Poverty Drops in the U.S. But Remains Unconscionable

The Census Bureau yesterday released its annual report on poverty data, Income and Poverty in the United States: 2013. After four years of economic recovery from the Great Recession, the poverty rate has finally started to go down, but for 45.3 million people still living in poverty, it is not dropping fast enough.

In 2013 (the year for which this data was collected), poverty continues to afflict 14.5 percent of the U.S. population, down from 15.0 percent in 2012. For reference, the poverty level for a family of four with two children is just $23,624 total yearly income. One in three people in the U.S. are poor or near poor (living below 200 percent of the poverty level). One in five children in the U.S., 19.9 percent, live in poverty, while one in nine children live in extreme poverty (less than half the poverty level). On the bright side, however, this year is the first time since 2000 that the child poverty rate has dropped.

For communities of color, the picture is bleaker. African American communities are suffering poverty at the Depression-era rate of 27.2 percent. Nearly two in five black children (38.2 percent) are living in poverty. For the Hispanic community, 23.5 percent were living in poverty (down from 25.6 percent in 2012). This includes almost one in three Hispanic children (30.4 percent).[i]

In response to the Census Bureau’s findings, the Reverend J. Herbert Nelson, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Director for Public Witness said:

"It is unconscionable that people continue to live in poverty in America. We live in a land of plenty, where there is enough for everyone. But as the economy expands after the Great Recession, wealth continues to concentrate at the top, leaving those workers at the very bottom far behind. Today’s data release only reinforces what we already know – that we must do better at all levels of society to make sure that every person has what he or she needs to live healthy, fulfilling lives. But we in the Church cannot meet the need alone. We need a healthy partnership with government to address systemic injustice and alleviate the worst of today’s need.

Meanwhile, Congress has done worse than nothing, attacking the very social safety that is meant to catch people in dire need. They have cut social services and hunger programs, they have failed to raise the minimum wage and extend Unemployment Insurance. It is time for our decision-makers, from the President on down through Congress to local County Councils, to take proactive steps to improve jobs, reduce economic inequality, and lift people out of poverty. We have the tools and the knowledge to end poverty in this country, if only we would create the political will to see it done."

In good news, a nuanced calculation of poverty, the Supplemental Poverty Measure, shows that our safety net is doing its job when Congress allows it to work. Official poverty measure calculations do not take into account income from federal anti-poverty measures like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), the Child Tax Credit, or SNAP (formerly Food Stamp) benefits. But once we take those sources of income into the formula, we find that SNAP alone lifted 3.7 million people above the poverty line. Unemployment Insurance lifted 1.2 million people out of poverty (or would have, had that income been included in the above statistics).[ii] This sort of supplemental calculation shows that, while the main economic goals still need to be reducing inequality and improving jobs and wages, we must continue to invest in anti-poverty measures. They work.

As Presbyterians, we value the dignity of work and believe that God has endowed each person with the right to productive work. Over and over again we have affirmed the right of each person to earn a dignified living and meet basics needs for herself and her family. We must pay attention to these statistics. Even as the economy is growing and unemployment is declining (most likely because people are giving up and dropping out of the job market), the recovery has not reached those worst affected by the recession. Both the income and net worth of the top 10 percent of income-earners have increased, while both income and net worth for the bottom 20 percent of workers have declined. The decrease for low-income people of color is ten times that of whites. [iii]

Yesterday’s data show that U.S. policies continue to lift up the rich and the powerful, while neglecting low-income workers and the most vulnerable people in our society – children and traditionally marginalized groups. We must support economic growth that benefits all, in addition to continuing to fund important safety net programs like SNAP, Unemployment Insurance, and the EITC. We must invest in people and in people’s lives. That means standing up against economic and racial injustice and systemic inequalities that trap generations in poverty and low-wage jobs. We need jobs that keep people out of poverty, not trap them in it.

Below are some additional highlights from the numbers:

• 14.5 percent of the population, or more than one in seven Americans, lived below the poverty line in 2013 ($23,624 for a family of four with two children), down from 15.0 percent in 2012. This is the first drop in poverty since 2006. The number of people in poverty, 45.3 million, was not a statistically significant difference from 2012.
• Median household income did not rise significantly and remained 8.0 percent (or $4,497) below its pre-recession level in 2007 and 8.6 percent below its level in 2000, before the 2001 recession.
• Nearly 19.8 million people lived in extreme poverty (below 50 percent of the poverty line) in 2013
• Over 106 million people, or 33.9 percent of the population, were poor or near poor in 2013 (living below 200 percent of the poverty line)
• Child poverty dropped from 21.8 percent in 2012 to 19.9 percent in 2013, the first annual drop since 2000.
• Close to one in nine children, nearly 6.5 million in all, lived in extreme poverty in 2013 (below half the poverty line).
• 27.2 percent of African-Americans, and 23.5 percent of Hispanics lived in poverty in 2013.
• 38.3 percent of African-American children, and 30.4 percent of Hispanic children lived in poverty in 2013.
• The official poverty numbers do not account for programs like SNAP (formerly food stamps), the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), or the Child Tax Credit. Accounting for SNAP, 3.7 million fewer people would have been in poverty.

