Yep, This We Knew, But All The Same, Guess What?

By Number Six

Monday, February 26, 2007 at 07:50 AM

Yeppers, the gap between robber barons and the poor widens ever still...........

Check it out!

Based on the latest available US census data from 2005, the McClatchy Newspapers analysis found that almost 16 million Americans live in "deep or severe poverty" defined as a family of four with two children earning less than 9,903 dollars -- one half the federal poverty line figure.

For individuals the "deep poverty" threshold was an income under 5,080 dollars a year.

5,080 dollars a YEAR??????????????????????? DAMN!!

"The McClatchy analysis found that the number of severely poor Americans grew by 26 percent from 2000 to 2005," the US newspaper chain reported.

"That's 56 percent faster than the overall poverty population grew in the same period," it noted.

Must have counted me this time, what with me losing my day job, eh? Can't call Six middle-class anymore!!

"Worker productivity has increased dramatically since the brief recession of 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged behind. At the same time, the share of national income going to corporate profits has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries," the study found.

"That helps explain why the median household income for working-age families, adjusted for inflation, has fallen for five straight years.

Ah, the plot thins. Tends to illustrate what we have known for years: The bozos at the top are riding higher and higher, and we, towards the bottom are looking for like serfs. We make it, they rape it. Makes total sense.

"That was the exact opposite of what we anticipated when we began," said Dr. Steven Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University, a study co-author.

"We're not seeing as much moderate poverty as a proportion of the population. What we're seeing is a dramatic growth of severe poverty."

Uh-huh. And wasn't New Orleans a clue? Or Chimp's spending habits? That former Exxon mogul Lee Raymond went to retirement on a $400,000,000 fund? That jobs disappear left and right for New Delhi? Xian? Beijing? And that our beloved drunk has the audacity to get his Rethug cronies to get even MORE tax cuts for the rich?

And what will be the result? Stay tuned, folks, it's going to get....interesting.