overty:

What image comes to mind when you think poverty? you might associate poverty with a homless person in a city street or a poorly clothed child in a small rural house. Despite the success of the American economy, many Americans lack sufficient food, clothing, and shelter.

 

The United States Bureau of the Census conducts extensive serveys to gather data about the american people. Then its economists who analyze the data and organize it to reveal important characteristics, such as how many families and households live in poverty. The Census Bureau defines a family as a group of two or more people related by birth, marriage, or adoption who live in the same housing unit. A household is all people who live in the same housing unit, regardless of how they are related.

The Poverty Threshold:

According to the government, a poor family is one whos total income is less than the amount required to satisfy the family's minimum needs. The Census Bureau determines the income level, known as the poverty threshold, needed to meet those minimum needs. The poverty threshold is the income level below which income is insufficient to support a family or household.

The poverty threshold, or poverty line, varies with the size of the family. For example in 2004, the poverty threshold for a single parent under age 65 with one child was $12,490. For a family of four with two children, it was $18,850. If a family's total income is below the pverty threshold, everyone in the family is counted as poor.

Poverty Rate:

The poverty rate is the percentage of people who live in the household with income below the official poverty threshold. We can use poverty rates to discover whom the government considers to be poor and what factors seem to contribute to poverty, poverty rates differ sharply by groups, according to several different indicators:

Race and ethinc origin: The poverty rate among african americans and hispanics is more than twice the rate for white americans.

Type of family: Familys with a single mother have a poverty rate almost six times greater than that of two parent families.

Age: The percentage of children living in poverty is significantly largre than that for any other age group. Young adults make up the next largest group in this category.

Residence: People who live in the inner city have double the poverty rate of those who live outside the inner city. People who live in rural areas also have a higher poverty rate, expecially in regions where job prospects are limited.

 

Put simply, a family is poor when the adults in the family fail to earn enough income to provide for its members' basic needs. This failure to earn adequate income is often a result of unemployment.

Millions of americans are unemployed, for a variety of reasons. Why they are out of a job, their families migh well fall below the poverty threshold. Many other poor adults are not even considered a part of the labor force. Some suffer from chronic health problems or disablities that prebent them from working. Many poor adults do have jobs, however, more than half of poor households have someone who works at least part-time, and one in five have a full-time, year-round worker.For these "working poor" the problem problem is usually low wages or limited work schedule, rather than the lack of a job. For example, Ray makes $7.90/hour as a full time clerk in a clothing store. While he is at work, his wife stays at home with their two young children. Although Ray works 40+ hours a week and his salary is wll above the minimum wage, his annual earnings amount to just over $16,400, which is just blow the povery threshold for a family of four.

Shifts in Family Structure:

The divorce rate has risen significantly since the 1960's, as has the number of children born to unmarried parents. These demographic shifts tend to result in more single-parent families and more children living in poverty.

 

In 2003, the median household income in the United Stats was $43,318, which means that half the households earned more than this amount and half earned less. This figure, however, tells only part of the income story. In order to fully understand poverty in the United States, you also need to understand income destribution, or how the nation's total income is distrubuted among it population.

Income Inequality:

The United States has milions of por people, but it also has one of the highest per capita GDP's in the world. How can that be? the answer lies in how the market distrubutes income.These figures do not take into account the effects of taxes or noncash government aid such as housing subsidies, healthcare, or food stamps. Food stamps are government-issued coupons that recipients exchange for food.