Poverty in America

I'm not in poverty by any means, but our family income dropped 66% when I lost my job last December. Finding a job in my field isn't happening, as my field has been off-shored over the last 15-20 years and the few jobs out there have so many applicants that people in my age bracket can't compete.

I find the unemployment process interesting. To force people to find work, the state of Kansas requires people to apply for jobs 5 days a week with documented proof that they are looking. To paraphrase their requirement, they basically state that they don't care whether you are trying to find work at your previous salary level, that you must apply to anything that you can do. With the level of unemployment where it is at and the number of people searching, I've been rejected for jobs where I would make 5% of what I earned previously. If DH loses his job, we are in poverty.

This isn't just my story. When my company laid off 75% of their work force, the majority of the people I worked with are going thru the same thing. Since my company hired many married couples and both were laid off, they have landed at the poverty level.

I hear politicians spouting that unemployed people aren't really looking for work and are happy to be on the dole. Not a single person I know wants to be in the situation they are in. I wish those politicians would put more energy into solving the unemployment situation than they do in grand standing in public. The laws in place for large corporations to encourage them to outsource their jobs to foreign companies are killing the income for people like me.

I hear that companies are sitting on large amounts of capital rather than hiring people for jobs. What is being done to incent those companies to invest in the people living in this country?

Without jobs, the poverty level will continue to grow in this country.

I am living off what Mom left me ... and attempting to get my small business to go... The business is going but it at this point most months covers just water, phone and electric... I am disabled but not wanting to file as I have seen many like me not get it but those who are able to work 35 plus hours a week get it ...

You know what's funny about that point? I'm sitting home, drawing unemployment, can't find work, and I am renovating my house. I spend roughly 4 hours a day or more searching for work and the rest of the day I spend doing inexpensive, DIY projects.

You may not understand why unemployed people choose to do things like renovating their homes. After working for the last 35 years, the last 20 of them basically working 50-60 hour weeks (or more), I don't know how to sit still. My house has been seriously neglected from all those years of not having time to do anything, and I've worked long and hard to earn the money that I had set aside for these types of things. But more importantly, most of the people that I know whom have been laid off are fixing up their homes because they expect to lose them, and are trying very hard to get as much as they can for their homes if and when they have to be sold. It's hard enough to lose your profession, then to lose the value of your assets that you depended on for retirement.

I could not file for unemployment and tap into that money for the essentials like food, utilities and pet care, but I've been reminded time and time again that unemployment compensation is insurance. Insurance for times like this when you get laid off and can't land a new job.

And I raise a question back to you. What do you expect people who suddenly have a lot of free time on their hands to do? Anything they do other than search for work 8 hours a day would be criticized. Trust me when I tell you that after an extended period of unemployment, you stop trying to apply to the same company after about the 10th try. I don't spend more than 4 hours a day doing a job search because there isn't all that out there to search that you haven't been rejected for over and over again.

Right now, where I work, we have a couple of people who have dropped to 'casual' status, to return to school for their nursing degrees. We are swamped, and working so much overtime that we are getting totally burned out. We are on a hiring freeze, so the hours that the 'casual' people used to work have not been filled. They are posted, so the 'casual' people could pick them up and work some of them when they're not in school. None of those hours are worked by the 'casual' employees, because if they work, it will cut into the amount of $ they get for state aid. Nice system, huh?

Yesterday I had to stop at two businesses on my way home from work. Both places (Kroger and Radio Shack) had help wanted signs in the windows. There are jobs out there (yeah, probably poor wages and no benefits)....even here in 15% unemployed Michigan....but nobody wants to take those jobs if they're getting unemployment benefits, or state aid.

My husband and I lived in a small town in the middle of nebraska. The only employment that was happening were factories and convienence store jobs. I worked 80 miles round trip at a call center part time, which most my pay went for gas. During the economic downturn some of the factories that supported the community have since closed putting 500 people out of work in a community of 8,000. People are losing their homes that they have owned for many years. The little towns don't have enough jobs to put 500 people back to work. We were dying a slow financial death. We do own a home in this small little town and we rented it out. Now we are renting a home where we moved to. The funny thing is we can't buy a house because the banks are not loaning money like they used to, even if we have 60k equity in our owned home, but I refuse to take out a second on our only asset to buy another house only to lose all to the banks. Everything is to risky these days and there is no security.

