Rise in Poverty

Yahoo News yesterday carried an Associated Press story about how a change in measurement of poverty has resulted in revealing that the poverty rate is actually higher than previous measurements had indicated.

The level of poverty in America is even worse than first believed.

A revised formula for calculating medical costs and geographic variations show that approximately 47.4 million Americans last year lived in poverty, 7 million more than the government's official figure.

The disparity occurs because of differing formulas the Census Bureau and the National Academy of Science use for calculating the poverty rate. The NAS formula shows the poverty rate to be at 15.8 percent, or nearly 1 in 6 Americans, according to calculations released this week. That's higher than the 13.2 percent, or 39.8 million, figure made available recently under the original government formula.

That measure, created in 1955, does not factor in rising medical care, transportation, child care or geographical variations in living costs. Nor does it consider non-cash government aid when calculating income. As a result, official figures released last month by Census may have overlooked millions of poor people, many of them 65 and older.

According to the revised NAS formula:

_About 18.7 percent of Americans 65 and older, or nearly 7.1 million, are in poverty compared to 9.7 percent, or 3.7 million, under the traditional measure. That's due to out-of-pocket expenses from rising Medicare premiums, deductibles and a coverage gap in the prescription drug benefit.

_About 14.3 percent of people 18 to 64, or 27 million, are in poverty, compared to 11.7 percent under the traditional measure. Many of the additional poor are low-income, working people with transportation and child-care costs.

It is increasingly clear that the burdens of this recession are being born by those with the fewest resources for carrying them. It is time for economic justice, for those who have lost homes, jobs, health and income to the current troubles, to be freed of some of these burdens. The money that is spent by governments should be spent for the well-being of those who are paying the price for the gambling of the wealthy investment banking corporations.

The question "why spend your money for that which is not bread?" keeps coming to me. We need to spend our tax dollars for that which is bread, care, housing, and health care for those who will otherwise lack it, not for those who already have much more than they need.

May we awaken! May the Holy One inspire many millions of people to proclaim justice. May they be empowered to speak clearly, from the heart, filled with courage to stand before those who broker power. I pray that many more people will be convicted by their own consciences about their roles and their corporation's roles in the economic and health care crises. I pray that they will join the former insurance industry leader who realized what the practices of companies like his meant that people would then have to seek free medical care under circumstances in which they would be treated in animal stalls at some place like a county fairgrounds. He now speaks out for justice in health care and insurance. I pray that my country may be again the inspiration it once was to the peoples of the world. AMEN.