| 9-30-01 How many people do you think live in poverty in the United States? Take a wild guess at it. Figures from the Census Bureau are in for the year 2000. 2000 was a good year, poverty was at it lowest level since 1974. What if I told you it was 10 million people? Not even close. It's 31.1 million people. 11.3% of the population. 22.1% of African-Americans are in that group. And this judges "poverty" to be equivalent to earning $17,603 for a family of four. That's crazy poor, starvation poor, homeless poor. I'm sure this figure doesn't even include a lot of the homeless who wouldn't be counted in a census. 31.1 million people in poverty in our country. Sounds like an on-going tragedy to me, but one that gets swept under the rug. Our government (with the majority of public support) is driving a War on Terrorism, but what about a War on Poverty? A worldwide War on Poverty would do more to alleviate Terrorism in the long run than any military action. Then you've got Bill Gates who was recently announced to be (still) the richest man in the world, worth 56.1 billion dollars. You heard me right. 56.1 BILLION DOLLARS. It's a beautiful world. I wish I wasn't so damn cynical sometimes. I want to give out some good energy, but I think the world sucks so bad… |
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