We have climbed out of the recession and the economy is growing, unemployment is declining and consumer holiday shopping is rising. All of this is good news considering the past three or four years. However, let’s not forget that good statistics don’t necessarily paint the full picture. I recently read an article at US News/MSN, which tells a different story. There are 97.3 million Americans that are in the low income category and 49.1 million who are below the poverty line. So, roughly 48% or 146.4 million Americans fall below what’s considered low income. Approximately, 50% of the people in the wealthiest nation on the planet are “poor”.
At a meeting in Maryland the other day I heard the President of the Montgomery County Council, Roger Berliner tell a group of local business leaders that Montgomery County, which is the 13th wealthiest county in the United States, has more students receiving free or subsidized lunches than the District of Columbia has students. He went on to say that if the county's subsidized students were a school district unto themselves they would be the 7th largest school district in the state. The national statistics would show that Maryland, the 4th wealthiest state in the U.S., and its second wealthiest county, Montgomery are not alone in this disparity.
As the world’s wealthiest economy, can we say we say we are successful? Can we continue to support politicians who accept the status quo and or perhaps even helped create it? The question needs to be asked, is this a hangover from the recession or is the divide between rich and poor becoming more noticeable and perhaps more acceptable? I have no answers, but I wouldn’t define our wealthy status as a success—not yet.
