09-02-2004, 03:14 PM
I think all your potential reasons are wrong. :)
As I recall this poverty report was done by the census.
The first reason I think is that they skewed what an "American" is. Does "American" mean you live here or you have citizenship? I checked and saw no such qualification for being counted. We have a huge population of illegal immigrants from across our southern border with Mexico, and they usually come with just the clothes on their backs (now that's poverty!). Few speak english when they come, and due to community clustering, they are slow to learn it (if they ever do). They get further exploited with lower than minimum wages. To make their situation worse, I see few Mexican families with less than 4 kids. Finally it's not that they don't vote, due to their immigration status they can't vote.
I would put money on that being at least 80% of the poverty that was reported.
Another reason is what "poverty" is. They use a simple income number which makes for an inaccurate counting of people. The cost of living differs greatly depending on where you live in the US. The income poverty level in Montana is much lower than in California.
As I recall this poverty report was done by the census.
The first reason I think is that they skewed what an "American" is. Does "American" mean you live here or you have citizenship? I checked and saw no such qualification for being counted. We have a huge population of illegal immigrants from across our southern border with Mexico, and they usually come with just the clothes on their backs (now that's poverty!). Few speak english when they come, and due to community clustering, they are slow to learn it (if they ever do). They get further exploited with lower than minimum wages. To make their situation worse, I see few Mexican families with less than 4 kids. Finally it's not that they don't vote, due to their immigration status they can't vote.
I would put money on that being at least 80% of the poverty that was reported.
Another reason is what "poverty" is. They use a simple income number which makes for an inaccurate counting of people. The cost of living differs greatly depending on where you live in the US. The income poverty level in Montana is much lower than in California.