Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
Why are americans so anxious to export their form of democracy?	paraclete	08/29/06
One in eight Americans in poverty: poll August 30, 2006 - 7:39AM In the world's biggest economy, one in eight Americans and almost one in four blacks lived in poverty last year, the US Census Bureau said, both ratios virtually unchanged from 2004. The survey also showed 15.9 per cent of the population, or 46.6 million, had no health insurance, up from 15.6 per cent in 2004 and an increase for a fifth consecutive year, even as the economy grew at a 3.2 per cent clip. It was the first year since President George W Bush took office in 2001 that the poverty rate did not increase. As in past years, the figures showed poverty especially concentrated among blacks and Hispanics. In all, some 37 million Americans, or 12.6 per cent, lived below the poverty line, defined as having an annual income around $US10,000 ($A13,200) for an individual or $US20,000 ($A26,395) for a family of four. The total showed a decrease of 90,000 from the 2004 figure, which Census Bureau officials said was "statistically insignificant." The last time poverty declined was in 2000, the final year of Bill Clinton's presidency, when it fell to 11.3 per cent. The stagnant poverty picture drew attention from Democrats and others who said not enough is being done to help the nation's poor. "Far too many American families who work hard and play by the rules still wind up living in poverty," said Republican George Miller of California, the top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee. Around a quarter of blacks and 21.8 per cent of Hispanics were living in poverty. Among whites, the rate edged down to 8.3 per cent from 8.7 per cent in 2004. "Among African Americans the problem correlates primarily to the inner-city and single mothers," said Michael Tanner of CATO Institute, a free-market think tank in Washington. He noted that blacks also suffer disproportionately from poor education and lower quality jobs. Black median income, at $US30,858 ($A40,720), was only 61 per cent of the median for whites. Some 17.6 per cent of children under 18 and one in five of those under six were in poverty, higher than for any other age group. Major cities with the highest proportions of poor people included Cleveland with 32.4 per cent and Detroit with 31.4 per cent under the poverty line. © 2006 Reuters,
Answered By		Answered On
tomder55		08/30/06
I mentioned to Hank yesterday that poverty ;a term that is constantly redefined needs to be looked at in historical standards and relative to how the rest of the world defines 'poverty ' . In America today poverty means means only one color tv ;and owning a used car as opposed to cardboard shacks and bloated stomachs from the malnutrition as much of the rest of the world defines it .Here is the article I linked to illustrate my point : "As a group, America's poor are far from being chronically undernourished. The average consumption of protein, vitamins, and minerals is virtually the same for poor and middle-class children and, in most cases, is well above recommended norms. Poor children actually consume more meat than do higher-income children and have average protein intakes 100 percent above recommended levels. Most poor children today are, in fact, supernourished and grow up to be, on average, one inch taller and 10 pounds heavier that the GIs who stormed the beaches of Normandy in World War II."

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