We were shocked by the recent news that the poverty rate for 2009 climbed sharply, and to an alarming level.
The figures indicated that the poverty rate for Americans increased last year from 13.2 percent to 14.3 percent!
That’s terrible news. We don’t want anyone to be in poverty.
We realize our country has been suffering a general economic crisis for some time. But even if roughly 86 percent of our people are getting along pretty well economically, having about 14 percent in poverty is just not acceptable.
Percentages are one thing. But when percentages represent “people,” that’s something else. It’s painful to consider that nearly 44 million people in America were considered to be poor last year.
That’s one in seven!
Some “big city” areas, places like Detroit and Los Angeles, had large jumps in poverty. But other hard-hit communities were Modesto, Calif.; Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla.; and Las Vegas.
Child poverty reportedly rose to almost 21 percent! That’s perhaps the most heartbreaking figure.
We are still a “rich” country, even in recession. Our free-enterprise system is what has built the greatest economy the world has ever seen. In addition, we have many kinds of charitable and governmental programs to help people in real need. But to think that 14.3 percent of our people may be in poverty is disconcerting.
The big question is, what has gone wrong? Then the next question is, how do we recover – for all of our people?
What has gone wrong is that we have defied commonsense rules of economics, governmentally and in private business and personal affairs. How can we pull out and revive the economy? Artificial economic respiration through government “stimulus” is no answer. There is no quick fix. But more hard work and more sensible free-enterprise economics can create more opportunities, in time, for those who really want to get a job. And there are some things our government should “quit” doing because they have a depressing effect on our economy.
We are still a rich country. But we have for too long ignored the limited-government, private-initiative principles that grow the economy.
Doing a mix of right and wrong things keeps 85 percent of our people “OK.” We need to do more of the right things to assure opportunities for the unfortunate 15 percent whom we want to do better.
It is not easy to step back and look at what has gone wrong – and then to do what is right to solve the problem.
But can’t we Americans do that? Shouldn’t we insist on doing that?