Poverty, Planning & Politics

Below are the poverty thresholds measured by the United States Census for 2008:





Some people might think, "Hey, $47,684 is a lot, I wish I made that kind of money." But keep in mind that's $47,684 that you and eight other full-grown adults who are all living with you are making total. So, in other words, if you're all working, you would be making less than $5,298 a year. Still sound like a lot?



Now to the left are the Federal Poverty Guidelines for 2009. These are projected a little earlier, but they're a little less detailed. These are averages that take into account all of the possible structures of an 1-8 person household. Not much of a change overall.

Want to know how many people are living like this? According to our Census, roughly 38 million people are living in poverty in the United States today. On the global scale, with the poverty line being drawn at who makes less than $1.25 per day, the World Bank estimates the number of people being 1.4 billion. That's the scale of the problem we're dealing with.

- David

Hey everyone!

Poverty, planning & politics is just an idea that I want to try out to see whether or not we can bring a lot of people together who care about poverty in the United States and across the world. My posts are going to include a whole variety of different topics, strategies and groups that are relevant when it comes to reducing the level of poverty in the world.

We will discuss different theories and strategies when it comes to urban and regional advocacy planning, different philosophies based around the idea of helping those living with less, and bringing opportunities to people who couldn't previously afford a way out of poverty.

My hope is that everyone who reads this blog will feel encouraged to comment on my posts or even start their own blog talking about poverty solutions as well. If you start your own blog, and you get one more person to read about poverty problems, that's one more life that's been changed for the better. Please don't feel shy, a blog is nothing without active readers.

If you currently have a blog or website that talks about the problem of poverty or possible solutions to poverty on a local, national or global scale please feel free to ask me to link to your blog or website. I would love to, and I would appreciate it if you could link to mine as well if you feel that content on my blog could be valuable to your readers. Again, don't be shy.

Thanks for reading!
- David