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Better off today than 4 years ago?

ASK THIS | February 21, 2006

With the 2006 elections looming, Morton Mintz is revving up questions for candidates for office. This installment may be seen, perhaps, as a 2006 version of the old-time misery index.


By Morton Mintz
mintzm@earthlink.net

Q. (For House and Senate candidates, including incumbents): Median income in America went down between 2000 and 2004, poverty went up and the number of people covered by health insurance declined. Considering these changes, would you say the country is on the right track or not?

  • Median household income for all Americans, down 3.6 percent, to $44,389; for African-Americans, down 7.4 percent; for Hispanic-Americans, down 5.9 percent.
  • Share of Americans in poverty, up from 11.3 percent to 12.7 percent. (Increase in number of Americans living in poverty, 5,415,000, including 1,440,000 children.)
  • Increase in number of Americans not covered by health insurance, 6,016,000.

The Oklahoma Observer for Jan. 10, 2006, reported the above statistics citing the following source: Appendices A, B, and C in Income, Poverty and Health and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2004, U.S. Census Bureau, August 2005. 



A Bifurcated America
Posted by Bryan Tate -
06/21/2006, 12:42 AM

The 40% of intelligent Americans are making money hand over fists, "playing" all over the world, while the other uneducated 60% are struggling at the mercy of this global change.

Don't know how you shrink the "skill gap". Let's face it; most people are just plain STUPID. Anyway, someone has to do the low paying crappy jobs.

Valuing the past will make you poor, while embracing the future can make you rich.

I speak from experience, having been on both sides of income scale. Making money in the USA is so easy if one seeks it and is willing to risk failure. It blows my mind why some people just can't make money. Therefore, I have lost all my empathy for the less privileged among us.





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