US Census: Black Individuals had Record Low Official Poverty Rate 2022

[Mel Hopkins]

 

 

While the Black community is still overrepresented at 20% in the poverty category, Black people have reached a "new low"overall. This time, "low" is good because, according to the US Census Bureau, the official poverty rate for the Black Population reached a historic low of 17.1 %. The Black Community was the only group to experience a significant change in poverty between 2021 and 2022! (Say what?)  For comparison, in 1959, more than half (55.1 %) of the Black population was beyond broke.

I've attached the link to the study below. When you have time to review, you may conclude that COVID-19 programs helped the Black Community immensely because one measurement (Supplement Poverty Measure) indicates the poverty rate was as low as 11.3% before the pandemic safety net programs expired.

 

https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/09/black-poverty-rate.html

 

By the way, did you notice the poverty rate for the white population? OMG!!!
 

President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."

[richardmurray]

Bill Moyers recalled from LBJ

We were in Tennessee. During the motorcade, he spotted some ugly racial epithets scrawled on signs. Late that night in the hotel, when the local dignitaries had finished the last bottles of bourbon and branch water and departed, he started talking about those signs. "I'll tell you what's at the bottom of it," he said. "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."

 

The land of opportunity myth is one of the great tragedies of the usa. It's always been  even when british colonies mostly filled with the impoverished. A 1% ofrom each : whites/women/indigenous/blacsk/males/many more

 

 

 

[ProfD]

24 minutes ago, richardmurray said:

The land of opportunity myth is one of the great tragedies of the usa.

Yep. Americans should be asking themselves why there is poverty at all in the most powerful country on the planet. Of course, it's by design.

[richardmurray]

@ProfD i oppose the need for the question of why, the british colonies that became the usa and the usa itself throughout its entire history was and is always mostly filled with financially poor people. You seem to suggest that once the usa became the militaristic empire , circa commonly called world war II , most people in the usa should not had been fiscally poor then and after. Militaristic power does not equal spreading of wealth, it never has. No need for the question of why poor . They were poor before and will be after. It is beyond design, it is the way of the country. 

[ProfD]

3 hours ago, richardmurray said:

@ProfD i oppose the need for the question of why...No need for the question of why poor . They were poor before and will be after. It is beyond design, it is the way of the country. 

As always, you have every right to oppose the question but it still remains. 

 

There is no need to have poverty/poor people in the wealthiest nation on the planet.

 

I'm not suggesting that everyone should be a millionaire. 

 

However, the US can afford to providing opportunities for every citizen to have food, clothing and shelter. 

 

On a daily basis, Americans throw away enough food to feed a small country.

 

By design, having poverty/poor/working class people feeds the economy. 

[richardmurray]

@ProfD well the arithmetic is simple,

A= USA revenue+ wealth in total

B= USA revenue+ wealth owned by: the one percent, the billionaires, the millionaires,  or various other controlling interest like members of the federal government which includes the military

C=A-B= the amount USA revenue + wealth available to the rest. 

D= need to the rest. 

 

B has always been large enough to make C<D. 

And B being large is fair, the usa is a fiscal capitalistic country. Fiscal capitalism is not socialism or communism. In fiscal capitalism one has the freedom to obtain huge amounts of wealth thus the attraction of fiscal capitalism. China's fiscal capitalism , born from their own socialism, essentially disallows a private sector one percent while maintains a public sector one percent. The government of china is not only has the government share like the usa federal government has, but also the one percent. 

But greed is acceptable in fiscal capitalism and sequentially, Fiscal Greed  which is completely legal in the usa makes (A-B)<D

To rephrase in pure arithmetic terms

(A-B(greed) )<D

case closed. You can not criminalize fiscal greed in the usa. So, the need is honest. Now, if fiscal greed becomes illegal in the usa then .... a different algorithm

[Pioneer1]

I admit that living in Western Michigan, my region isn't the most ideal one to measure and determine how successful Black America collectively is doing, but having grown up in a mostly Black city and having been all over the nation since the 80s.....AND knowing history....I have to question who came out with that report and how did they come to the conclusions they came to.

How can more Black Americans be in jail and homeless right now more than in any time in history AND be at a record low poverty rate at the same time????

Black folks....in Michigan atleast....collectively were doing MUCH better in the 80s and early 90s than they are collectively today.

Not nearly as many were incarcerated.
You didn't see nearly as many homeless.

Most lived in houses that they either owned or were buying.
Most had good jobs in factories with benefits and decent pay.

The percentage is MUCH lower now.

More Black folks have college degrees today than in the past....true.
But those jobs are very transient and you bounce from one to the other without a retirement, the pay doesn't seem to buy as much, and many don't even get jobs in their field of study.

You drive around the nation today and you see pockets where thousands of Black folks are out on the streets begging and many many more thousands are locked up behind bars.....not counted in the economic system.
Like the unemployment rate -I don't think they even count incarcerated people when they do poverty statistics.
It's like they don't even exist.
 
But being incarcerated is worse than poverty.
And being homeless and destitute as so many are today is worse than living on a meager income in the projects as so many were in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

[ProfD]

14 hours ago, richardmurray said:

@ProfD well the arithmetic is simple...case closed. You can not criminalize fiscal greed in the usa. So, the need is honest. 

 

The solution is even simpler...human beings need to do a better job in taking care of each other. More love. Less greed.

[richardmurray]

@ProfD well 

A = quantity of human beings that want to help other human beings

B = quantity of human beings that don't want to help other human beings

C= quantity of human beings that follow the leader

 

G1= fiscal effectiveness ( A)

G2 fiscal  effectiveness(C) 

G3= fiscal effectiveness (B) 

 

G1 > G2> G3 

(A-(B1(G1)-B2(G2)-B3(G3)) )<D

thus, again, the algorithm is simple. Those who don't want to help are more effective. Which again, goes to the nature of fiscal capitolism, which is the core of the usa. 

 

@Pioneer1 well over 95% of black people were once enslaved which is a pure combination of being incarcerated plus homeless at the same time, so I argue your assertion is wrong that black percentages to either are higher than ever. 

[Troy]

@Pioneer1 I don’t think people who are locked up are factored into the poverty figures. 

 

 The poverty rate also measures income versus a defined figure fora location as more blacks move out of cities where the threshold for poverty is higher to place where the threshold is lower poverty rates will decline (assuming local rates are being used in the graph above.

 

People were still getting stimulus checks, PPE money, extended unemployment in 2022 right? 

with inflation, rising the cost of energy from utilities to gasoline. The Increased cost of money I can see gains in 2022 being erased.