Something to tack onto 2302s look at social welfare policy. Via Andrew Sullivan.
- The Recession and Extreme Poverty.
- Poor and Getting Poorer.
Recessions, in fact, appear to affect disproportionately the extreme poor, rather than those closer to the federal poverty threshold or the "near poor," those whose income is less than twice the federal poverty threshold.
Consider this: in 2010, 6.7 percent of Americans were among the extreme poor, as compared to 5.2 percent in 2007 and 4.5 percent in 2000. That's a 50 percent increase in the fraction of extremely poor individuals -- the greatest increase, by far, of any income group relative to the poverty threshold.
The comments are worth perusing.
