No Consensus on Poverty Census

I sometimes wonder if announcements from the government on embarrassing data related to poverty are intentionally confusing in order to shield the reality of hurt in this country.

Recently, the United States Census Bureau declared a new model to assess poverty. Two months ago, the Bureau announced that the number of poor Americans was 46.2 million. Now, they say the number is 49 million.

What is an additional 3 million in the grand scheme of a country that has 312 million inhabitants? So the government added one percent to their original count, does it really make a difference?

For those of us who are not Certified Public Accountants (CPA) or professors public policy, the numbers don't really register. Somewhere in the perplexity of data gathering, the model for counting poor Americans changed from just looking at food and wage standards, to adding government benefits and household expenses.

That certainly makes sense. But why didn't the government change the standard years ago? We all know food and a paycheck is not the only way to know if a person is poor. If I live in a part of the country where renting an apartment takes two-thirds of my paycheck every month, then I am going to be poorer than my fellow Americans living in more affordable parts of the country.

I am just wondering if government officials have been trying to hide the truth - the fact that this superpower of a country has more poor Americans than we care to admit. Is adding another one percent to this country's poverty count a way to amend the truth?

With my non-CPA thinking, all I know is this. Last month, the agency I run performed a survey of people living on the streets in a neighborhood just northwest of downtown Los Angeles. You could have labeled this a poverty census, or what many also call a homeless registry.

How do I know poverty in America is acute? Certainly, not by numbers revealed by the government.

Instead, we found a father and a teenage son living under a bridge within a residential neighborhood that contained homes valued at $600,000. Dad could barely feed the family with temporary labor jobs, and his son was a struggling student at the local community college. Certainly, this hurting family would be categorized as poor, in any data-driven census model. Their lack of food and a tiny paycheck that couldn't even allow them to pay for a household, positioned them at this country's lowest socio-economic scale.

If a social safety net in a super-powerful country really worked, a hardworking parent and college student would not be going home to a dirt floor with bridge girders as their roof.

We can hide the reality that 49 million, or 46 million, or 100 million Americans are living in poverty, through confusing numbers and conflicting data-driven mathematical formulas. With the thousands of other words and numbers I read each day on Google News and the local paper, I might just skim over these befuddling numbers.

But no compassionate American who values human dignity, hard work, and is proud of this country, would turn a back on a father working hard to earn a buck, and a son studying hard to create a future life that includes living in a home.

I wish the Census would consist of more than numbers. What we really need in this country is a census of stories.

 

 

 

Follow Joel John Roberts on Twitter: www.twitter.com/joeljohnroberts

Comments

[Teresa Young]

03:19 PM on 11/15/2011

Every night I count the vehicles where we park at night, I don't really know why I do this, I just feel like I have to. My Husband and I park in several different places so we don't get accused of squatting, and for each different place there are quite a few regulars to that spot. The lowest number was 16 vehicles and the highest number was 32 vehicles at one place, between 50 and a 80 at my favorite department store, and two other places get between 10 and 35 vehicles, there are a bunch of other places where people park but I don't like those places, they are either to far out, no way to toilet, or there's to many drunks and drug attics, and then there are the people without vehicles, they have to hide or they get fined, thrown in jail and their stuff destroyed, today community service is doing just that on the Green-way here today. The numbers here are much higher than my eyes have scene, I did see a news report a few months ago there are 1,500 more children Homeless this year than last year, you know what's really sad once you become Homeless your considered a pariah, not to be scene, not to be heard, people even think that we have no culinary taste, or can't do something as simple as cooking for our-selves, like we instantly forgot how to do that.

[Marturia]

09:50 PM on 11/14/2011

**** "I sometimes wonder if announcements from the government on embarrassing data related to poverty are intentionally confusing in order to shield the reality of hurt in this country." ****
**** "I am just wondering if government officials have been trying to hide the truth." ****

You may be just wondering - but I'm sure of it.

[hawaiianstile]

08:58 PM on 11/14/2011

it is the inescapable way of your country to create poverty and keep it. america as you know it cannot be without the poor and the homeless. i see genuinely good people who are genuinely concerned about those who suffer, but they always fail to see the reasons for the suffering, which is essential to fixing the problem. in the end everybody likes to be concerned about the results of the problem but never try, even refuse to see the source of the problem.

[caloy2x]

03:54 PM on 11/14/2011

These facts are the ones that the very wealthy and the republican party would rather shy away to discuss. Because they do not care and it takes away other stories they are more interested in telling to advance their greed machines.

[namaholston]

02:13 PM on 11/14/2011

Many people as myself prepared well enough to own a home, car, and some property while working when we were younger, therefore putting away some for later retirement. Today I am considered below the poverty level, and I live very austerely and don't owe anything, do not shop recklessly, re-use what I have if it still functions, don't have cable, new wardrobe, hi-tech gadgets, or travel and I use sparingly. My income (SS) is barely enough but the government keeps chipping away at what little I still own as if it belongs to them while they live lavishly on taxes I still pay. Something is wrong in this nation! It's name is GREED!

[hawaiianstile]

09:00 PM on 11/14/2011

lol it is not greed, it is the system the nation has always run on that is the problem. and as long as that is the system in control, the problem will not only never go away, but will get worse and worse.

[Mochilero]

12:00 PM on 11/14/2011

Poverty is partly related to money, obviously, but other factors are at least as important. Family, friend and community resources, peace and quiet and natural beauty and access to fresh local non-processed foods rank higher for me. I have backpacked all over the world and encountered people with much less in the way of material assets than most Americans think are necessary, yet found a great deal of contentment and happiness if these other factors were present.

[Stavo]

02:52 PM on 11/14/2011

So....everyone should be as lucky in life as you? Keep backpacking.....

[Mochilero]

10:02 PM on 11/14/2011

I am indeed greatly fortunate, born in the right place and time with good genes. However I learned very early the limitations of material life, and chose a path of voluntary simplicity and freedom. Clearly billions of people in the world have much less opportunity, yet still get a lot out of their lives.