I had been away from an IT career for 16 years and I don't have a degree just on the job experience that is outdated on the mainframe computers. I applied for a job with the railroad on a long shot that all they could do was say no. After many hard interviews I got the job and we relocated 250 miles east. Now I am employed and my husband is unemployed and was getting unemployment because he had to leave his job to move with me for better opportunity. He is looking for a job and it's very difficult in these times. He just turned 62 and will be getting his small social security check that would never pay the bills if he was all alone. The sad fact is that the price of food and living expenses are rising and people just can't keep up. Unemployment insurance is taken from a part of our taxes and our employers have to pay also. This is something that is yours if you do lose your job due to layoffs or other circumstances beyond our control. I know that the amount they pay doesn't cover the bills. It flames me when these politicians shoot their mouths off when they have no idea what it's like to be unemployed and losing everything you own. They talk a lot of BS, and I really feel that people should make the government open their books and show us what they have done with our social security and our tax money. They take our money and should be accountable for it. They don't blink an eye on making our lives miserable when your taxes are late and you owe them.Sorry for rambling....

Momofmany I think it's great that you are able to work on your home and stay busy while you are unemployed. It keeps your mind busy, and helps you stay positive during hard times.

It doesn't work that way here in Florida. To be eligible for unemployment benefits you must be able and available to work.

My husband, a 51 year old man, applied at the same $7.50hr job 3 times because he was willing to take just about anything during his 2 years of unempoyment. He never even got an interview. Thank God he is now employed with a good company!
That being said, I think it's only fair to consider that Joe Shmoe may opt to collect benefits while spending a lot of time looking for work. In these times jobs are scarce, especially the better paying ones. Hypothetically, if Joe works for $8 an hour, he has less time to look for work. Sally, on the other hand is looking while on unemployment and lands a $15 hr job.

Many of these lower wage jobs don't want to hire many of the unemployed because they're too qualified.

AbuS (husband) is an unemployed accountant. He had an interview recently for an accounting clerk position. He could do everything the job asked for and was more than willing to do it for the pay they were offering (much lower than his last job), but they told him flat out he was overqualified, so they couldn't take him.

That's exactly what I'm facing. Nearly all of the jobs I've applied to ask for my previous salary. When potential employers see that, they don't bother to request an interview. They assume that you will leave them at the first opportunity.

I've been checking up on some of the jobs that I've applied for. What has happened with 3 of them (all the ones where I've been able to check) is that the company hired an internal employee for the job. Many HR groups require that a job is posted to the public, even if the intent is to hire someone internally. It's a huge waste of time to people out there looking for jobs. Be wary of "help wanted" signs.

And here's the reality of unemployment compensation, for those that think it's all about being on the "dole". Each year for the last 15 years, I've paid income tax to the state of Kansas. The amount of unemployment that I'm collecting from them for the entire 2010 year is less than what I paid to them in a single year (and that doesn't include property tax). Kansas is paying me the maximum amount based on what I previously earned and most people get far less than that. In fact, the amount that I'm still obligated to pay for property taxes leaves me roughly $3000 to live on for the entire year. I can eek out our food from that amount (that's $250 a month to feed 2 people), and gas to drive to look for jobs, but it wouldn't even cover pet food. So if DH didn't work, we would be selling the house, rehoming all of our pets, and probably moving in with a relative. And we would have to do this even though our house and cars are fully paid for - we couldn't even afford taxes and insurance, let alone utilities.

Poverty will continue to get worse until meaningful jobs come back to this country. The current political debates about immigration, DADT and other topics not related to the economic recovery of your average US citizen are really beginning to annoy me. Do you realize that executive compensation is based on how much cost they can drive out of their corporations, and the one that is used more often than anything else is laying off people? I personally know a CEO that was awarded $40M (that's million) when he achieved the company goal of reducing their operational cost thru "staff reduction". Think about it - people are being rewarded for increasing poverty in this country.

The news I get is for the mid size city near me ... well SINCE the recession supposely ended in june of 09 they lost 6000 jobs... How many of the 6000 are back in Sept 2010? 500 or 1/12 ...

I remember the Your over qualified line from the last resession... I was not sure to laugh or cry as I was in my early 20's ... How was I over qualified?

Politicians are only out to keep their own jobs, keep the money flowing in, and maintain their own standard of living. With few excpetions, they don't give a fig about the rest of us.

My sister has been laid off for going on 2 years. Her current unemployment is $67 every two week. Anybody who thinks unemployment is easy street has never been unemployed for any length of time.

