August 26, 2004
A HIGH LOW:
Ranks of Poor, Uninsured Rose in 2003 (Joel Havemann, August 26, 2004, LA Times)
Median income remained essentially unchanged last year at $43,318 per household, the Census Bureau reported today, but 1.3 million more people lived under the poverty line.The poverty rate rose another four-tenths of a percentage point to 12.5% — one out of every eight Americans — and the number of people without health insurance grew by 1.4 million to 45 million, propelled by a decline in the number of people with private health insurance.
The unchanged level of median income suggests, barely two months before President Bush faces reelection, that the middle class is holding its own.
Helpful when one of these reports comes out to recall that the U.S. poverty level (for a family of four) is set so high that it equals the per capita GDP of Portugal. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 26, 2004 4:33 PM
The first June coming out of a recession? Ya, that's statistically significant. Geez.
Posted by: John Resnick at August 26, 2004 4:36 PMI'll bet they completely ignored immigrants.
When NPR reported the story, they used the term "... over the last year ..." when, as far as I know, the numbers only go through 2003.
There's a difference.
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at August 26, 2004 8:03 PMOdd that this story led on NPR at 4:08 PM today. I expected Sistani/Najaf news, or even Kerry's pleadings for weekly debates.
Posted by: jim hamlen at August 26, 2004 11:45 PM