An Enormous Chunk Of The U.S. Population Is Either Homeless, Living In Poverty Or Considered To Be Among The Working Poor

The Economic Collapse Blog ^ | 5/6/24 | Michael Snyder

[Roman_War_Criminal]

As the U.S. economy slows down, those at the bottom of the economic food chain are being hit the hardest. Homelessness is surging, the number of Americans living in poverty is rising, and more Americans are considered to be among “the working poor” than ever before. Unfortunately, we are witnessing a historic economic shift right now, and economic conditions are only going to get even more harsh during the months ahead. Needless to say, that is really bad news for all of us.

According to a report from Harvard University, approximately 650,000 Americans were homeless at some point last year. That represented an increase of nearly 50 percent from 2015…

A January 25 report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies estimated that over 650,000 Americans experienced homelessness in 2023—up almost 50% from 2015. Costs of renting and home ownership have skyrocketed while wages largely stagnate. The Harvard report found that half of U.S. households are “cost-burdened” (meaning that 30-50% of monthly income goes to housing), and 12 million people are “severely cost-burdened.” These Americans stand one accident, health setback, or employment disruption away from eviction.

During the past several years, scores of tent cities have sprouted like mushrooms in and around U.S. cities from coast to coast.

One 32-year-old woman named Brandy that is living in a tent city near Winterhaven, Florida says that she has been living there for five years and literally has nowhere else to go…

[Bikkuri]

I live in a studio apt. for $1750/mo :/

[Zhang Fei]

The poverty line keeps getting pushed up because it has been redefined to mean people in the lower bottom half of society. There will always be a bottom half. Even in “communist” societies, there is a bottom half. The reality is with the exception of substance abusers who don’t want to quit, no one in America is actually materially deprived to the point of hunger or being homeless. Heritage explains:

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https://www.heritage.org/poverty-and-inequality/commentary/obamas-policies-redefine-poverty
[A new Heritage Foundation study reminds us that America’s “poor” maintain a standard of living much of the world would envy. Typically, “poor” Americans have more living space than the average European. Plus air conditioning, cable TV, and computer games. They are well-fed, and report they are not hungry.

They usually have a refrigerator, stove plus microwave, washer and dryer, dishwasher, and cell phone. That’s the case in most households that our government defines as “in poverty.”

Most of America’s “poor” own a car. A third have two cars. And 43 percent own their homes.

By defining poverty so broadly, we drain resources that instead could be focused on those who truly are in dire straits. And we spend billions that could be cut from the budget instead.

Because we overdefine and oversubsidize “poverty,” the Census Bureau reports that we have 43 million poor people. To help them, we spend over $900 billion a year in federal and state dollars. Do the math. We spend more than $20,000 apiece for each person deemed poor. For a family of four, that’s $80,000. And it’s on top of what they may earn for themselves.

We spend it through over 70 means-tested programs that give cash, food, housing, medical care, and more. As the Census Bureau explains, “The official poverty definition uses money income before taxes and does not include capital gains or noncash benefits (such as public housing, Medicaid, and food stamps).”

The new Heritage Foundation study (“Air Conditioning, Cable TV, and an Xbox: What Is Poverty in the United States Today?”) pulls these numbers together out of official reports from a variety of federal agencies into a coherent picture.

As Heritage authors Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield conclude, “Most of the persons whom the government defines as ‘in poverty’ are not poor in any ordinary sense of the term.”]

[rktman]

Retired surviving. Couple years ago, not the case.

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Illiterate and uneducated illegal alien trash happens much more.

Glad they have you to pay for their EBT cards.

[Justa]

I remember growing up in NJ in the ‘60s us kids always talked about staying away from the RR tracks cuz of the hobos. In reality they were mostly men with broken minds from the depression thru the wars. Failure to re-integrate.

[Brian Griffin]

” filthy disease-ridden, economy-destroying, culture-destroying, 60-million, migrant-invader vermin”

I have seen many hard-working immigrants.

I have heard some domestic song lyrics that are culture damaging.