My husband has been out of work even longer. Companies that might have an opening he could fill, are not giving jobs to people who have passed their 60th birthday, and nobody is hiring anyone that age for entry level in another profession. If I lose my job, we are definitely in poverty.

Lower that age by at least 15 years. When my company did their lay offs, they did them based on new salary targets. They reclassified the wages for each job, and in doing so, reduced the salaries for everyone that had been working for more than a few years. If you were older and earned annual increases over that time, your salary was cut to shreds. Then they gave you the option to bow out gracefully with a severance package if your salary was cut by 10% or more. Guess who got hit the hardest? Yup, older people. What was interesting was that they refused to give you the severance if you refused to sign a form that you wouldn't bring a law suit for things like age discrimination.

I was talking to a person the other day who is in the same boat that I am. He was the Vice President of a marketing firm when he got laid off 2 years ago. He lost a lot of his retirement savings when the market crashed in 2008 so couldn't depend on it to carry him through. It took him 18 months to find a part time job doing retail work at minimum wage, and he was forced to take anything just to get some health insurance. He's too young to collect pensions or social security, but too old for most employers to hire as an entry level employee. And there are no decent paying jobs at all for people who previously earned good wages.

With a lot of baby boomers in the same boat, I can see the poverty level rising even further, and I think you'll find that it will hit older people much harder this time around.

It already has. The unemployment rate of those 55 or older is the highest it's ever been, and the poverty rate in the group is already over 9%.

The company I work at is back and forth with hiring freezes and then mass hiring The work comes in quick, and everyone freaks out, and then by the time everyone new is trained, we're back to twiddling thumbs. The only reason I feel secure in my job is because I'm the only one in the company that does it, and my boss frequently comments on how well I'm doing it. If I lost my job, we wouldn't be in as bad a place as if hubby lost his job. He usually brings home 2x+ what I do. My income covers all the home bills and fuel each month, and when we bought the new car, that added $200/mo bill comes from his income. If he lost his, we'd be in a bad spot.

My dad has been unemployed for 6 years now. He's stubborn though - his dream moving to NC was to work on a NASCAR team ... but he moved there at 62 years old, they aren't looking for older people, they want the young'ns straight out of NTI down the street. Because he's 68, he gets social security checks, though they've gotten smaller now that my brother and I are both out of high school and he doesn't receive the extra $. My mom's income barely covers their bills, and their credit card debt is insane (because my mom has a spending habit on their limited income ) If she lost her job for any reason, they'd be on the streets. She doesn't have a degree (33 years of experience) and keeps getting moved around at her job in all the accounting divisions, so it can be scary for them at times when they move her to yet another department - never know when they might say "we don't need you now." My dad stopped actively looking a few years ago. Applied to a few parts stores but never got a call back.

There are a lot of places hiring around here, but a lot of unemployed as well. The company I work at is off its hiring freeze again and posting jobs up. And again I twiddle my thumbs at work lately so I assume it'll change shortly. Only once in the 4 years I've been there have they had any "big" layoffs.

I know that right now I feel soooo lucky that BF and I climbed out of our funk. This summer BF got a job working construction for the co-landlord of our house but he has major job security. All the bosses are fighting for him to work for them, farm, construction, and shop. Right now he knows that even though construction will be down big time for the winter he will be getting overtime because he has a list of jobs for the shop that the owner wants him to do because the only other mechanic there does not do paint work so all the trucks and rigs are on the list to get redone this winter. If the office ever ends up hiring they said they will hire me because of BF working there plus the fact that I have really good computer and typing skills and know how to do most of their paper work. *Rumor has it the owner and his wife will be retiring soon* If I go to work that gives us plenty of leeway to not only pay the bills but also put more money aside in our savings.

I know that I dont EVER want to go back to living off $400 bucks a month OR have BF working for his dad ever again. I feel so horrible for the people that are out there looking for jobs and cant find one, its part of the reason that I havent gone out looking for a job, I dont really need one and I dont want to take away a job from someone who really really needs the job. The assistance offices are packed, the CareerLink is always busy because so many people in the area are out of jobs or laid off because places like Fleetwood closed down, M.I. has layoffs, Wood-Mode has layoffs. People are picking up whatever they can just to make ends meat.

Dottie just went back to work at the school that closed and put her out of work! She looked hard for work, paid fees to get licensed as a car driving school instructor (state license), got trained as a tour bus driver, applied to a number of trucking companies, etc. It was a rough ten months, and there is no job harder than looking for work, in my opinion.

