Poverty is an issue that’s been bandied about quite a bit on the Presidential campaign trail.
Today’s New York Times reports:
Five years into a national economic recovery, the share of Americans living in poverty finally dropped.
The nation's poverty rate was 12.3 percent in 2006, down from 12.6 percent a year before, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. Median household income increased slightly, to $48,200.
The poverty level is the official measure used to decide eligibility for federal health, housing, nutrition and child care benefits. It differs by family size and makeup. For a family of four with two children, for example, the poverty level is $20,444.
The poverty rate -- the percentage of people living below poverty -- helps shape the debate on the health of the nation's economy.The figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau Tuesday showed Milwaukee in 2006 had the eighth-highest poverty rate among large U.S. cities at 26.2 percent. That compares with 21.3 percent in 2000.
It means 143,000 people in the city - or more than one in four - lived below the poverty line last year.
Again, it begs the question:
Just how poor are the poor?
