National Poverty Crisis?

With the 2006 Census Bureau “Income, Poverty, and Heath Insurance” report coming out this month many people are up in arms about the number of people living in this country that are considered to be at or under the poverty threshold. The poverty threshold is listed at $10,210 for a single person and $13,690 for a two-person household. In 2006, 36.5 million people lived under the poverty threshold. Sounds like alarming numbers.

Of that 36.5 million people in poverty, 12.8 million were children under the age of 18. Children represent 35.2 percent of people living in poverty and 24.9 percent of the total population. If you take a look at the total population of children it is also notable that 42.1 percent of children living in single parent homes are living in poverty while only 8.1 percent of children who’s parents are married live in poverty. Those numbers vary significantly when you look at children under the age of 6 in which 52.7 percent of children under 6 living in poverty are born to single mothers, that is over 5 times the rate of married couple families who have children under the age of 6 living in poverty. With fewer people getting married each year the number of children born out of wedlock is rising drastically. Last year 37 percent of children born were born out of wedlock. If poor mothers married the fathers of their children 75 percent of children would be lifted out of poverty.

The report also breaks down the poverty and income levels based on race and nativity. The median income for a native born citizen in 2006 was $49,074. Surprisingly, the median income for naturalized citizens, foreign born but took the proper steps to become a citizen, is above that of native-born citizens. The average naturalized citizen makes approximately $51,440 a year. This should be good motivation for all the illegal immigrants to take the steps and become citizens. The number of Whites, Blacks and Asians, living in poverty remained the same from 2005 to 2006 while the number of Hispanics living in poverty decreased from 21.6 percent to 20.6 percent. The number of non-Hispanic Whites living in poverty in 2006 was 8.2 percent, accounting for 43.9 percent of the total population in poverty. The poverty rate for Blacks in 2006 was 24.3 percent and the rate of Asians living in poverty was 10.3 percent. It is notable that Blacks see the fewest number of marriages with in their race and the highest number of out-of-wedlock childbirths, which significantly increases their own poverty rate.

Based on this report it seems that many people living in this country must be suffering intolerable conditions. When most people think of persons in poverty they relate it to individuals who are homeless and do not have enough to eat. But are our poor really that bad off. The answer is a resounding “No.” The Census Bureau also found while conducting the report that 43 percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by a person under the poverty threshold has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a garage. Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning, 75 percent own a car, 31 percent own 2 cars, 97 percent own a color television, 50 percent own 2 or more color televisions, 78 percent have a DVD player, 89 percent own a microwave, 50 percent own a stereo and 33 percent own an automatic dishwasher. The average poor person in American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna and Athens. Not so bad off after all.

Of all poor persons the average number of hours worked each year averages 800, about 16 hours a week. If individuals raised their amount of work to 2,000 hours a year, or 40 hours a week, nearly 75 percent would be lifted out of official poverty.
Instead of encouraging these individuals to work more and get married, the government creates programs such as welfare to give aid to those individuals who do not meet the poverty threshold. Many people in this country could raise themselves out of poverty if they got married and worked full time. Welfare, public housing and food stamp programs both penalize marriage but the report shows that if poor individuals with children would marry they could lift themselves out of poverty. Programs such as these should reward those who work to get themselves out of poverty, otherwise why not live on government aid for the rest of their lives.

These standards of living for our country’s poor are good news. Things are not as dire as the media will make it out to be. Even better news is the fact that the country can substantially reduce the number of children living in poverty by encouraging parents to work more and get married. 75 percent of children in poverty could be lifted above the poverty threshold if their parents married. Additionally, 75 percent of children in poverty could be raised out of poverty if their parents worked full time. Government aid is not the answer, hard work has and always will be the answer to reducing the poverty levels.