On the other hand, if you don't believe in miracles, you've never seen the statistics for those who get jobs the week their unemployment ends. The number of those who get another job in the last week of their unemployment or the week after their unemployment ends is just amazing.

The illegal immigration debate is definitely a part of this debate, however. Reducing those numbers would (or at least should) raise wages in many jobs that are currently seriously underpaid right now.

^^^^^
I agree with that also.


One thing I just thought of also that kinda bugs me about the whole poverty situation. The people that are crying they are broke going out to eat in restaurants. McDonalds dollar menu is one thing but blowing $40 going to Red Robin is another. Yeah its nice to be able to do that stuff but if your trying to pay bills why waste the money for something like that and then ripping off the server who is also trying to makes ends meat when tips and business is slow already. Its not right on either end. When I waitressed I cant tell you how many times people would come in and have a bill that was really high but then only leaving a 2 dollar tip for 6 people. Sorry but that is not only rude but just annoying. These people have no clue what goes into making sure 6 perfect meals get out and done all the the same time while making sure the table has adequate refills, their salad and soups before the meal and still take care of the rest of their section. Just a big pet peeve of mine. Even now that BF and I have the money to go to sit down restaurants and eat we still go to McDonalds instead and if we do go to a sit down place we always tip properly those servers dont even make $3 an hour and are so dependant on tips its not even funny. Their paychecks are non existant too because of taxes taken off their tip reports.

Sorry this whole economy, unemployment, poverty situation just gets my brain going and thinking of stuff that stupid people do or the crappy situations that good people find themselves stuck in because of the economy.

You know, you are right. Every day, I see people who come in and cash their "disability" checks and their PMHA checks (checks to pay utilities), see their Ohio Direction Card (foodstamps), see their state funded insurance card and I have to add all that up in my mind. They are getting free or reduced rent, free food, free health care, free utilities. That there totals over a grand a month in free benefits.

Those benefits should be for people who have worked their lives and have hit hard times, not for the many who are just on the public dole.

I am officially under the poverty line. Sadly though I've been making it... but only because I work "two jobs"... I have my normal call center job and my schooling. My college does bring some money home in the form of scholarships, grants and loans (roughly $6000/year, with college costs at $3500/year)... Right now I'm working hard in pushing up my GPA above 3.5 and holding it steady there so I can get more scholarships for when I have to transfer to the University, effectively doubling my tuition fees.

Times are rough, right now. Poverty is going to continue to rise until we have jobs again. Before I went back to school I got the "not qualified" line a lot... despite having 4 years of experience in the IT industry I had no college degree and so I could not compete come 2008. I worked from 2004-2008 in this industry with little to no problem, picking up the "bad paying" IT jobs that those with college degrees would not take. Then 2008 rolled around, the economy went to and all of sudden those with college degrees starting taking the pay hit simply to just have a job. Unable to find a job in that situation I went back to school to fix the one problem with my resume; no college degree.

The only thing I do collect is food stamps, simply because it helps. I work 40 hours a week and go to school full time, and I found myself short on money for food despite not eating out.

That greatly depends. My mother for example gets $76 a month for food. Who can live on that? She gets $600 a month for her disability which mostly goes to bills. No help with utilities and HUD is so backed up she'll be on their list for months before they'll help her into a place - if she finds one on her own that they'll agree to help with it'll only be ~$300. Average rent on a place where she lives is usually over $600.

The trick with food stamps seems to be to have young children. If you don't have children it is not much money at all. I simply collect a similar amount $82... because it helps... it doesn't by far pay for all of my food.

Yes, in general if one has kids - and even better if they're single, they'll get more out of those programs. Can't really blame those with kids for getting more, kids need food, too.

My point was those on disability are rarely getting as good of a deal as you think. Sure, if they have someone to live with who's working to help pay bills it works out ok. But otherwise they have to be careful because once their monthly money is gone that's it. Some may be able to pick up a miniscule amount of hours working somewhere (and good luck with that right now) but for most that would just end up being taxed away or reducing their benefits.
It would also do people good to remember that before they start complain about other collecting on the SSI they paid in that there are several members here who are relying on that.

I have a grown child on SSI, plus my childhood friend, and my daughter's friends. The SSI is miniscule and my friend depends on the church and the Salvation Army for food handouts. My daughter depends upon me for her extra toiletries, cat food/litter assistance, and fresh organic produce. I shudder to think of those on SSI without any outside help.

