President Bush may be on a Latin American tour to prove he cares about poverty
but recent numbers show that he should have stayed closer to home.

The number of Americans living in severe poverty has
expanded dramatically under the Bush administration,
with nearly 16 million people now living on an
individual income of less than $5,000 (£2,500) a
year or a family income of less than $10,000,
according to an analysis of 2005 official census data.
The analysis, by the McClatchy group of newspapers,
showed that the number of people living in extreme
poverty had grown by 26 per cent since 2000. Poverty
as a whole has worsened, too, but the number of
severe poor is growing 56 per cent faster than the
overall segment of the population characterised as
poor – about 37 million people in all according to
the census data. That represents more than 10 per
cent of the US population, which recently surpassed
the 300 million mark.

Looks like Bush has been ignoring more than just Latin America. And whatever happened to that economic boom that the country was supposed to be going through? You mean to tell me it didn’t trickle down to everyone?

The causes of the problem are no mystery to
sociologists and political scientists. The share of
national income going to corporate profits has far
outstripped the share going to wages and salaries.
Manufacturing jobs with benefits and union
protection have vanished and been supplanted by
low-wage, low-security service-sector work. The
richest fifth of US households enjoys more than 50
per cent of the national income, while the poorest
fifth gets by on an estimated 3.5 per cent.

The average after-tax income of the top 1 per cent
is 63 times larger than the average for the bottom
20 per cent – both because the rich have grown
richer and also because the poor have grown poorer;
about 19 per cent poorer since the late 1970s. The
middle class, too, has been squeezed ever tighter.
Every income group except for the top 20 per cent
has lost ground in the past 30 years, regardless of
whether the economy has boomed or tanked.

So while Bush asks for more money for war abroad, a growing number of people in the country he “leads” could use some aid as well.

Via / The Independent