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ATLANTA, GA - In a holiday season during which many of our hearts turn to giving, a new report reminds us of the harsh reality many of those around us are facing. Atlanta was ranked No. 6 on a list of the neediest cities in the United States.

Personal-finance website WalletHub compiled the list of more than 180 U.S. cities, weighing 25 factors to determine where Americans are most economically disadvantaged.

Detroit was No. 1 on the list, followed by Cleveland, Newark, New Jersey, Memphis, Tennessee, and Jackson, Mississippi.

The site's rankings are based on two primary dimensions: economic well-being and health and safety. Under economic well-being, cities were scored based on adult and child poverty rates, unemployment and underemployment rates, homelessness, and foreclosure and consumer bankruptcy rates, among other factors.

Under health and safety, the site factored in suicide and crime rates, the number of over-crowded homes and the number of inadequate kitchens and plumbing in homes, among other factors.

Pushing Atlanta toward the top of the list was its homelessness rate. According to WalletHub, Atlanta was No. 1 among the cities it examined in homelessness. The city also ranked No. 15 in food-insecurity rate and 24th in child-poverty rate.

Combatting the homelessness problem has been a focus of leaders in Atlanta. Last month, Mayor Kasim Reed announced the city has "effectively ended" homelessness among military veterans in the city.

Reed said the achievement was recently confirmed by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Reed's announcement came three years after he joined other city leaders around the state in accepting former President Barack Obama's challenge to stamp out veteran homelessness by 2015. Through last month, a partnership of local and federal efforts had placed 1,859 veterans experiencing homelessness into permanent housing.

The Atlanta City Council earlier this year voted to issue a $26 million Homeless Opportunity Bond to be matched by $25 million donation from United Way of Greater Atlanta. This roughly $50 million initiative was designed to make homelessness "rare, brief and non-recurring" in the city. The council also authorized the adoption of ClearPath - Partners for HOME's five-year strategic plan focused on permanent housing placements for all individuals experiencing homelessness.

In January, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs estimated there were 10,373 homeless people in the state, down from 13,790 in 2015.

An earlier WalletHub report offers additional hope for local folks in need. According to the Georgia ranked No. 29 overall for the amount of volunteering and service done by residents, and was ranked No. 2 for charitable giving.
Photo via Pixabay

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Atlanta Is Among Nation's Neediest Cities: Report

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ATLANTA, GA - In a holiday season during which many of our hearts turn to giving, a new report reminds us of the harsh reality many of those around us are facing. Atlanta was ranked No. 6 on a list of the neediest cities in the United States.

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https://www.wabe.org/analysis-ga-schools-poor-grades-high-poverty-areas/

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http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/denver-opens-3-new-homeless-shelters-with-added-amenities

Denver opens 3 new homeless shelters with added amenities

The Denver Channel - 1d ago

DENVER (AP) - Officials say the three new homeless shelters that have recently opened in Denver are aiming to be more welcoming to the homeless by offering more amenities.

Denver opens 3 new homeless shelters with added amenities

The Denver Channel - 1d ago

DENVER (AP) - Officials say the three new homeless shelters that have recently opened in Denver are aiming to be more welcoming to the homeless by offering more amenities.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/denver-opens-3-new-homeless-shelters-with-added-amenities

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https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-07-06/the-new-faces-of-us-povertyhttps://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-07-06/the-new-faces-of-us-poverty

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FINANCIAL CONDITION AND HEALTH CARE BURDENS OF PEOPLE IN DEEP POVERTY

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FINANCIAL CONDITION AND HEALTH CARE BURDENS OF PEOPLE IN DEEP POVERTY

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Americans living at the bottom of the income distribution often struggle to meet their basic needs on very limited incomes, even with the added assistance of government programs. The following analyses describe the characteristics of the poor population; available income for those at the deepest levels of poverty; and average medical care needs among those living in poor and deep poor families (meaning those with incomes below 50 percent of the poverty threshold) ². The brief concludes with implications for medical cost sharing among those with few resources available. Analyses are restricted to those under the age of 65 and those in families headed by an adult under age 65.

Key findings include:

Low-income individuals are especially sensitive to even nominal increases in medical out-of-pocket costs, and modest copayments can have the effect of reducing access to necessary medical care.

