Millions Of Americans In Economic Battle To Make Ends Meet

[RestoreGore]

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/65110/

Millions of Americans in Economic Battle to Make Ends Meet

By Heather Boushey, AlterNet. Posted October 13, 2007.


One in five don't earn enough to make ends meet and six years of Bushenomics has inflicted new hardships.

The Bush recovery has been good for Wall Street, but not Main Street. The economic recovery that began in 2001 has brought slow job growth, limited wage gains, and continued rising inequality. While families at the top of the income ladder have seen their incomes rise faster than inflation, those in the middle and bottom have seen theirs fall.

Millions now work in what we call "bad jobs." While higher-wage workers take for granted that their jobs come with employer-based benefits like health insurance, a retirement plan, and maybe some paid time off, just over one-in-five workers (22.1 percent) are in a bad job -- a job that pays low wages and provides no benefits.

That's where government work supports -- programs that ensure that families can access basics such as healthcare, childcare, food, and housing -- are supposed step in and fill in the gaps.

The reality, however, according to research we released this week, is that nearly 41 million people live in families that don't earn enough to make ends meet, and government benefits do not fill in the gap. These families work, but their earnings aren't enough. Most low-wage workers don't get the kinds of employer-sponsored benefits common for higher-waged workers, so without government help, these families are left out in the cold, often unable to afford health insurance, decent child care or other necessities.

We do have work supports to help people. Child-care assistance, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), food stamps, public housing and Section 8 housing programs, Medicaid, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families are all available across the United States.

When families get these work supports, they help bridge the gaps left by low wages and lack of employer-sponsored benefits. Across nine states (Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Washington) and the District of Columbia, for example, work supports close nearly half (44 percent) of the gap between a family's earnings and what it takes to make ends meet.

But these policies leave out just as many as they help. Most of these work supports were initially intended to serve poor, unemployed families. The eligibility criteria require families to be very poor, earning so little in most states that many of those who are in need still earn "too much" to be eligible. The EITC and SCHIP were both designed to help working families, but even these programs leave many families out in the cold.
end of excerpt.
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And many families including my own find it ever harder to afford the necessities of life. We work to be broke. Is that the new American dream?

[Stargazer99]

1. Coming from low income/poverty the night Bush was

elected I could tell you the poor are going to pay and pay deeply...maybe looking from the bottom up gives one a better perspective. Now that the middleclass is getting their tail feathers singed maybe something will get done.

[RestoreGore]

4. I hope you're right

But it will take a massive sweeping out of all the institutions in this government who have perpetuated the status quo all of these years.

[dkofos]

5. We should start with the incumbent polititicians!!

[PsN2Wind]

6. The middle-class has been 'getting their tail feathers singed"

for the last several presidencies, including Bill Clintons arm twisting to pass NAFTA, something for which I can never forgive him. The power is in the hands of the corporatists and the very wealthy, neither of which care about he middle class.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

10. Yes indeed.

For this I spent twelve years in college and earned three difficult degrees?

So I could be overqualified and thus unemployable?

What a sick fucking joke the job market is.

America throws away its talent, refuses to protect its industries, and we wonder why we've turned into a third world country with no middle class.


:puke:

[SammyWinstonJack]

15. And yet it never had to be this way. Thanks a lot Supreme Court.

:sarcasm: Had Gore been able to take his rightfully won place in the election 2000, the last six + plus years would have so much different, economically, environmentally, etc.

[PsN2Wind]

2. And yet, Alan Greenspan, is all over TV

talking up the wonders of "globalization". He also mentions income disparity but cannot grasp the connection between the two. The export of millions of manufacturing jobs has done much to hollow out the middle-class here. So while China has a growing middle class the US is losing theirs.

[RestoreGore]

3. yes, China is the big player in this

I don't begrudge any country's right to grow economically, but not at the expense of my country. But we now know that those at the top would willingly sell this country to the highest bidder to keep themselves comfortable, and that is exactly what they have done.

[DesertFlower]

7. this is what really irks me

about the republican party. it's the "let them eat cake" attitude. they keep trying to tell us that inflation is low and the economy is good. what about all the jobs that have been outsourced? these were high paying technical jobs that have gone to india, china, etc. these jobs are not coming back.

just this morning i saw an ad for AARP supplemental health insurance. well you know what? that damn word insurance when it comes to health is really bugging me. we are the only industrialized country that does not have universal health care. hillary can say what she wants. so can john edwards, but the only one who has it right about health care is kucinich and we know that he's not going to be elected, nor would i want him to be. maybe he should be appointed to a position that oversees this plan going into effect.

i know i did not address the OP's original question, but i think health care is a good start along with penalties for companies who outsource jobs.

[justgamma]

8. I agree with you.

Health care is so important! I'm praying that Edwards will get it. In his plan, you will have a choice, for profit insurance companies or a government not for profit like medicare. He is being realistic that he could not get medicare for all passed. He hopes that so many people will choose the government program that it will overrun the insurance companies and lead to UHC.

Kucinich will not win, but Edwards maybe could.

[DesertFlower]

11. it's possible. even though hillary

is the front runner, a lot can happen. look how kerry jumped ahead in 2004.

[RestoreGore]

14. I agree with you

It is a viscious cycle. Many find it harder to take better care of their health properly because they are either working too much or can't afford it. Combine that with eating the wrong foods on the go or too much of what is no good simply because it is more conveneint because of our lifestyles which have to in many cases be as they are because we need to work many hours, and that lends to the entire problem. Health care is very important to this equation. Even having health insurance is no insurance when you are poor.

[DesertFlower]

16. even if you have health insurance,

you have to worry about long term care which is not covered by insurance or medicare. it can wipe out everything, savings, house, etc. is this crazy? the upper middle class can become poor because of illness.

[1932]

9. It's going to be hard to elect non-corporate Dems now that Bush has showed how much money corps can

make from a bad government that's screwing over people.

[bonito]

12. Recommending sadly

[gateley]

13. K&R and like bonito, with a heavy heart. nt