| ECONOMICS - LOOKING GLASS NEWS | |
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US child poverty on the rise—statistics mask depth of crisis |
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by Naomi Sheehan Groce World Socialist Web Site Entered into the database on Wednesday, June 01st, 2005 @ 17:52:09 MST |
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The child poverty rate in the US has steadily risen every year from 2000, according
to several recent reports and press releases from public policy institutes and
government agencies. Child Poverty in Rich Countries, 2005, a report by the UNICEF Innocenti Research
Centre, provides a comparative assessment of the conditions facing poor children
in industrialized nations, primarily in Europe but also including the US. The study begins with this assertion: “Protecting children from the sharpest
edges of poverty during their years of growth and formation is both the mark
of a civilized society and a means of addressing some of the evident problems
that affect the quality of life in the economically developed nations.”
By this standard, the US has the dishonor of being one of the most uncivilized
of the major industrialized countries. While Denmark and Finland led the 26 participating OECD (Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development) countries with child poverty rates below 3 percent
last year, Mexico and the United States were at the other end of the spectrum,
both with child poverty rates of more than 20 percent. The current rate for
the US, 21.9 percent, is greater than the still comparatively high figure of
17 percent reported by the US Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family
Statistics. The discrepancy is due to qualitative differences in definitions
and measures of poverty. The UNICEF report notes that the US, in compiling federal data on the poor,
has generally favored an “absolute” poverty line defined as a level
of consumption, “the ability to purchase a defined quantity of goods and
services.” Most other OECD members, on the other hand, generally draw
poverty lines based upon median national incomes, or the relative wealth and
lifestyles of their communities. A child is considered poor by this measure
if the income available to that child is less than half of the median income
available to a child in a given country. It is the preferred definition of poverty
by public aid programs and the measure used by UNICEF. By the absolute measurement, child poverty in the US is lower today than a
decade ago. However, from 2001 to 2002, a significant rise occurred that placed
nearly half a million more children in poverty. From 2002 to 2003, the rate
increased again, from 16.7 to 17.6 percent, even during what has been characterized
as a period of economic recovery following recession. More significantly, children
living in extreme poverty, or less than half of the poverty line, grew by 11.5
percent in 2002, signaling the collapse of social protective measures for the
nation’s poorest citizens. Federal statistics indicate that the percentage
of children in poverty is still lower overall than the peak of 22 percent in
1993, when nearly 8.4 million families lived below the poverty line. In 1996, in a display of bipartisan cruelty, the federal government enacted
the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act as a radical
welfare “reform.” The Clinton administration began dismantling welfare
via the abolition of the federal entitlement program, Aid to Families with Dependent
Children. In its place, the state-based Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
program was established. Millions of welfare recipients were forced off of benefits
and into low-wage employment with no health benefits. Welfare rolls were cut
in half, and by the end of Clinton’s second term, children who remained
dependent on the government for support saw an average drop of more than 6 percent
in the real value of aid they received, according to UNICEF. As of 2000, the
value of governmental support was $200 less each year than the average assistance
that was provided in 1991 to a low-income family. There has been no economic recovery to speak of for the majority of families
with children in the past decade. The 1990s, a period often characterized as
an economic boom for the middle class, was a wringer for America’s poor,
particularly insofar as it set the stage for elimination of New Deal-era social
programs, beginning with welfare reform. The entire political establishment,
both Democratic and Republican, bears responsibility for the problems now befalling
poor children in the US. Plans at the state and federal levels to streamline costs in the Medicaid,
Food Stamps and Social Security programs through direct cuts and privatization
will likely translate into further decreases in the average amount received
per child. Whether fresh cuts to public assistance will also translate into
an upward revision of poverty figures depends upon how rigidly the outdated
absolute poverty threshold is maintained. Perhaps the most inaccurate indication of impoverishment in the US is the official
poverty line itself. It was adopted under the Democratic administration of Lyndon
Johnson in 1969 as part of the “War on Poverty,” and set the threshold
for poverty at three times the cost of what the Agriculture Department determined
in 1955 to be a nutritionally adequate diet, plus adjustments for family size.
After more than 35 years, it still does not appropriately address medical, transportation
or child care costs. The federal poverty line for a family of four in 2004 was $18,850 or less per
year. However, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty, a research
and policy organization at Columbia University, families need an income roughly
twice that before parents can provide for adequate housing, food and health
care for their children. Cost of living is not factored into the federal definition
of poverty, although it varies widely from region to region. In Boston, Massachusetts,
for example, a family of four with an annual income of $49,000 is not classified
by the Federal Census Bureau as living in poverty, yet they are low-income for
their region and struggle to afford basic necessities. Currently, 17.6 percent, or 11.6 million US children, live in poor families
below the poverty line. Another 21 percent, more than 15 million children, live
in low-income families, defined as within 100 to 200 percent of poverty. Most
of these families are either spread throughout the under-serviced rural areas,
or in the densely concentrated urban areas. The artificial distinction between
poor and low-income families is misleading, since many households defined as
low-income are in some respects even more vulnerable than those earning less,
mainly because they may not qualify for many state- and federally funded social
services. Another report issued this year is the City and Rural Kids Count Databook,
put out by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The report provides an overview of
the demographics of the working poor in the non-metropolitan portions of each
state, in addition to 71 of the largest cities in the US. The Kids Count program
is an assessment based mainly on a compilation of 2000 Census data. Statistics from key metropolitan areas and the rural regions of each state
illustrate the growing inequality in the US and its especially detrimental effects
on the living standards of children. A pattern of economic crisis emerges from the data, most apparent in urban
areas. In Detroit, Michigan, the rate of children below the official poverty
line last year is 35 percent. Another 22 percent are classified as living in
low-income families but not below the poverty line. These figures are by no
means limited to cities. Rural families are also in financial straits. In Mississippi,
a predominantly rural child population has a poverty rate of 31 percent, and
a low-income rate of 29 percent. Child poverty stands at 34 percent for Jackson,
Mississippi; low-income children account for almost another third in the city. One third of children in the District of Columbia are living in poverty, and
another fifth are part of low-income households. Rates for Chicago and New York
City are proportionally similar. Of low-income children in New York City, nearly
three quarters live in families that spend 30 percent or more of their income
on housing. Even in the rural areas of Minnesota and Pennsylvania, nearly half
of all low-income households pour more than 30 percent of their earnings into
house and rent payments. Cleveland, Ohio, has a child poverty rate of 38 percent and a low-income rate
of 27 percent. Rates in Memphis, Tennessee, are 30 percent and 26 percent, respectively.
All six Texas cities participating in the Kids Count study—Houston, Austin,
San Antonio, El Paso, Fort Worth and Dallas—surpass the federal child
poverty figure of 17 percent by at least 12 percentage points. The population of Tucson, Arizona, has grown by a fifth from Census year 1990
to 2000, unlike many urban areas involved in the study, which have seen a steady
decline in jobs, population and infrastructure. Even so, a quarter of all Tucson
children lived below the poverty line, and another 29 percent lived in low-income
families. The full UNICEF report can be found at: See Also: |
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