Medical fees, premiums, and copayments could contribute to the financial burden on poor adults who need to visit medical providers.

The problem is even more pronounced for families living in the deepest levels of poverty, who effectively have no money available to cover out-of-pocket medical expenses including copays for medical visits.

Who are the People Living in Poverty and Deep Poverty?
According to the most recent data from 2013, the official poverty rate is 14.5 percent of the population, with 45.3 million people officially poor. Among the poor, 19.9 million people are in deep poverty, defined as income below 50 percent of the poverty threshold. Of the total U.S. population, 6.3 percent are in deep poverty. Nearly 6.5 million children under the age of 18 are in deep poverty, making up about one-third of the deep poverty population. ³

Table 1 describes the demographic and economic characteristics of the population in poverty by depth of poverty.

Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of working age adults with family incomes below 50 percent of the poverty threshold are adults that live with no children, while over one-third (36 percent) live in households with children.

Among working age adults with family incomes between 50 and 100 percent of the poverty threshold, about one-third (33-34 percent) work part-time or part-year, compared with one-quarter (26 percent) of those with family incomes below 50 percent of poverty.

Looking at those in deep poverty, for adults with family incomes between 25 and 50 percent of poverty, about half report no work hours, and for those with incomes below 25 percent of poverty, 81 percent report no work hours. Working age adults in deep poverty report illness or disability (23 percent), taking care of their family (27 percent), and attending school (21 percent) as the main reasons why they are not working.⁴

Just above the poverty threshold, more than half (57 percent) of uninsured adults ages 19 to 64 who could gain Medicaid coverage (between 100 and 138 percent of poverty) work, and nearly three out of four (72 percent) live in a family with at least one worker.⁵

Table 1. Demographic and Economic Characteristics Distribution by Poverty Status Income and Expenditures
Many families living in poverty and deep poverty face difficulties making ends meet financially, as presented in Figure 1 and Table 2. The dark blue line in Figure 1 depicts families' after-tax income, including benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The light blue line depicts families' actual spending on the most basic necessities, defined here as food, clothing, housing, and utilities. The definition of basic necessities for these figures is quite conservative, as it excludes expenditures on many other high-priority categories such as health care, transportation, education, and child care. In addition, as shown in Figure 1 and Table 2, families' spending on these basic necessities rises with income, which suggests that families with low incomes would be spending more in these areas if they did not face such serious financial pressures. Thus, the estimates shown in Figure 1 and Table 2-which are based on families' actual spending-may understate, potentially substantially, the actual income required to ensure that families can achieve a minimally adequate standard of living, even focusing solely on basic necessities.
Figure 1. After-Tax Incomes and Expenditures on Basic Necessities (Food, Clothing, Housing, and Utilities) for Non-Elderly Families by Poverty Status Percentage of Poverty Threshold Source: HHS-ASPE tabulations from the 2011 Panel Study of Income Dynamics.
Even under this conservative approach, the data displayed in Figure 1 show that poor families' incomes are often not enough to cover even the most basic necessities. For example, a family with income between 40 and 50 percent of the poverty threshold spends on average $3,000 more on necessities than its income. For a family with income between 20 and 30 percent of the poverty threshold, expenditures on basic necessities exceed income by $6,000 on average. Families living in deep poverty have incomes that are below their expenditures for the most basic necessities and often must borrow or use savings to meet basic needs, before even considering the other types of high-priority spending noted above or accounting for the fact that these families may not be spending enough on basic necessities to ensure even a minimally adequate standard of living in these areas. Families in poverty but with slightly higher incomes still struggle to meet basic needs, as do many families above the poverty threshold.
Table 2. Average Annual After-Tax Incomes, and Incomes After Expenditures on Basic Necessities (Food, Clothing, Housing, and Utilities) for Non-Elderly Families by Poverty Status Medical Care Among People in Poverty and Deep Poverty
In addition to the most basic necessities of food, clothing, housing, and utilities, poor and deep poor families also must consider their health and medical visit needs. Medical fees and copayments potentially contribute to a yet greater financial burden on people who visit their medical providers more frequently. Table 3 presents estimates of the average number of annual outpatient medical visits for working age adults living in poverty and covered by Medicaid. As indicated in the table, poor individuals have 6.6 medical visits per year on average. For those living in deep poverty, the average number of visits is similar (6.2). Out-of-pocket costs for these visits can put a substantial strain on household budgets. But the negative effects of out-of-pocket costs are even more pronounced, because the distribution of medical visits among adults covered by Medicaid is concentrated among some recipients who are even more burdened by out-of-pocket costs. One way to examine this distribution is to place adults covered by Medicaid into four quartiles based on number of annual visits (Table 3). When considering the average number of visits by quartiles for the poor, estimates indicate that those in the fourth quartile - and therefore most likely to visit the doctor- average 13.3 medical visits each year.
Table 3. Average Annual Number of Outpatient Medical Visits for Adults Ages 19-64 Covered by Medicaid
People with income at or slightly above the poverty threshold have little income to direct towards key goods and services like transportation, precautionary savings, and educational investments. Cost sharing through copayments and premiums for a necessity like medical care and health insurance will discourage use of needed care, including preventive services, and place significant strain on already limited household budgets.
Implications of Cost-Sharing for the Poor
The analysis above demonstrates that families living in poverty, and particularly those in deep poverty, have few resources available after they pay for the most basic necessities, even before other critical expenditures such as health care, child care, and transportation are taken into account (Table 2). Low-income adults tend to be less healthy than higher-income adults. About one-quarter of adults ages 19 to 64 living in poverty report fair or poor health, compared with about 8 percent of those living above 200 percent of the poverty threshold. ⁶ When subject to copayments and premiums, low-income individuals must decide whether to go to the doctor, fulfill prescriptions, or pay for other basic needs like child care and transportation. As a result of these daily tradeoffs, low-income individuals are especially sensitive to modest and even nominal increases in medical out-of-pocket costs.