Only a very small percentage of the invaders are vermin. Most are decent people, but the displacement of the native-born from the work force is problematic.

[Political Junkie Too]

According to a report from Harvard University...

Is this a "kill all the Jews" report or a "kill all the white supremacists" report?

-PJ

[Steely Tom]

This would be front page news in every media outlet in the world if Trump was President.

[Brian Griffin]

~”annual income 19 pounds 6”
~”annual expenditure 20 pounds”

What matters in measuring poverty is the net income after withholding to fixed expense ratio.

Chattels are usually not a realistic measure of wealth or poverty.

If you have a $2,000 rent monkey on your shoulders it can be a problem if only making $15/hour.

[gloryblaze]

... Drug addiction is completely out of control.

Yes. Thoreau said that most men live lives of quiet desperation. And, amidst the glitter and glamour, with drugs available, it is there and growing.

[Brian Griffin]

“We’re much more Third World now.”

Both in demographics and economic structure

[immadashell]

This is the group that makes up the 50% of the current U.S. population that doesn’t pay any taxes.

[Brian Griffin]

Mark Twain called his latter years the Gilded Age because the top of American society had a coating of great wealth.

[Zhang Fei]

[~”annual income 19 pounds 6”
~”annual expenditure 20 pounds”

What matters in measuring poverty is the net income after withholding to fixed expense ratio.

Chattels are usually not a realistic measure of wealth or poverty.

If you have a $2,000 rent monkey on your shoulders it can be a problem if only making $15/hour.]

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Renting out rooms is a thing. This isn’t rocket science. Renters and homeowners have been taking in boarders since pretty much caveman days. Back in the day, a perfectly sober hobo without any hope of employment who had to sleep under a bridge, rummage through garbage heaps for scraps of food, and often went hungry, was considered poor. Today, an overfed welfare recipient who spends the entire day in air-conditioned comfort watching TV, getting high or playing video games is considered poor. There’s a difference. Poverty has been redefined to mean something other than absolute material deprivation.

[Brian Griffin]

“Never saw a beggar on the streets before 1965!”

“Two hours of pushing broom buys an 8x10 room....”

[Brian Griffin]

There is a circa 1973 Columbo episode where a guy says his room in LA costs $73/month.

[jacknhoo]

I wonder if they will wake up and vote for a good economy rather than taxpayer funded dependency.

[Brian Griffin]

My mother’s parents had two boarders according to the 1910 census.

I’m in an AirBnB with three bedrooms.

The Jamaican(?) woman owner sleeps in her living room behind a screen and rents out all the bedrooms.

[ducttape45]

My income has never been within the limits that folks would consider middle class. It's always been below that, and as such most folks consider me to be living in poverty. I think I am blessed to have that happened because it meant I never hoarded things, or sought after earthly gain I could never afford.

That being said, what is happening across the country is a crime. Costs are so high that folks are literally having to choose between food or shelter. I know other folks who, seeing what is happening, are foregoing the luxuries of life, scaling down, and just being content with existing on the bare minimum. The economic conditions are also causing folks to have to start "shacking up" together in order to survive.

I do not believe that if Trump wins the election that anything will change overnight, or ever. OBiden, Soros and his lackeys have so badly sabotaged the economy that there may be no coming back from this nightmare.

[abigkahuna]

The working poor is who I really feel for as these are the clerks, secretaries, front desk, cashiers, warehousemen, etc...the ordinary people that make everything go. These are people that are not white collar and not Mike Rowe’s Blue Collar workers, but the flux that keeps the machine going...

Dormitories, Tiny Homes, whatever it takes....those are for the working poor—the homeless drunkards, druggies and mentals need to be in tent city out in the Mojave. Those that want to be SAVED move up to the tiny homes....and re-integrate back into society. The others....keep them safe as all we can do.

This country is worth saving, but to do so, some real innovative solutions for American Citizens First. Green Card holders second and the illegals back out the door. DACA Kids? If born at a certain date—give them a Green Card...hell most all came as kiddies through no fault of their own. They are defacto Americans after this amount of time.