<p>Ford and GM’s layoff announcements are just the tip of the iceberg. Our nation has lost more than 2.8 million good manufacturing jobs since 2001 and in Florida alone we’ve lost 57,000. We’re barely creating enough new jobs to match the growth in our workforce, and the jobs we’re creating are increasingly low-wage, dead-ends for workers, with no health care insurance or retirement benefits. While productivity is increasing, real wages are falling.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, more and more people are joining the ranks of the poor, with more than 5 million Americans falling into poverty since 2000. </p>
<p>Health care costs are spiraling out of control, and workers are paying 67 percent more in health care premiums than they did in 2000. And more and more companies are eliminating coverage all together. Forty-six million Americans don’t have health care – that’s up 5 million since 2000. In Florida, one-fifth of the population is without insurance. </p>
<p>Nationwide, 17% of children live in poverty (12 million).
The District of Columbia has the highest child poverty rate30%. Across other states, child poverty rates range from 7% in New Hampshire to 25% in Arkansas.</p>
<p>District of Columbia 19.2%
Louisiana 13.3%
Mississippi 11.6%
Arkansas 10.5%
New Mexico 9.7%
North Carolina 9.7%
West Virginia 9.6%
New York 9.6%
Alabama 8.4%
Tennessee 8.4%</p>
<p>7% of households with children experience food insecurity.
36% of families who rent their homes spend more than a third of their income on rent.
Nearly one in 10 Americans (9%) do not have a car.
Many poor children lack health insurance.</p>
<p>19% of poor children lack health insurancethis is nearly double the percent of all children who lack coverage (10%).
In the ten most populated states, the percent of poor children who lack health insurance ranges from 10% in Michigan to 29% in Texas.</p>
<p>She is coming where the best and brightest come to chew the fat…the leaders of the future. I guess she wants us to know what we can read in the NYT or WSJ or Economist any day.</p>
<p>It should be noted that “poverty” in the US is not what it is in the rest of the world. If our definition of “poverty” were what it is in India, the rate would be fffaaarrr lower. Just something to think about.</p>
<p>On the GM layoffs…those folks aren’t poverty or about to be poverty. They will receive nearly full pay and benefits for many years…they will be collecting their checks while they fish on the lake at their summer cottage. True, their children will have to find other work but the workers themselves will still have pay, benefits and college educations all coming to them.</p>
<p>That’s right, hazmat, and it’s not to mention that, before the layoffs, they were getting far better pay than most of their non-college-educated counterparts.</p>
<p>“State of the Union is tonight and last year, Bush said nothing about the poor, the lost jobs, etc”</p>
<p>Speaking about last year, don’t you remember the moronic garbage that spewed from the mouth of Pelosi and Reid. According to those misfits, we ought to go emulate the socialist system of Europe in the sixties and seventies. </p>
<p>I’ll listen to the President and make sure to turn off the monitor before the jacka$$es get to speak.</p>
<p>citygirlsmom … the answer is NO of course not. I am not without empathy however the press continues to report only the fact of the layoff not the rest of their circumstance. I hope that you personally aren’t one of the affected but if you are: all here will help you to get a plan for your all expenses paid college adventure…now what kind of school are you looking for???</p>
<p>Regarding Bush…tune in? How fortuitious that King died today of all days. The reason to tune in is to see the expressions and nervous sweating of our fearless leader. Listen for the keywords: Nuclear Power/Putin and tax credit for find a use for the old nuclear manufacturing facilities in Russia…we help them and they help us???</p>
Sad, but true. Many North Carolinians have traditionally worked in mills and factories. Unfortunately for them, many of these are being closed. In the Charlotte area, Kannapolis and Gastonia (both manufacturing centers) have been especially hard-hit. Most of these families were not well-to-do before the closings, and unemployment’s gotten a lot worse since then. </p>
<p>A lot of people have the “we help those who help themselves” attitude, but I can see where these people are coming from. Most of the “new jobs” North Carolina offers are going to non-NC transplants in the Research Triangle area. Harsh, but true.</p>
<p>Very interesting indeed, NJres. Some of the posters on this board should read things along those lines before making wild statements about poverty in America. Hell, the writers for UVA’s student newspaper, the Cavalier Daily, should read into the issue more before talking about “extreme poverty” in america. The fact is, “poverty” is a relative term, and only in a country as wealthy as the US do the “impoverished” have food to eat, homes with heating and AC, legitimate chances for upward mobility, etc.</p>
<p>Personally, I have little sympathy for the majority of those who would cry poor. Perhaps people should look for helping hands at the end of their own arms.</p>
<p>I am in Miami at the moment; this weekend I had the opportunity to meet a gentleman who came to this city via raft from Cuba. His first attempt failed; he got caught and thrown in prison. Tried a second time, finally made it here in 1994. </p>
<p>In the 12 years since, he’s learned english and actually speaks with better articulation than many native born Americans, built a successful sign business, married, has two children, owns a home, vehicles, etc. Perhaps best of all, he’s very, very happy. And there’s lots and lots more like him in this city - people who fled dictatorship by launching whatever they could construct that would float, arrived here with nothing but very determined attitudes, agressively opportunistic, becoming enviably successful, and very happy with their lives. </p>
<p>With the exception of those (rare) situations where circumstances truly are beyond one’s control, pretty much, everyone is 100% personally responsible for the circumstances they find themselves in - maybe it’s failure to take responsibility, maybe it’s the unfortunate choice of having too many children, or wasting money instead of educating oneself, or - who knows.</p>
<p>One of my favorite books is “Mind Over Water” by Craig Lambert, and one of my favorite phrases is something like this: “…imagine a giant wheel…maybe it’s the wheel of fortune; maybe it’s the wheel of Dharma…whatever the case, the important thing to know about the wheel is that you’re the one who turns it…” (that’s not precise but the point he makes is each one of us is responsible for where we end up).</p>
