(2004-09-30) Rector Poverty Inequality Recession

Robert Rector on changes in Poverty and Wealth Inequality in the US. The recent Recession was comparatively mild and had a limited impact on poverty, especially child poverty... For a quarter of a century prior to Welfare Reform, the black child poverty rate remained frozen near 42 percent. In the years after welfare reform, black child poverty plummeted, reaching 30 percent in 2001--the lowest level in U.S. history... The census report also contains the income distribution figures that serve as the foundation for most class warfare rhetoric... These figures are misleading for three reasons. First, they ignore taxes. Second, they ignore nearly all of the $750 billion in social safety net benefits received by low-income and elderly persons. Third, the census' fifths or quintiles do not contain equal numbers of persons... There are two main reasons that American children are poor: Their parents don't work much, and fathers are absent from the home. In good economic times or bad, the typical poor family with children is supported by only 800 hours of work each year: That amounts to 16 hours of work per week... Father absence is another major cause of child poverty. Nearly two-thirds of poor children reside in Single Parent Family homes.