Information from the most recent United States Census indicates that the economic pic-ture for many people isn't specifically an im-age of wine and flowers. Housing and child care are said to eat a lot of income of the amount of Americans said to be low income, which is now almost half the population. Most Americans require short term loans at some time because of this. (See:
https://personalmoneynetwork.com/short-term-loans/)
Survey of mayors finds individuals going hungry
MSNBC reports that the United States Conference of Mayors did a survey in 29 cities in the United States that shows several negative things. There were only four cities that did not show increases in food stamps and food assistance from 2010 to 2011.
Most people that wanted food aid weren’t employed either. Only 26 percent who wanted the aid were. Almost 50 percent were families and 19 percent were elderly. The homeless accounted for 11 percent. There was an increase to 13.6 million households that got food subsidies. That was a 16 percent jump.
There was a six percent increase in the homeless population on average for all 29 cities.
Wealth not common in The United States
The 2010 Census showed that “low income” is now considered everyone in The United States who makes under $45,000 annually. About half of all Americans fit into this category, according to the Daily Mail. CBS reports that this is by family of four, not individuals. About 48.1 percent of Americans fall into that category. This involves 146.4 million people.
The New York Times reports that $22,314 is the poverty level for a family of four which 97.3 million individuals make 100 to 199 percent of.
A third of income going to-wards housing is probably the most anyone should pay for it. About 62 percent of low income families are paying that much. Child automobile was about one fifth of income for a lot of peo-ple.
Wages going down from the past
Lower incomes are because of falling wages, most assume. The poorest 20 percent of Ameri-cans are making much less in 2010 than they did in 1979. There was a decrease of, when adjusted for inflation, over a thousand dollars from $16,788 to $15,000. Wages have been around $37,000 continuously for the next 20 per-cent.
The national average income, according to the New York Times, has fallen from the 1999 peak of $53,252 to $49,445 in 2010, a seven percent decline.
There was a 64 percent increase in the typical riches for the top five percent to $313,000 since 1979, according to CBS.
Sources
MSNBC
Daily Mail
CBS
New York Times