Research shows that increases in cost-sharing in the form of copayments can discourage individuals with low income from accessing necessary medical care, which can have negative health consequences. An analysis of the Oregon Health Plan redesign implemented between 2003 and 2005 found that increased out-of-pocket costs such as mandatory copayments are associated with unmet health care needs, reduced use of care, and financial strain for already vulnerable populations. ⁷ A study of Utah's Medicaid program found that $2 copayments for physician services resulted in Medicaid patients seeing doctors less often. ⁸ The national RAND Health Insurance Experiment found that low-income individuals reduce their use of effective care by as much as 44 percent after being subject to copayments. ⁹ The study also found that copayments lead to poorer health outcomes among low-income adults and children due to a reduction in the use of care, including worse blood pressure and vision and higher rates of anemia. ¹⁰

Americans living in poverty have significantly constrained budgets that severely limit their ability to pay out-of-pocket health care costs; those in deep poverty have literally no available income after they pay for their most basic necessities each month, necessities which do not include health care, child care, or transportation. People in poverty tend to be less healthy than those with higher incomes and therefore need more medical care. But people in poverty are often unable to afford even nominal premiums and copayments, and research shows that they may forgo necessary medical treatment as a result of required cost-sharing.
Methodological Appendix
Current Population Survey (CPS)
The data for Table 1 come from the 2014 CPS Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC), which sampled about 68,000 households for the newly redesigned income items. Income and poverty data are for the 2013 calendar year. Following Census Bureau methodology, calculations for determining poverty use pre-tax cash income. Poverty thresholds vary by family size and composition. Table 4 shows the poverty thresholds by family type, divided by poverty sublevel.
Table 4. Annual Poverty Thresholds by Family Type, 2013
Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID)
The data for Figure 1 and Table 2 were calculated from the 2011 wave of the PSID, a national longitudinal survey that collects income and expenditure data on a sample of families in the United States. ¹¹ Previous research has found that average reported expenditures on the PSID are similar to expenditures reported on the Consumer Expenditure Survey. ¹² Basic necessities include expenditures on four categories that are widely believed to be basic necessities including: food, clothing, housing, and utilities. Utilities include expenditures on electricity, gas, water and sewer, telephone and Internet, and other utilities. The definition of basic necessities excludes expenditures on many other high-priority categories such as health care, transportation, education, and child care expenses.

