Generational poverty the exception, not the rule

[theHandpuppet]

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/06/29/369085/generational-poverty-the-exception-not-the-rule/
Press TV
Generational poverty the exception, not the rule
June 29, 2104

(excerpt)
Thanks to other data from the Census Bureau, we can step back a bit to see that more common kind of movement in and out of poverty. If we look at how many Americans were poor for at least two months during 2009, 2010, and 2011, for example, we find a poverty rate not equal to the Census Bureau’s 15 or 16 percent—but twice that, at 31.6 percent. That is, over a recent three-year period, almost one-third of all Americans were poor at least once for two months or more.

There’s another important lesson to learn from this data: while lots of Americans experienced a “spell” of poverty during those years, only 3.5 percent of the population was poor for all 36 months. So how we think about poverty is all wrong: it’s a much more common occurrence than people realize, and the chronic, persistent, generational poverty that features so prominently in political rhetoric and media coverage is very much the exception, rather than the rule.

We can step back even further, and look at the likelihood that any American will encounter poverty at any point over the course of their entire adult lives, thanks especially to research done by Mark Rank at Washington University in St. Louis. What his work tells us is that more than 40 percent of Americans between the ages of 25 and 60 will be poor for at least a year. Over the same period, more than half will be poor or nearly poor, with income at 150 percent of the poverty line, or about $27,000 annually for a family of three.

So poverty in the U.S. is, in fact, a much larger problem than we think it is, and it’s one that most Americans will face....

MORE at link posted above.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. The poverty line is a rather arbitrary number

So I'm not surprised that a lot of people are above that line at points, below it at others. People having trouble with poverty are more likely not to have steady work, and thus not have regular income. So some months you might have income, other months not.

I think the last line of the article is the most important takeaway.

Don’t fight poverty because you feel sorry for other people; fight poverty because the odds are increasingly high that you and your family will be poor someday, too.

[theHandpuppet]

2. That's very true for seasonal workers, esp. in agriculture

I am also reminded of miners in Appalachia and elsewhere, who may work for several months but then have no work at all for months or years. I don't think many folks realize just how many Americans aren't employed in 9 to 5/52 weeks a year jobs.