One in seven Americans now live on or below the poverty line, according to figures published recently by the United States Census Bureau.
It is the sharpest annual rise for three decades and analysts predicted next year’s figures would be even worse.
According to the bureau, 43.6-million people or 14.3% of the population were poverty-stricken in 2009, up from 39.8 million in 2008. This is the third consecutive annual rise.
The hardest-hit are African-Americans and Hispanics. The numbers are comparable with the poverty levels of the early 1960s that led President Lyndon Johnson to launch his “war on poverty” as part of the “Great Society”, a series of programmes aimed at creating jobs and providing welfare — his equivalent of Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal.
The jump coincided with the first year of Barack Obama’s presidency and reflected the impact of the recession on jobs.
William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, said: “The one-year gain in poverty is the highest in almost three decades, when unemployment shot up in the early 1980s. I would expect an even higher level next year.
“What’s important this time is that [it] has especially affected previously growing parts of the country in the south and west and the nation’s fastest-growing minority, Hispanics. It certainly is not as horrific as before the Great Society, but it reflects a huge shock to large parts of America.”
The idea of the American dream maintains a strong grip on the imagination of many Americans and would-be citizens, but a detailed breakdown of the figures reveals a grim reality.
CNN broadcast a harrowing interview recently with one woman who had fallen into poverty. She lost her job, sold her television and furniture, even her wedding rings, and depends on charitable food handouts.
Named Maria by the network, she said she never expected to find her family in this position. She had been an accountant and her husband worked for an airline: both lost their jobs.
They did temping jobs whenever they could. They have two children, one of them autistic. “You either gather yourself and look for options,” she said.”Or you get depressed and shoot yourself.”
Many of those classified as poor have cable and satellite television, fridges, air-conditioning units, microwaves and a roof over their heads, even if it is just a trailer in a trailer park. But they have little disposable income and few opportunities .
Obama promised during the presidential election to tackle poverty and to try to reduce the disparities between African-Americans and white Americans, mainly through education.
Though the figures are embarrassing for him, they are unlikely to become a major issue in the run-up to the November 2 congressional mid-term elections.
The Republicans, while making jobs and the recession election themes, will almost certainly not make poverty an issue, partly because poverty statistics rose during George Bush’s presidency as well.
Obama said the figures underlined why his reforms were vital. “Today the Census Bureau released data that illustrates just how tough 2009 was,” he said. Without his reforms, millions more Americans would have ended up in poverty, he said.
“Our task now is to continue working together to improve our schools, build the skills of our workers and invest in our nation’s critical infrastructure,” Obama said.
One of the alarming statistics in the Bureau’s report showed that the number without health insurance rose from 46.3-million in 2008 to 50.7-million in 2009.
Obama introduced a healthcare reform package earlier this year, but most of the provisions do not kick in until 2014. —