 Top 10 states (including the District of Columbia) with the highest poverty rates:

1.  Mississippi: 22.5%

2.  New Mexico: 21.7%

3.  District of Columbia: 21.3%

4.  Arizona: 20.2%

5.  Kentucky: 20.0%

6.  Louisiana: 19.2%

7.  North Carolina: 18.6%

8.  Tennessee: 18.1%

9.  Nevada: 17.4%

10.  West Virginia: 17.3%

Many Thanks to Bread for the World for help in compiling the Data Highlights.

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i. Income and Poverty in the United States: 2013. Current Population Reports. By Carmen DeNavas-Walt and Bernadette D. Proctor. U.S Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce. Issued September 16, 2014. http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2014/demo/p60-249.pdf

ii. Ibid.

iii. The New Poverty Data: Using it to Show What Works (and What Doesn't) to Reduce Poverty. Presentation by Jared Bernstein. Coalition on Human Needs Webinar. Presented September 11, 2014

Response to the Census Bureau's Poverty Data

Evidence of Continuing Income Inequality:
A Response to the Census Bureau’s Poverty Data

By J. Herbert Nelson, Director, PC(USA) Office of Public Witness
Sept. 12, 2012

This morning, the U.S. Census Bureau released Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2011, the annual report sometimes referred to as the “poverty data.”  In this report, we learn that median household income declined by 1.5 percent, and that poverty in the U.S. remains statistically unchanged between 2010 and 2011, but still unacceptably high at 15 percent. Child poverty also remains unchanged, but to our shame, a little more than one in five children under the age of 18 continue to live in poverty.  Most startling, however, is evidence showing that the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen.  According to the Census Bureau’s data, while the second, middle, and fourth quintiles of the income scale lost between 1.6 and 1.9 percent of its share of the income growth, the top five percent of earners saw its share of income growth increase by 5.3 percent.  In a time of growing inequality and injustice in the workforce, these numbers are very troubling.

 As we reflect on the evidence of injustice before our eyes, we are reminded of a God that draws in those facing persecution, those who are marginalized, and those who are oppressed simply because of their demographic or racial identity. This same God empowers us with a call to public witness. The overwhelming proclamation of Isaiah 61 is that God has called us to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. As Presbyterians, as Christians, we must be aware of our context in which we are proclaiming God's advancing reign on earth.

Right now, we are living in a highly privileged United States of America where an overwhelming percentage of our population ironically has no access to that sense of privilege. As our nation grows in GDP, the gap between the rich and poor also continues to inflate.  The recovery from the Great Recession, while sluggish and tepid, also fails to distribute its modest gains across all segments of the economy, but rather benefits those who already have much, while neglecting those who have too little. Those living at or below the poverty line remain there, while those whose tithes alone amount to greater than the poverty line have ever increasing incomes.

This new data shows that in 2011, 46.2 million people were living in poverty, 15 percent of our population -- almost exactly the same as the year before.[i]  Likewise, 21.9 percent of children are living in poverty, also unchanged from the previous year.  While we rejoice that the rate of growth seems to have been halted this year, the number of people living in poverty has steadily increased since 2007.  This leaves too many people living in poverty in the wealthiest nation in the world.

Recent research into the causes of rising poverty reflects declines in Unemployment Insurance (UI) and a significant reduction in public sector jobs.[ii]  The expiration of the Recovery Act of 2009, coupled with exhausted UI benefits for long-time job seekers, are wind in the sails of systemic poverty, even as we know that the root causes of poverty include systemic racism, sexism, individualism, and greed.

And yet in the short term, data released this morning shows that an effective and targeted safety net can reduce hardship.  The Census Bureau data shows that without Unemployment Insurance, 2.3 million more people would have fallen below the poverty line. And new research, based on an updated and more comprehensive poverty measure, shows that SNAP (formerly Food Stamps) is so valuable, that 3.9 million people would not be considered poor if the benefit’s value were included in income measures. Likewise, the Earned Income Tax Credit provides the same support to 5.7 million people.

As Christians, we are called to respond to the tragedy of economic injustice, in which we are complicit. We cannot sit idly as poor people remain oppressed by systemic poverty and injustice. Children across the nation are living in poverty, without access to health coverage, in need of our soup kitchens and homeless shelters, and receiving SNAP, TANF, and other safety net benefits. While these programs, both private and public, exist for the common good, they are meant to be a safety net, not a long-term solution to growing and persistent inequality and injustice. This morning’s poverty data shows just how much work we have yet to do. Poverty is a pernicious disease that infects the very fabric of our nation.  We must attack it at its root, transforming the system that traps people in cycles of generational poverty, and ensure that every person has access to the opportunities of health and wholeness that God wishes for us all. With a spirit of prayerfulness and mindfulness, we prepare our hearts for the ways in which God is calling all of us to respond to this situation.

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[i] Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2011, US Census Bureau, accessed Sept. 12, 2012, http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p60-243.pdf.
[ii] “Declines in Unemployment Benefits and Government Employment Shaped Poverty Trends in 2011, Preliminary Data Suggest,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, accessed Sept. 12, 2012, http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3828.