Internet Research: Poverty Questions

In class we have been looking at the American system of taxation, and poverty in America. We used two activities in class, using chairs to represent the economic spectrum in our country. The first activity showed the breakdown of the wealth by having people sit and control a number of chairs in relation to their wealth (i.e. Andy had the most money, in the highest economic bracket, so he controlled 6 chairs all to himself). The second activity was a musical chairs game, where people had their names labeled on certain chairs to signify that they were owned (I controlled 4 chairs to start and eventually ended up with 6). This activity showed how the few people who start out with wealth, end having control of the wealth, while a majority of the people struggled to compete for a very small number of job opportunity. At the end of this activity everyone who started with a chair either had more or the same amount, and only one person who did not originally have a chair (Kevin), ended up with one. The rest of the class however "lost" the game.


- What is the current amount of funding available for welfare programs in the US?

The amount of funding approved in Iowa for 2009, is $131,600,471. This is funding for "child and family services" in Iowa

http://www.dhs.iowa.gov/docs/10-401-HHS-007B-Child-Welfare.pdf

- What percentage of the US lives below the poverty line?

The poverty rate in America has been around 12- 17% on average, but according to government studies, 59% of people will spend at least one year below the poverty line between ages 25- 75.



This graph is from the census report: "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005" and it shows the amount of people in poverty given the year, and the percentage of the population living in poverty.

- Who (government office) is responsible for the distribution of government checks?

The Department of Labor is the agency in the US, in charge of unemployment checks, Health Care and many more social welfare programs. They are responsible for the distribution of the checks for such programs as well.

http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/programs_initiatives.html

- How does the unemployment rate today compare to that of the great depression, or even the Vietnam war?

The unemployment rate in 1932 was 24.9%, today in 2009 (march) it is 8.5%. The important thing to remember is that in 1932 the population of the US, was 124,840,471, meaning roughly 31,000,000 people were unemployed in 1932. The current US population is 305,529,237 so 8.5% of that puts the number of unemployed at about 26,000,000. This is alarming as the comparative rate of unemployment between now and the great depression are about the same.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression
http://www.bls.gov/

- Now that most public housing projects are filled, where do people who are elegible for the Section-8 program apply?

As of now, no alternate program exists for section-8 housing but newer sectioned housing projects are being built, allowing more space for those in need of homes and a higher quality of living for those living in unacceptable conditions.

http://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/19/realestate/alternative-to-section-housing.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2

- How many people living below the poverty line ARE employed?

According to a report from the "Working Poor Family Project", 28% of people living below the poverty line, are families where one or both parents are employed. This was based off of data from 2004- 2006 and the report was released in 2008. This is highly relevant because we know that almost 30% of those in poverty are making wages lower than the US government has deemed a livable wage.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21032.htm


Questions I Still need to Answer:

-What percentage of people living below the poverty line claim any form of social benefit?
-How do the homeless receive these benefits?