Family income includes after-tax earnings, cash income transfers such as Social Security, disability payments, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and near-cash benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly called the Food Stamp program. It excludes income from capital gains, and other non-cash transfers such as the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition program, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), and housing assistance. Taxes are measured using National Bureau of Economic Research's TAXSIM model and include estimates of federal, state, and the employee's portion of Social Security and Medicare taxes, as well as the value of tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Percent of poverty is calculated by dividing each family's pre-tax income by their corresponding poverty threshold. The analysis excludes families that were not living in the United States at the time of the survey, families living in institutions, and families headed by persons ages 65 and older. Estimates are averaged across families of all sizes.

Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)
The data in Table 3 are from the 2008 SIPP, which sampled about 42,000 households starting in 2008 and interviewed all individuals in the household over the age of 15. Estimates of income and medical visits come from the tenth wave of the panel, reflecting the period from September - December of the 2011 calendar year. The number of medical visits is self-reported by all individuals. Specifically, respondents answered the question: "Not including contacts during hospital stays during the past 12 months, that is, since (interview month) 1st of last year, about how many times did you see or talk to a medical doctor, or nurse, or other medical provider about your health?" The responses ranged from zero to 366 visits. While the responses do not include hospital stays, they may include emergency room visits. The quartile analysis is conducted by dividing the sample into four ordered groups based on the number of self-reported medical visits, and estimating the mean value separately for each quartile.

¹ Analysis conducted by Lauren Frohlich, Kendall Swenson, Sharon Wolf, Suzanne Macartney, and Susan Hauan.

² For 2013, a single parent family with two children is in poverty if their income falls below 100 percent of the poverty threshold ($18,769) and deep poverty if their income falls below 50 percent of the poverty threshold ($9,385).

³ HHS-ASPE tabulations from the U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2014 Annual Social and Economic Supplement.

⁴ Additional reasons include inability to find work (15 percent) and retirement (8 percent). HHS-ASPE tabulations from the U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2014 Annual Social and Economic Supplement.

⁵ Kaiser Family Foundation, 2015. "Are Uninsured Adults Who Could Gain Medicaid Coverage Working?"

⁶ U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2014 Annual Social and Economic Supplement. CPS Table Creator, available at http://www.census.gov/cps/data/cpstablecreator.html.

⁷ Wright, Bill J. et al, 2010. Health Affairs. "Raising Premiums and Other Costs for Oregon Health Plan Enrollees Drove Many to Drop Out."

⁸ Ku, Leighton et al., 2004. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "The Effects of Copayments on the Use of Medical Services and Prescription Drugs in Utah's Medicaid Program."

⁹ Newhouse, Joseph, 1996. Free For All? Lessons from the Rand Health Insurance Experiment, Cambridge: Harvard University Press; Ku, Leighton. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2003. "Charging the Poor More for Health Care: Cost-Sharing in Medicaid." Effective care refers to services the researchers judged to be clinically effective in improving health outcomes.

¹¹ Andreski, Patricia et al., 2013. "PSID Main Interview User Manual: Release 2013."

¹² Li, Geng et al., 2010. "New Expenditure Data in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics: Comparisons with the Consumer Expenditure Survey Data," Monthly Labor Review.

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Financial Condition and Health Care Burdens of People in Deep Poverty

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Americans living at the bottom of the income distribution often struggle to meet their basic needs on very limited incomes, even with the added assistance of government programs. The following analyses describe the characteristics of the poor population; available income for those at the deepest levels of poverty; and average medical care needs among those living in poor and deep poor families (meaning those with incomes below 50 percent of the poverty threshold)2.

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https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/11/15/564370605/new-study-finds-that-4-2-million-kids-experience-homelessness-each-yearhttps://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/11/15/564370605/new-study-finds-that-4-2-million-kids-experience-homelessness-each-year

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http://economics.fundamentalfinance.com/povertycrime.php

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http://www.startribune.com/these-minnesota-schools-with-low-income-students-are-beating-the-odds/460615913/

These Minnesota schools with low-income students are beating the odds

Minneapolis Star Tribune - Nov 30, 2017

These 75 high-poverty schools across Minnesota had proficiency rates in the 2017 Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments for math, reading or both that exceeded what would be expected based on their level of poverty, according to a Star Tribune analysis ...

