Poverty - The More You Are Aware.

Just wanted to post my latest article for the Young Democrats of Utah Quarterly Newsletter. This months topic is on Poverty and Health Care and should be available on the YD's website soon.

Poverty is defined by the US Census Bureau as “(when a) family’s total income is less than the family’s threshold (for covering basic expenses such as food and shelter), then that family and every individual in it is considered in poverty.” In other words, and as you probably know, a person is in poverty when they can not cover basic costs.

One out of every ten people live in poverty in the nation, and the trend seems to have hovered around that number for the past ten years. But these past years of economic prosperity seem to be the exception that prove the rule; our nation, in the not so distant past, has seen poverty rates as high as 33%, 1 in 3 people, living in poverty. It is foolish to assume that such economic catastrophes could not fall on our nation again.

The numbers are not on our side. Recently we have seen the dollar become weaker and weaker, the trade deficit grow, the national debt grow, the housing market contract, the cost of energy explode, healthcare costs skyrocket, and thousands of other straws that will eventually break the camels back. It all adds up to a potential recession, and possible depression, occurring in the next ten to twenty years.

Both government and nongovernmental agencies have implemented programs in an attempt to fight this cancer, and they have had various levels of success. The Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, recently released a study outlining a 12 step plan to cut poverty in half by 2017. Some of the more interesting proposals include: increasing minimum wage, expanding the earned income tax credit to low-income working families, guaranteeing child care for low-income families, and simplifying and expanding Pell Grants to disadvantaged youth.

On the national level it appears that progress is being made. Programs such as the expansion of CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) are a step in the right direction for public policy. We have come close to increasing the minimum wage; education is becoming a national priority again despite current policies being woefully flawed, and investments are being made that provide jobs for those in need while increasing our countries infrastructure.

Our nation is attempting to fight the cycle of poverty that plagues our nation, but more needs to be done. Poverty harms not only those who live in it, but society on the whole, it is in our best interest do all we can to continue L.B.J.’s War on Poverty, if only because it is the right thing to do.