<font color=brown>So, Stevo, does this news make you happy? Do you want to dance around your mercedes laughing your butt off? Does it make you delirious with joy to enjoy Nixon's, I mean Bush's tax cuts while others wallow in poverty? Do you think "good, they deserve it"? I bet you do!
Have a good one! <font color=black>
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Poverty Climbs, Incomes Slide
Census Releases Numbers on Household Finances
By GENARO C. ARMAS, AP
WASHINGTON (Sept. 26) - Poverty rose and income levels declined in 2002 for the second straight year as the nation's economy continued struggling after the first recession in a decade, the Census Bureau reported Friday.
The poverty rate was 12.1 percent last year, up from 11.7 percent in 2001. Nearly 34.6 million people lived in poverty, about 1.7 million more than the previous year.
Median household income declined 1.1 percent between 2001 and 2002 to $42,409, after accounting for inflation. That means half of all households earned more than that amount, and half earned less.
The poverty rate rose again after having fallen for nearly a decade to 11.3 percent in 2000, its lowest level in more than 25 years. Income levels increased through most of the 1990s, then were flat in 2000 and fell the last two years.
Experts had predicted rising unemployment last year and the still shaky economy would increase poverty and lower income for most people, even though the recession officially ended in November 2001.
In 2002, 12.1 million children were in poverty, or 16.7 percent of all kids, up from 11.7 million, or 16.3 percent, the previous year. The Census Bureau said the increase was not statistically significant.
09/26/03 10:06 EDT
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. |