My own paycheck could go farther, but I have been shopping at the small local stores, to help them stay in business. The feed store that I use is struggling and they're having credit problems, so I prepay for the cat food that I order. It hurts me financially, but if paying that extra helps my community stay employed, I'll need to make the sacrifice.

There are indeed plenty of people willing to milk the system, though. Just look at the ones who apply for public defender assistance. It really yanks my chain that they like to strut in chanting about "I'll keep my guns, you keep the change" and how America is now "socialist" and "keep government out of my life", yet they certainly turn to government to pay for their criminal defense when they didn't get in trouble for going to church There is that perception that the lawyer's job is to prove the guilty are innocent, when the reality is that the ethic is to get the client the best result possible (which often means psych help, anger management, or substance abuse counseling in lieu of jail - and you should hear the howls of indignation for that ) and of course, since they're not paying for the costs of trial, they demand one, until the DA takes away the sweet deal if they do go to trial, thereupon, they go ahead and plead no contest, but not until the county has gone to the expense of paying for defense experts, the costs of retaining the court reporter, and the costs of summoning a jury

Good for Dottie! And I agree absolutely that looking for work is a very hard job these days.

Here's a perspective you may not have considered. I've looked for work for close to 10 months now. My unemployment runs out in about 6 weeks. It's not like I'm trying any harder right now than I have previously, but my tactics have changed. Up until about a month ago, I was applying for jobs where the pay was at least 25% of what I previously earned. Since that wasn't getting me anywhere, I'm now applying for any job at all, and most of those are less than 10% of what I previously earned. If I can't find a temporary part time job as a cashier at a department store over Christmas, then the economy is far worse than I realized. So with any luck at all, I will fall into the category of finding a job at the end of my unemployment. It's better to have a meager income than none at all.

Going back to your first point - finding a job is hard. If I had taken any job at all when I was laid off, I would not have had the time to look for something that wasn't completely devastating to my income. People still have hope that they won't lose all that they've worked for their entire lives just because they lost decent wages. Last minute employment is not miraculous. It's the dawning realization that people are not going to earn what they used to and simple desperation to continue to be able to eat. The sad truth is that a lot of those people that land jobs at the end of their unemployment also lose their homes in the process.

I think I have a right to complain about the misuse of SSI. I work in a bank that is in the County Seat so today was SSI day. I would say half of the people who came and withdrew all their money reeked of alcohol. I see the misuse EVERY working day, so yeah, I have a right to complain on how my tax dollars are being spent.

If they would kick the druggies and alcoholics off the public dole it would mean more for the ones who TRULY need it.

But then what would happen to the druggies and the alcoholics?
They will, out of need, resort to crime...

Its that same ol' dilemma - kinda like trying to keep ferals from pooping in the flower beds. sometimes the best solution is to give them a litter box outside - it's more work to clean a box for cats that aren't owned, but it keeps them out of the garden.

dont get me wrong - I hate the thought of being on the dole. In fact, in the early 80s, when my children were very young (5 & 2), my then husband was laid off as a hardrock miner, and took any job he could find. He stood "on the porch" with the Mexicans and found day jobs that way. but it wasnt enough so I went to the welfare office and looked at the index cards on the bulletin board. I found a widow lady who wanted some bushes cleared (she didn't think I could do it, but I told her I'd undercut her lowest offer by half & she took that). Anyway, she let me bring my kids, and my oldest entertained the youngest, and in the summer heat, I took out those junipers and my kids and I hauled them to the county dump in 100+ heat. She was so impressed that she and her friends paid me to do their lawns, and voluntarily gave me more than I charged. It was hard, but it kept us off welfare!!
And when my kids were young and I was single, I didn't get any child support, so worked 2 jobs (my youngest has brain damage, so back in the late 80s, early 90s, I paid $10/hr for childcare and there was no public assistance for childcare back then, like there is now).
and right outside our office, there's a run down trailer park, and one yard in particular is always filled with men smoking & hanging out, never working - the county helps them live there cuz they can't make it on their own. But if they don't get their SSI, what will they do for money. Because trust me, they won't be killing themselves, and they will need to eat & smoke and drink

In your case public assistance is needed. It is meant to be a safety net and not an instead of.

I just get angry seeing people get assistance who receive it due to their own actions..ie, drugs/alcohol. We had a woman yesterday who literally laid the top part of her body on the teller line desk because she was so drunk and attempted to hand me her SSI check to cash. I had one guy pass out once due to being so drunk. Unless you work in a bank, you really can't see the huge fraud going on with our public assistance programs.