These Minnesota schools with low-income students are beating the odds

Minneapolis Star Tribune - Nov 30, 2017

These 75 high-poverty schools across Minnesota had proficiency rates in the 2017 Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments for math, reading or both that exceeded what would be expected based on their level of poverty, according to a Star Tribune analysis ...

http://www.startribune.com/these-minnesota-schools-with-low-income-students-are-beating-the-odds/460615913/

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https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/how-poverty-affects-the-brain-and-behaviorhttps://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/how-poverty-affects-the-brain-and-behavior

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http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/363415-rural-poverty-skyrockets-as-jobs-move-away

Rural poverty skyrockets as jobs move away

The Hill - Dec 5, 2017

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Food Banks spike during holidays but needed year round

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Food Banks spike during holidays but needed year round

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http://www.kiro7.com/news/local/food-bank-donations-spike-during-holiday-but-needed-all-year-long/662918839

Food bank donations spike during holiday, but needed all year long

KIRO Seattle - 21h ago

Thomas Reynolds, a Stadium High School graduate who grew up in Tacoma, became CEO of the 50-year-old nonprofit this summer. He recently spoke to The News Tribune about his work and fight for “food justice” in Washington.

Food bank donations spike during holiday, but needed all year long

KIRO Seattle - 21h ago

Thomas Reynolds, a Stadium High School graduate who grew up in Tacoma, became CEO of the 50-year-old nonprofit this summer. He recently spoke to The News Tribune about his work and fight for “food justice” in Washington.

http://www.kiro7.com/news/local/food-bank-donations-spike-during-holiday-but-needed-all-year-long/662918839

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Poverty

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The delivery of federal food benefits for millions of low-income people is likely to change after the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday it'll allow states more flexibility in how they dole out the money.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in a news release that his agency wants states to try out programs that don't increase the cost of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, but instead promote job training and reduce waste and fraud. The news release said specifics will be provided in "the coming weeks."

"We want to provide the nutrition people need, but we also want to help them transition from government programs, back to work, and into lives of independence," Perdue said.

States already have wide latitude to demand that people work or at least look for a job in order to receive SNAP benefits, according to Ed Bolen of the nonpartisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, based in Washington, D.C.

Under federal law, people without children who are able to work either must work or attend job training at least 20 hours per week to receive SNAP benefits beyond 3 months. States are allowed to bypass that rule when they have high unemployment, and 36 states have at least partial waivers from the USDA. Several states, including Nebraska and Kansas, have tested different job requirements and training programs in recent years.

"At a certain point, states can ban somebody from SNAP if they fail to meet those employment and training mandatory requirements," Bolen said.

States could consider new SNAP restrictions, such as drug testing or time limits for adults with children. But, Bolen said, "they would need federal approval."

"And it's questionable to me whether the secretary could actually grant that, given that it's part of the SNAP law," he added.

Perdue's move comes ahead of work on the 2018 farm bill, for which lawmakers already are floating their priorities and unlikely alliances are being formed among various interest groups.

Nutrition programs, including SNAP, made up about 80 percent of the USDA's budget in the most recent farm bill, making it the largest portion of agency spending. About 44 million people participated in SNAP each month in 2016, at a cost of $70.9 billion. Nearly two-thirds were under 18, over 60 or disabled, according to the USDA.

Perdue is undertaking a major reorganization of the USDA that would, among other things, eliminate the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, which establishes dietary guidelines and studies what it costs to follow them. That work instead would fall under the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service.

In 2016, SNAP households were certified to receive benefits for an average period of 13 months. A previous proposal from the Trump administration would have required states to cover up to 25 percent of the cost of SNAP benefits.

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USDA Opens Door For States To Impose New Rules On Food Stamps

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The delivery of federal food benefits for millions of low-income people is likely to change after the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday it'll allow states more flexibility in how they dole out the money.

