The Poor Will Always Be With Us, Just not on the TV news
Source: Steve Rendall and Neil deMause, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, September 7, 2007
According to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data, 37 million Americans--one in eight--lived below the federal poverty line in 2005, defined as an annual income of $19,971 for a family of four. Yet poverty touches a far greater share of the population over the course of their lives: A 1997 study by University of Michigan economist Rebecca Blank found that one-third of all U.S. residents will experience government-defined poverty within a 13-year period. The poorest age group is children, with more than one in six living in official poverty at any given time.