U.S. Poverty: Worst in Industrialized World, and No End in Sight

This Reuters article highlights the increasingly bleak outlook for the "war on poverty" in our country.

"Four decades after a U.S. president declared war on poverty, more than 37 million people in the world's richest country are officially classified as poor and their number has been on the rise for years. Last year, according to government statistics, 1.1 million Americans fell below the poverty line. That equals the entire population of a major city like Dallas or Prague."

Not only are more and more falling into poverty, there are more living there already then we think:

"'Every August, we Americans tell ourselves a lie,' said David Brady, a Duke University professor who studies poverty. 'The poverty rate was designed to undercount because the government wanted to show progress in the war on poverty. Taking everything into account, the real rate is around 18 percent, or 48 million people. Poverty in the United States is more widespread, by far, than in any other industrialized country.'"

The problem of poverty in our nation is pervasive. Many Americans, of all political inclinations, believe that in our country, if you work hard enough, the odds are that you'll prosper and do well for yourself, leaving enough to benefit the generations that follow you. Despite the fact that most people never see this progress, and that a large minority actually are falling behind, this myth infiltrates all levels of our society like a virus. Because Americans consider themselves hardworking, and still have a residual distrust of the government, we limit what the government will do to alleviate or end poverty. There are those, mostly conservatives whose leaders occupy the positions of power in our federal government, who think we should be doing even less.

I written before about how poverty cannot be erased overnight, and how in large part even beginning to tackle it in earnest would require a change in the national mood. What I didn't say is that change in attitude can be either elective, or it can be forced upon us. We're not likely to break out in another Great Depression tomorrow, so the change won't be sweeping or dramatic. But as more and more people slip into poverty, and as more and more of those families of the middle-class beging to believe that they were one layoff away from living in poverty themselves, I can promise you that change will come. The consequences that will have on our political landscape will be significant.

It doesn't have to come to that, to people voting with their stomachs because they're hungry. Republicans in power are more interested in exacerbating the problem by shifting even more wealth to the upper classes and corporate interests, then fixing the power structure so that they can maintain their grip on power no matter what political change comes. But there will come a time when all their manipulations aren't enough to stave off the bulk of the American people any longer, who predictably will toss them out on their ears and look to Democrats, or another party, to fix the mess Republicans made (or made worse.) Unfortunately, we cannot know if that will come before current political and economic policies have damaged the nation beyond repair. And that's no satisfaction to the millions who will descend into the poverty trap before change comes anyway.

Despite what some would say, there are real things at stake in politics. Real lives, real livelihoods, real people. Change starts withus informing ourselves, then participating in the process. There's simply no excuse to ignore poverty.