Americans Sinking Deeper in to Poverty Says New Census Bureau Study

Democrats haven't stopped this

The latest findings from the US Census Bureau reports that the number of Americans living in poverty has increased by 4 million between 2008 and 2009. One in seven Americans was living in poverty in 2009, the highest figure for working age poor in 50 years.

We reported in an earlier blog that some 45,000 annual deaths in the US are associated with lack of health coverage and these figures will no doubt continue to rise as the number of Americans without health coverage has increased by 4.4m from 2008 to 2009, to about 50 million people the Census Bureau said.  On top of all this, the banks, those folks we bailed out, “repossessed 95,364 properties in August, up 3% from July and an increase of 25% from August 2009, said RealtyTrac, a company which charts the national picture.” (1)

This crisis is far from over. We can get a hint at the level of cuts still to come from the big business politicians that are involved in elections this November. Jerry Brown, the former mayor of Oakland and Democratic candidate for governor is appearing on TV a little more often. His opponent for the governor’s seat is the former e Bay boss, Meg Whitman who has spent over $100 million so far; the best democracy money can buy here.

 “We have to live within our means” Brown tells us on TV the past few nights. “We have to stand together, not as Democrats and Republicans but as Californians first.” California is home to 95 Billionaires, out of 946 total worldwide, according to Forbes 2007 Index of World Billionaires, and the state is home to many millionaires. Los Angeles County had 268,136 millionaire households as of 2006, the largest number of millionaires among the counties in the U.S. and 23 % of the total for the state. Orange County had 116,157 millionaire households and San Diego 102,138. Santa Clara County has 74,824 millionaires. (2)

Yes, Mr. Brown, we are all in this together, a retired public sector worker like myself, those lucky enough to still be working and those who aren’t and have lost their homes as well as their jobs; the low waged and homeless, we all have to stand with the billionaires and millionaires as Californians united all living within our means, all “sharing the pain” as they like to say.

Barbara Boxer is also in a race with a conservative Republican and former CEO, Carly Fiorina. Both Fiorina and Whitman are openly proud of their intention to destroy the Unions, cut taxes and social spending. They are very direct about the need to “live within our means”. The Democrats are more insidious but given what they know about the economy and how they are also going to have to savage worker’s living standards further in the coming period, they obscure the truth a little more introducing protectionist rhetoric about bringing jobs back to the US and, as Boxer announced last night, wanting to see the sign “Made in America.”  again.  They need the Union leaders on their side as they provide money and foot soldiers for the Democrats. They also suppress any movement from within their ranks that moves towards a break from this capitalist party.

Despite the ruthless competition between the two billionaires' parties for who gets to plunder US society for the next four years, these two parties agree fully on the fundamental issue, workers and the middle class will pay for their crisis. All thinking workers know what “Living within our means” means as much as we understand the term “Sharing the pain.” American workers know that we live in an unfair and far from egalitarian society, “It’s nice to be king” we jokingly say.

The California state budget has not been agreed and there is a $19 billion deficit, but today will set a new record for the stalemate as the politicians of the two parties that represent the billionaires and millionaires mentioned above come to an agreement on how much workers will have to sacrifice. Cut jobs here, benefits and social services there. Both parities will raise taxes as well, they have to from their point of view.

Workers are left once again without a party or candidates of our own. The Labor leaders with millions of dollars and two million members in the state are throwing their support behind the anti-Union Jerry Brown, the friend of the landlords and enemy of the poor when he was mayor of Oakland. This is a tragedy and is one of the major reasons for the decline in our living standards over the years. It is also the major contributor to a strong feeling among American workers that we can’t win, that there’s nothing we can do and that "all" politics is bad in general.

There will be a limit to the relatively passive response to the deepening crisis so far. But the dam will break at some point I am convinced of it. The building of our own political party will be an important and crucial part of any movement that emerges to drive back the capitalist offensive, we should do what we can to speed up this process.

The Census Bureau report can be found here

(1) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11332635 - story_continues_1
(2) http://www.missionbayrealestate.info/real_estate_articles/where_do_millionaires_live.html