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https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-12-heart-disease-linked-depression-loneliness.htmlhttps://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-12-heart-disease-linked-depression-loneliness.html

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US Income Inequality Is So Bad That Now the UN Is Taking Action

https://apple.news/A36siB2Y7NvqLIdu59bRLbA

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https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2017/05/23/job-security-is-disappearing-what-does-it-mean-for-you/#5d5baefd2173https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2017/05/23/job-security-is-disappearing-what-does-it-mean-for-you/#5d5baefd2173

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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41930107http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41930107

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Amid "Full Employment," No Recovery in US Wages
The US jobs report for November, released Friday, provides further evidence that the much vaunted economic "recovery" in the United States has overwhelmingly benefited Wall Street, whose stock bonanza is based above all on stagnant wages and the destruction of working-class living standards.
The Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls increased by 228,000 and the jobless rate remained unchanged at 4.1 percent, the lowest level since January 2000 at the height of the "dot.com" bubble. Manufacturing payrolls rose by 31,000; construction in the aftermath of the hurricanes in Texas and Florida added 24,000 jobs. There was also a boost in the low-wage retail (18,700) and leisure and hospitality (14,000) sectors.

Despite what economists, the media and politicians are calling "full employment," average hourly earnings rose only 0.2 percent, or five cents, to $26.55 an hour, from a downwardly revised 0.1 percent drop in wages in October. Year-to-year wage increases in November were only 64 cents, or 2.5 percent. If wages rise by another nickel in December, yearly salaries will be up a mere 2.4 percent in 2017, barely above the official projected inflation rate of 2.0 percent.

"President Trump's bold economic vision continues to pay off," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders boasted on Friday. "The economy's vital signs are stronger than they have been in years," the New York Times declared. "Companies are posting jobs faster than they can find workers to fill them. Incomes are rising. The stock market sets records seemingly every month."

Economic analysts have pointed to anemic wage growth, euphemistically called weak "inflationary pressure," as a major factor in the determination of the Federal Reserve to continue pumping up the stock market with cheap credit. Although most economists expect a modest interest rate hike at the Fed's meeting Wednesday, Jerome Powell, President Donald Trump's nominee to head the Federal Reserve, made clear last month at his Senate confirmation hearing that he would keep rates at historically low levels. At the same time, he assured the senators that there was little danger of a wages push because of continuing "slackness" in the labor market, i.e., an ample supply of workers desperate for full-time employment.

Other analysts agree.

"Wage growth has been muted thus far," especially given the "very healthy pace of job creation," said Michelle Meyer, head of US economics at Bank of America. "It's been the story throughout the course of this year."

Describing November's wage increase as "tepid," Carl Riccadonna and Yelena Shulyatyeva of Bloomberg Economics wrote:

"Even though job gains are well in excess of the natural growth rate for the labor market, labor scarcity is not yet driving wage pressures higher. The moral of the story from this jobs report is that full employment is indeed much lower in the current cycle relative to history."

US employers are exploiting a reserve of unemployed and underemployed workers to keep wages low. At the same time, corporations are filling positions with young workers who are paid far lower wages and benefits than the older workers they are replacing.

According to the government, 6.6 million workers in the US remain unemployed, including 1.6 million, or nearly one out of four jobless people, who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more. Another 4.8 million were forced to work part-time last month although they want full-time work, and 1.8 million were "marginally attached" to the labor force. The latter want to work but did not search for employment in the four weeks preceding the survey and were therefore not counted as "unemployed."

The labor force participation rate, or share of working-age people in the labor force, remained at 62.7 percent in November. However, just 79 percent of the prime-age work force, aged 25 to 54, is actually working-below the rate before the 2008 financial crash.

The situation facing the young generation is particularly dire. According to the Class of 2017 report by the Economic Policy Institute, the unemployment rate for young high school graduates is 16.9 percent (compared with 15.9 percent in 2007 and 12.1 percent in 2000). For young college graduates, the unemployment rate is currently 5.6 percent (compared with 5.5 percent in 2007 and 4.3 percent in 2000), and 7.1 percent for young male college graduates.

The figures are even higher for "underemployment," which includes young graduates who are involuntary part-timers or are only marginally attached to the labor force. For young high school graduates, the underemployment rate is 30.9 percent (compared with 26.8 percent in 2007 and 20.8 percent in 2000). For young college graduates, the underemployment rate is 11.9 percent (compared with 9.6 percent in 2007 and 7.1 percent in 2000).

The share of young graduates who are "idled" by the economy-neither enrolled in further schooling nor employed-remains higher in the wake of the Great Recession than in 2007 and 2000, the report noted. This includes 15.1 percent of young high school graduates and 9.9 percent of young college graduates, many of whom are burdened with unsustainable debts.

