the bible says that the poor will always be with us, so i guess that makes it alright

I haven’t written a lot about the epidemic of poverty in America since I reported on my brief meeting with John Edwards in October. I’m sorry. I should be talking about it a lot more – and so should the corporate press in America. It’s a national disgrace. Fortunately, the foreign press is on the story though. Here’s the headline from today’s Guardian: “37 Million Poor Hidden in the Land of Plenty.” Here’s a clip:

A shocking 37 million Americans live in poverty. That is 12.7 per cent of the population – the highest percentage in the developed world…

Under President George W Bush an extra 5.4 million have slipped below the poverty line. Yet they are not a story of the unemployed or the destitute. Most have jobs. Many have two. Amos Lumpkins has work and his children go to school. But the economy, stripped of worker benefits like healthcare, is having trouble providing good wages.

Even families with two working parents are often one slice of bad luck – a medical bill or factory closure – away from disaster. The minimum wage of $5.15 (

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4 Comments

  1. mark
    Posted February 21, 2006 at 10:20 pm | Permalink

    I was doing a little research just now on the cases against the minimum wage, and thought that I

  2. Kathleen
    Posted February 22, 2006 at 12:39 pm | Permalink

    Did you see the front page of the Freep today? More cuts to programs that benefit the poor and elderly…

  3. mark
    Posted February 22, 2006 at 8:25 pm | Permalink

    Do you mean this story?

  4. Alice
    Posted September 16, 2010 at 9:27 am | Permalink

    From CNN:

    Percentage of Americans in poverty rises to 14.3% in 2009, highest in decades, Census Bureau says.

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