In the U.S. 49.7 Million Are Now Poor, and 80% of the Total Population Is Near Poverty

If you live in the United States, there is a good chance that you are now living in poverty or near poverty. Nearly 50 million Americans, (49.7 Million), are living below the poverty line, with 80% of the entire U.S. population living near poverty or below it.

“The primary reason that poverty remains so high,” Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan economist said, “is that the benefits of a growing economy are no longer being shared by all workers as they were in the quarter-century following the end of World War II.”

“Given current economic conditions,” he continued, “poverty will not be substantially reduced unless government does more to help the working poor.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. government seems to think that the answer is cutting more of those services which are helping to keep 80% of the population just barely above the poverty line, cutting Food Stamps since the beginning of the month.

Democrats and Republicans are negotiating about just how much more of these programs should be cut, but neither party is arguing that they should not be touched.