The stagnation of wages is a long-term tendency. Since the early 1970s, hourly inflation-adjusted wages have grown by only 0.2 percent annually, and labor's share of national income has fallen from nearly 65 percent in the mid-1970s to below 57 percent in 2017.

The deterioration in the social position of the working class and accompanying explosion of social inequality are not simply the result of objective economic laws. They are the intended outcome of the policies of the American ruling class, implemented by successive Democratic and Republican administrations alike. The transfer of production to lower-wage countries, deindustrialization and mass layoffs in the 1980s and 1990s were used as a hammer to beat back the resistance of workers to a historic lowering of their living standards.

This process was aided and abetted by the trade unions, whose pro-capitalist and nationalist orientation left workers without any progressive response to globalization. Far from opposing wage and benefit cuts, the United Auto Workers and other unions suppressed working-class opposition and collaborated with the corporations to slash labor costs in the name of boosting competitiveness and "protecting American jobs."

This assault was escalated in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008. In the course of the eight years of the Obama administration, the unions limited strikes to the lowest levels since the Labor Department began recording work stoppages in 1947. They collaborated with the Democratic president to crush a potential wages push in 2015-16 as workers in auto, steel, oil, telecom, airlines, rail, health care, retail and other industries, as well as teachers and other public employees, were coming up for new labor agreements.

While workers were determined to recoup lost income after corporate profits had fully recovered from the crash, the unions signed deals that limited pay hikes to the rate of inflation or barely above it while shifting health care and pension costs onto the backs of workers. This was key to Obama's "in-sourcing" strategy for attracting investment on the basis of low wages, as well as his "quantitative easing" interest rate policy, which fueled the massive rise in the stock market that continues to this day. Virtually all of the net increase in new jobs created under Obama's "gig economy" were part-time, contingent or temporary.

Trump claims his $1.5 trillion tax cut-including the slashing of the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent-will create more jobs and increase wages. As in the Obama years, however, this massive windfall for big business and the rich will not be used to expand production, let alone increase the wages and living standards of workers. It will go for stock buybacks and dividend increases, which benefit the richest investors.

Wages are so low now that 7.6 million Americans are forced to work multiple jobs, a number not seen in 20 years. In a recent article titled "China-Like Wages Now Part of US Employment Boom," Forbes noted that a forklift operator hired at $12.75 an hour at Amazon's Fall River, Massachusetts fulfillment center makes $382 for a 30-hour week, "not much more than the average guy in Beijing," where the median weekly wage is $329.53. At 40 hours a week, a higher paid, full-time Amazon worker in Fall River earns $28,800 a year before taxes, roughly what Amazon's billionaire CEO Jeff Bezos pockets every minute.

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Amid "Full Employment," No Recovery in US Wages The US jobs report for November, released Friday, provides further evidence that the much vaunted economic "recovery" in the United States has overwhelmingly benefited Wall Street, whose stock bonanza is based above all on stagnant wages and the destruction of working-class living standards.

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https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/what-current-poverty-rate-united-stateshttps://poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/what-current-poverty-rate-united-states

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https://vittana.org/26-poverty-and-crime-statistics

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Homeless shelters

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https://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/21?e=rittenberg-ch19_s03https://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/21?e=rittenberg-ch19_s03

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Homeless shelters
http://www.sbsun.com/2017/12/11/military-tents-to-serve-as-winter-homeless-shelters-at-victorville-fairgrounds/

Military tents to serve as winter homeless shelters at Victorville fairgrounds

San Bernardino County Sun - 14h ago

On Dec. 5, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an agreement with the Marine base to borrow the tents, and the county, in turn, is letting the Victor Valley Rescue Mission and High Desert Homeless Services Inc. use the ...

Military tents to serve as winter homeless shelters at Victorville fairgrounds

San Bernardino County Sun - 14h ago

On Dec. 5, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an agreement with the Marine base to borrow the tents, and the county, in turn, is letting the Victor Valley Rescue Mission and High Desert Homeless Services Inc. use the ...

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https://abovethelaw.com/2017/12/the-making-of-a-felon-how-poverty-and-race-are-putting-people-in-prison/https://abovethelaw.com/2017/12/the-making-of-a-felon-how-poverty-and-race-are-putting-people-in-prison/