Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog,
Did you know that the number of Americans on welfare is higher than the number of Americans that have full-time jobs?
Did you know that 1.2 million public school students in the U.S. are currently homeless?
Anyone that uses the term "economic recovery" to describe what is happening in the United States today is being deeply insulting to the nearly 150 million Americans that are considered to be either "poor" or "low income" at this point.
Yes, things are great in New York City, Washington D.C. and San Francisco, but almost everywhere else economic conditions continue to steadily get worse.
The gap between the wealthy and the poor is at a level that America has never seen before, and this is beginning to create a "Robin Hood mentality" that could cause a tremendous amount of social chaos in the years ahead.
Anger at the "haves" in America continues to rise at a very alarming pace, and the "have nots" are becoming increasingly desperate. At some point all of this anger is going to boil over, and you won't want to be anywhere around major population centers when that happens.
Despite unprecedented borrowing by the federal government in recent years, and despite unprecedented money printing by the Federal Reserve, poverty in the United States keeps getting worse with each passing year. The following are 29 incredible facts which prove that poverty in America is absolutely exploding...
According to the latest numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau:
1. the number of people receiving means-tested welfare benefits is greater than the number of full-time workers in the United States.
2. 1.2 million students that attend public schools in America are homeless.
3. One recent study discovered thatnearly half of all public students in the United States come from low income homes.
4. 49.2 percent of all Americans are receiving benefits from at least one government program.
5. According to the New York Post, New York subways are being "overrun with homeless".
6. Approximately one out of every six Americans is now living in poverty.
7. The gap between the rich and the poor in the United States is at an all-time record high.
8. Approximately one out of every four part-time workers in America is living below the poverty line.
9. According to numbers provided by Wal-Mart, more than half of their hourly workers make less than $25,000 a year.
10. A recent Businessweek article mentioned a study that discovered that 300 employees at one Wal-Mart in Wisconsin receive a combined total of nearly a million dollars a year in public assistance...
11. The stock market may be doing great (for the moment), but incomes for average Americans continue to decline.
12. one out of every four American workers has a job that pays $10 an hour or less.
13. 20.0% of all Americans did not have enough money to buy food that they or their families needed at some point over the past year.
14. Young adults are particularly feeling the sting of poverty these days.
15. one out of every five households in the United States is on food stamps.
16. The number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the entire population of Spain.
17. According to one calculation, the number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the combined populations of "Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming."
18. We are told that we live in the "wealthiest nation" on the planet, and yet more than one out of every four children in the United States is enrolled in the food stamp program.
19. The average food stamp benefit breaks down to approximately $4 per person per day.
20. It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps before they reach the age of 18.
21. Today, approximately 17 million children in the United States are facing food insecurity. In other words, that means that "one in four children in the country is living without consistent access to enough nutritious food to live a healthy life."
22. It may be hard to believe, but approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are currently living in homes that are considered to be either "low income" or impoverished.
23. The number of children living on $2.00 a day or less in the United States has grown to 2.8 million. That number has increased by 130 percent since 1996.
24. In Miami, 45 percent of all children are living in poverty.
25. In Cleveland, more than 50 percent of all children are living in poverty.
26. According to a recently released report, 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.
27. According to a Feeding America hunger study, more than 37 million Americans are now being served by food pantries and soup kitchens.
28. The U.S. government has spent an astounding 3.7 trillion dollars on welfare programs over the past five years.
29. It has been reported that 4 out of every 5 adults in the United States "struggle with joblessness,
These poverty numbers keep getting worse year after year no matter what our politicians do.
