Class Struggle Update

Here's some articles summarizing the class struggle here in the U.S.A.

First, this must-read article by Elizabeth Warren on the withering middle class
American Without a Middle Class

This article from the Financial Times looks at the growing underclass of working poor who are unable to get banking accounts and rely on other expensive alternatives like pawn shops to survive:
Report Reveals Vast Banking "Underclass" in U.S.

According to the article, The FDIC found that some 17m US adults are in households without any bank accounts. Another 43m had accounts but were "underbanked", relying on non-bank services such as pay-day lenders and pawn shops.

The number of underbanked Americans dwarfs the estimated 46m citizens who lack health insurance. Barack Obama has staked his presidency on bringing that group into the system.

The FDIC survey revealed vast racial disparities in access to financial services.

Almost 22 per cent of black households had no bank account compared with 3.3 per cent of white households.

Food Stamp Use Soars, Stigma Fades

US Poverty Rate Hits 11-Year High

Census: US Poverty Rate Hits 11-Year High
The U.S. poverty rate hit its highest level in 11 years in 2008 as the worst recession since the Great Depression threw millions of Americans out of work, a government report showed on Thursday.

Food aid is unloaded by the Care and Share food bank as local residents await their share in August 2009 in the rural town of Hugo, in eastern Colorado. Nearly 40 million people lived in poverty in the United States last year as the recession forced the first significant rise in the US poverty rate in five years, the US Census Bureau said in a report Thursday. (AFP/Getty Images/File/John Moore)The Census Bureau said the poverty rate rose to 13.2 percent in 2008, the highest level since 1997, from 12.5 percent in 2007. About 39.8 million Americans were living in poverty, up from 37.3 million in 2007.

The government defines poverty as an annual income of $22,025 for a family of four, $17,163 for a family of three and $14,051 for a family of two.

Real median household income fell 3.6 percent, the biggest annual drop since 1991, to $50,303 in 2008.
The Census Bureau also said 46.3 million Americans were without health insurance last year compared to 45.7 million in 2007. The numbers could feature in arguments over President Barack Obama's plans to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system and dramatically expand medical insurance coverage.

The family poverty rate rose to 10.3 percent last year and 8.1 million families were in poverty, the Bureau said. This compares to 9.8 percent and 7.6 million respectively in 2007.

Poverty was higher among blacks and Hispanics, the report showed. About 14.1 million children under the age of 18 lived in poverty last year, up from 13.3 million in 2007.

Poverty in the LGBT Community

Study Looks at Poor Among Gay & Lesbian Families

Lesbian couples are more likely to be poor than married heterosexuals, and children of same-sex parents are twice as likely to live in poverty as those of traditional married couples, a new report shows.
UCLA's Williams Institute, which studies gay issues, says its report out today is the first to analyze poverty among gay and lesbian couples.

The report is an analysis of the most recent data on same-sex unmarried partners from the 2000 Census and two smaller surveys that include questions on sexual orientation. Together, it argues, they debunk "a popular stereotype (that) paints lesbians and gay men as an affluent elite."

More:
Washington Blade: Gays/Lesbians More Likely to be Poor than Straights
Bilerico: The End of "Gay Affluence"

MLK's Last Speech

MLK's last speech, delivered in Memphis forty years ago tonight.

What if King were still alive? He'd be called an anti-American, racist, communist, just like when he was alive.

Ironic how even (most) conservative Republicans praise King now, but when he was alive they despised him. He was feared because he spoke truth to power. He was more than just a "civil rights" leader. He saw that "social justice" would require much more than civil rights legislation. He condemned U.S. imperialism and accused the U.S. of war crimes and terrorism. He opposed the Vietnam War. He was starting to spread his wings to take on poverty and capitalism, before he was taken from us. But his dream is our dream, and he lives through us.

Speaking Truth To Poverty, Martin Luther King III

MLK's Legacy is Alive and Well, Jesse Jackson

Another Angry Black Preacher, E.J. Dionne

When Liberalism's Moment Ended, E. J. Dionne

King's Promised Land is Still Far Off Amy Goodman

What If MLK Had Lived? CNN

Our Politics to Live Up To MLK's Legacy, Barack Obama

Food Stamp Use Nears Record

Food Stamp Use Nears Record

Driven by a painful mix of layoffs and rising food and fuel prices, the number of Americans receiving food stamps is projected to reach 28 million in the coming year, the highest level since the aid program began in the 1960s.

Welcome to Bush's America

Bush's America: Record Numbers Plunged into Poverty

According to a report released by McClatchy Newspapers Saturday, In U.S., Record Numbers are Plunged into Poverty The analysis of the report shows that:
almost 16 million Americans live in "deep or severe poverty" (defined as a family of four with 2 children earning less than $9,903--half the federal poverty line. For individuals the "deep poverty"threshold was an income under $5,080 a year.
The number of severly poor Americans grew by 26% from 2000 to 2005, 55% faster than the overall poverty population grew in the same period.
This surve in poverty has taken place alongside an unusal economic expansion in which worker productivity increased dramatically since the recession of 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged behind. The share of national income going to corporate profit, on the other hand, has drwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries. "These and other factors have helped push 43% of the nation's 37 million poor people into deep poverty--the highest rate since 1975." The report notes that social programs in the U.S. are minimal compared to those of Western Europe and Canada. The U.S. has a population of 301 million people, with 37 million poor people, and 45 million U.S. citizens have no health insurance.

Maybe the U.S. media will take some time off the dead body of Ana Nicole Smith and Britney Spear's bald head and cover this story--the social and economic decay of the American working class under George W. Bush!