43.6 Million Americans Living In Poverty Is The Highest Number Ever Recorded

The Business Insider ^ | 9-16-2010 | Joe Weisenthal

[Waco]

I read once that our ‘’poor’’ have a higher std. of living than most Europeans.

[Chaguito]

Man, do I ever agree with you. The definition of poverty in this country is ridiculous. And sensationalistic articles like this one are just a prelude to more heart-wrenching appeals for more socialist programs.

[combat_boots]

From HotAir via Fox:

“What?! The 67-Cent Down Payment Mortgage”

“The financial collapse occurred because housing lenders wrote paper to people who couldn’t afford the houses they bought, often getting a no-down arrangement, while lenders sold the paper to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which securitized them and spread the bubble throughout the financial markets in order to provide even more capital for even more bad loans. After nearly watching the Western world’s financial structure melt down, one would hope that we would have learned a lesson from the catastrophe. Apparently not, as CNBC’s Diana Olick reports (via Instapundit):

At around the same time this program went into effect, the New York Times did a piece on a small program Fannie Mae is implementing through state housing finance agencies, which have been crippled by the recession. It’s called Affordable Advantage, and it allows first-time home buyers in four states (Massachusetts, Minnesota, Idaho and Wisconsin) to get essentially no-money-down loans that are then sold to Fannie Mae. It requires $1000.00 down, but the couple profiled in the piece received a grant, and ended up paying just 67 cents for a $115,000 home.

The Fannie Mae program requires a minimum credit score of 680 (720 in Massachusetts) and the buyer must live in the home. All loans are 30-year fixed. The arguments for the program are persuasive: It wasn’t the no-money-down loans themselves that fueled the housing crash, it was the poor underwriting. These loans are very strictly underwritten. Adjustable rate loans were the primary drivers of default, while these loans are fixed.”

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/09/14/the-67-cent-down-payment-mortgage/

[TexasRedeye]

Well, Obama said he was going to fundamentally remake America. I guess he has!

[ChocChipCookie]

I agree with you about poverty worldwide, but the left’s attack on the middle class is starting to bear fruit, and it’s not over yet. Ask around and see how quickly an unemployed person finds another job. The effects of long term unemployment are devastating and will affect the children and grandchildren of those currently unemployed — and I’m talking about people like you and me, unless you have a federal government job. No job is safe anymore; every family is vulnerable.

[Republic of Texas]

Damn! I thought LBJ fixed that?

[combat_boots]

I did find this chart: From "The Great Depression"

The high unemployment rates of the 1930s made those who had jobs both thankful that they had jobs and fearful that they could lose them. Those who could not find jobs often took to the roads--thousands of men regularly rode the rails. The numbers in skid rows increased greatly, and other homeless set up homes in shantytowns throughout the nation that became known as "Hoovervilles." Because the Depression caused so much suffering, it is not surprising that it caused major changes in the political structure in the United States.

From the Civil War until the Depression, the Republican party was the dominant political party--it generally controlled the House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and the Presidency. In the elections of 1930, the Democrats took control of the House of Representatives, and after the 1936 elections they outnumbered the Republicans 331 to 89. Only once in the next fifty years did Republicans capture a majority in the House. After the Republicans lost control of the Senate in 1932, they regained a majority in only six of the next fifty years. In the same year of 1932, Franklin Roosevelt was overwhelmingly elected, defeating Herbert Hoover with a total of 22.8 million votes to 15.8 million. Along with the change in dominant political party has come a change in what Americans expect from government. Only a limited understanding of American politics is possible without understanding the effects of this period; the shadow of the Depression dominated American political life for decades.

[TexasFreeper2009]

well ... people voted for change...

They were middle class... now they live in poverty... that's certainly change.

[Jolla]

Oh, okay, 43 million Americans in poverty is a meaningless number.

[Tax-chick]

the sheeple THINK they are poor!

Ding ding ding - We have a winner!

[TexasFreeper2009]

exactly.

America has been on the decline for almost 100 years now, ever since the socialists started screwing it up back under Wilson in the 1920’s.

It's just that the decline was masked by WW2 and the prosperity that followed because we were the only remaining country in the world with an intact manufacturing sector.

[albie]

“The Dept. of Commerce states that, in 2006, a single person was in poverty...”

...what’s your point? You rattled off DOC stats which would certainly equate to poverty. So? When I drive through section 8 housing(which I do from time to time in my job)I see young adults sitting on the porch on weekdays, bags with large bottles in them in their hands, satellite dishes on the roofs, cadillacs out front and a hundred kids hoppin around. That’s not poverty. That’s soaking the tax payer. If you’re at poverty level in this country, it’s either by choice or you’ve been convinced you’re at poverty level because you don’t own enough nice sh&%.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Nonsense. You’re just embarrassing yourself with an argumentum ad misericordiam having nothing to do with my original or continued point.

[WOBBLY BOB]

“Worst economy since Hoover” comes to mind...

[Balding_Eagle]

Only if you want to look like an idiot when someone points out that if we had the “poverty” rate today, that we had in 1959, the number would be 70.6 million people.

No one is going to do that.

One of the reasons our side has had a time of it is that our side often doesn't explain these facts using the more provocative tone.

Instead, we don our green eye shades and drone out the cold hard facts.

No matter how technically accurate, look where that has gotten us.

[Jolla]

No, I am ashamed someone would think 43 million people in America living in poverty is a meaningless number.

[AliVeritas]

OT, big time Islamic infiltration

http://bigpeace.com/pspoole/2010/09/16/al-qaeda-on-capitol-hill-congressional-muslim-staffers-association-embraces-islamic-radicals-and-terrorists/

Please pass it on.

[The Brush]

Bush!
I’m blaming him for the Civil War too.

[Outlaw Woman]

Absolutely right.

Poverty? The majority of Americans have a roof over their head, eat at least once a day and as you pointed out, we are mobile enough to move up.

Go to any third world country and speak to them about poverty.

There’s no question that our standard of living is diminishing but it’s hardly at poverty levels (yet) which is defined by the absence of basic human needs. Not only do our denoted so-called poverty stricken citizens fail to meet that standard, they generally have lots of extra ‘goodies’ to boot; cell phones, T.V.’s, a vehicle etc.

[BenKenobi]

Yep, that they did, and despite all Obama has done to undo the progress, we are back to the way things were in the early 80s and early 90s, and still a fair bit better off than in the 60s.