贫者、近贫者与你 Nov. 23rd 2011 | from The New York Times What is it like to be poor? Thankfully, most Americans do not know, at least not firsthand. And times are tough for the middle class. But everyone needs to rec ognize a chilling reality: One in three Americans 100 million people is either poor or perilously close to it. The Timess Jason DeParle, Robert Gebeloff and Sabrina Tavernise reported recently on Census data showing that 49.1 million Americans are below the poverty line in general, $24,343 for a family of four. An additional 51 million are in the next category, which they termed near poor with incomes less than 50 percent above the poverty line. As for all of that inspirational, up-by-their-bootstrap talk you hear on the Republican campaign trail, over half of the near poor in the new tally actually fell into that group from higher income levels as their resources were sapped by medical expenses, taxes, work-related costs and other unavoidable outlays. The worst downturn since the Great Depression is only part of the problem. Before that, living standards were already being eroded by stagnating wages and tax and economic policies that favored the wealthy. Conservative politicians and analysts are spouting their usual denial. Gov. Rick Perry and Representative Michele Bachmann have called for taxing the poor and near poor more heavily, on the false grounds that they have been getting a free ride. In fact, low-income workers do pay up, if not in federal income taxes, then in payroll taxes and state and local taxes. Asked about the new census data, Robert Rector, an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation told The Times that the emotionally charged terms poor or near poor clearly suggest to most people a level of material hardship that doesnt exist. Heritage has its own, very different ranking system, based on households amenities. According to that, the typical poor household has roughly 14 of 30 amenities. In other words, how hard can things be if you have a refrigerator, air-conditioner, coffee maker, cellphone, and other stuff? The rankings ignore the fact that many of these are requisites of modern life and that things increasingly out of reach for the poor and near poor education, health care, child care, housing and utilities are the true determinants of a good, upwardly mobile life. Government surveys analyzed by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities indicate that in 2010, just over half of the countrys nearly 17 million poor children, lived in households that reported at least one of four major hardships: hunger, overcrowding, failure to pay the rent or mortgage on time or failure to seek needed medical care. A good education is also increasingly out of reach. A study by Martha Bailey, an economics professor at the University of Michigan, showed that the difference in college-graduation rates between the rich and poor has widened by more than 50 percent since the 1990s. There is also a growing out-of-sight-out-of-mind problem. A study, by Sean Reardon, a sociologist at Stanford, shows that Americans are increasingly living in areas that are either poor or affluent. The isolation of the prosperous, he said, threatens their support for public schools, parks, mass transit and other investments that benefit broader society. The poor do without and the near poor, at best, live from paycheck to paycheck. Most Americans dont know what that is like, but unless the nation reverses direction, more are going to find out.
上一篇: 2015考研英语阅读之标点符号如何利用
EU after Brexit, human ancestor mystery 英脱欧公投后的欧盟,人类祖先之谜新发现
Canada wildfire and NASA discovery 加拿大林火,美国国家航空航天局发现系外行星
Alligator takes boy and Tate Modern extension 鳄鱼拖走小男孩,泰特现代美术馆扩建完工
Ebola outbreak and brain injuries 埃博拉疫情,脑部创伤
Distinct 和 distinctive 之间的区别
Zika virus, Rare whale filmed in Australia 寨卡病毒传播风险,澳大利亚拍到罕见鲸鱼影像
Connection and link 两个表示“关系”的单词
UN female, New flag and Apollo 11 倡议提名女秘书长,新西兰换国旗和阿波罗11号再创历史
Ten a penny 多得遍地都是
The cost of protecting the environment, Juno space probe 保护环境付出的代价,“朱诺”木星探测器
Mars bars and baby gorilla 火星巧克力棒和大猩猩产幼子
US-Cuba flights and male cosmetic surgery 美国-古巴复航和男性整容手术
Brexit and Hockney's art 英国脱欧公投后进展,大卫·霍克尼艺术展
Antibiotics and escalator etiquette 美国人过多使用抗生素,伦敦地铁扶梯礼仪
Clash 和 crash 之间的区别
India's sewer workers and British school standards 印度下水道工人施工安全,英国在校生学习成绩下降
Drought in Ethiopia and MS treatment 埃塞俄比亚干旱,多发性硬化治疗手段新进展
Simple, innocent, naive, pure 四个近义词的区别
Darkness over Indonesia and the 'fifth Beatle' dies 印度尼西亚日全食,“第五位披头士”去世
Battery risk, Farmer anti-theft solution 纽扣电池的潜在危险,牧场主防盗有术
Ditch 和 abandon 之间的区别
Chelsea doctor and surfing in Australia 切尔西队医与球队和解,澳大利亚冲浪
Take part in, join in, participate, attend 四个表示“参加”的单词或短语
Commend 和 recommend 的区别
Diabetes warning and Queen at 90 糖尿病激增引忧, 英国女王90岁生日
Zuma in court and stressed horses 南非总统受审和马的精神压力
Creativity、innovation 和 originality 的区别
Barrier, hurdle, impediment, hindrance 四个表示“障碍”单词的区别
Zika virus and the A4 waist challenge 寨卡病毒,“A4腰挑战”
Zika threat and back from space 寨卡病毒威胁美国,国际空间站宇航员返回地球