before Hurricane Katrina, and has hurt tens of millions of Americans in every part of the country.

The Bush Administration’s bungled response to Hurricane Katrina and the persistent poverty exposed in the storm’s aftermath were not aberrations, nor did they occur by accident.They are the inevitable effects of five years of Bush economic policy which has exacerbated the growing disparity between the wealthiest Americans and those who live paycheck to paycheck.

It is morally unacceptable for 47 million Americans to live without health insurance, and 37 million Americans to live in poverty in the wealthiest country on the face of the earth.It is time for a change in direction.

Power Point

Some people invariably will say that, sure, some people have slipped through the economic cracks, but some people are doing quite well. And there we come to another big problem: The Income Gap.

• In 2004, the top 1% of earners made 11% of all the money. Ten years ago, the top 1% made 8.7% of the money; thirty years ago, they made 6% of all the money. [NY Times]
• Between 1980 and 2004, “real wages in manufacturing fell 1%, while the real income of the richest 1% — people with incomes of more than $277,000 in 2004 — rose 135%.”
• CEOs at the top 500 U.S. companies earned an average of $11.7 last year. That’s more than 400X what the average worker made. (One shining exception: The CEO of Costco, Jim Sinegal, holds himself to a salary that’s only 12x what the average employee makes on the floor of his megastores. Last year, he made a whopping $350,000. Shop at Costco.)
• The minimum wage hasn’t been increased in 10 years. Think about that. The average minimum wage worker, working 40 hours a week, will make $10,700. (In that time, by the way, Congress has raised its own salary 9 times.) [CNN; The New Standard]

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