One In Seven Americans Officially Screwed

By Steve Hynd

This via Kat, our tireless researcher:

With 45mn Americans officially designated as poor, the US census figures reflect the worst decline in living standards for more than half a century.

Child poverty also increased last year to more than one in five. That compares to one in three children in developing African nations.

...The American government sets the poverty line at �14,000 a year for a family of four.

The census report shows that about 15% of Americans earned less than that last year, up from 13.2% in 2008. It was the highest single-year-increase since the government began calculating percentages of poor in 1959. The previous high was in 1980, when the rate jumped 1.3 points to 13% during the energy crisis.

The definitive post on what that means on a day-to-day basis is by John Scalzi and is here.

If you think this situation is going to be changed by giving massive tax cuts to rich fucks who will squirrel it away in offshore accounts, go right ahead and vote Republican.

If you think it's going to be changed by too-little-to-late "stimulus" measures proposed by rich fucks who robbed you of universal healthcare to line other rich fucks' offshore bank accounts, go right ahead and vote Democrat.

The reaction in rich fuck circles?

"My guess is that politically these figures will be greeted with alarm and dismay but they won't constitute a clarion call to action," said William Galston, a domestic policy aide for President Bill Clinton. "I hope the parties don't blame each other for the desperate circumstances of desperate people. That would be wrong in my opinion. But that's not to say it won't happen."

Lawrence M. Mead, a New York University political science professor who is a conservative and wrote "The New Politics of Poverty: The Nonworking Poor in America," argued that the figures will have a minimal impact in November.

"Poverty is not as big an issue right now as middle-class unemployment. That's a lot more salient politically right now," he said.

What's the third choice again?

Oh yeah..."shut up and shoulder your load, poor fuck!"

This is why the largest non-voting demographic is the poor. In 2004, for example, the national median income was $35,100 p.a. yet the median income of the electorate was $55,300 - a difference of 57.5%. Consider that although Bush gained 52% of the electorate, he only got 34% of all the possible votes.

That means there is a huge potential constituency out there, between 25% and 30% of the potential electorate, who don't vote - and they don't vote simply because neither major party gives a fuck about them!

Update: Here's the official press release.