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Our Economic Pain is Spreading
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by M arc H. M orial
W hat would be the national
reaction if suddenly the in
com es o f al 1 the households in
cities of from roughly 570,000
to 690,000 people-dropped
below the federal governm ent's pov
erty line o f $18,244 for a family of
four?
W ould there be a declaration o f a
national em ergency, followed by
urgent calls and swift action to bring
the people o f the stricken city out o f
poverty?
W ell, a new federal report shows
that poverty across the United States
has increased to such an extent that
it matches the population of an entire
city the size o f a W ashington, Bos
ton or Baltimore. In short, the eco
nomic pain that has gripped millions
o f A m ericans is deepening.
A ccording to the Census Bureau,
poverty increased and median house
hold income fell in 2002 for the
Unfortunately, as one
might expect, African
Americans and Latino
Americans are
disproportionately enduring
the hardship o f poverty.
second consecutive year. The num
ber o f A m ericans in poverty jum ped
by 1.7 m illion to 34.6 million. The
poverty rate itself rose from 11.7
percent to 12.1 percent; and median
household income fell by $500.
This deepening o f poverty in
A m erica is rooted in the econom ic
dow nturn that has sharply increased
u n em ploym ent. T he n um ber o f
A m ericans out o f work six months
or longer has soared from 650,000 a
month in 2000, to nearly 1.9 million
a month thus far this year.
U nfortunately, as one might ex
pect, African A m ericans and Latino
A m ericans are disproportionately
enduring the hardship o f poverty.
Blacks as a group suffered the
C alifornia initiative would have re
quired.
The econom ic advances African
Americans recorded during the boom
years o f the 1990s bear w itness to
the com bined pow er o f a grow ing
econom y and vigorous efforts to
expand educational and econom ic
opportunity.
The most impressive achievement
o f the rosy years o f the 1990s was
the decline o f the black unem ploy
ment rate to 7.2 percent, a record
low, in m id -1999. That was in large
m easure due to poor African A m eri
cans with low skills rushing to fill the
low -w age service-sector jobs the
boom ing econom y had, finally,
opened up to them.
Despite all the gloom y statistics to
be found in the latest Census B u
reau report on poverty, we should
regard that 7.2 percent figure o f
1999 as a beacon for the A m erican
econom y to strive for, so that the
econom ic pain millions are now ex
periencing can becom e a thing o f
the past.
greatest increase in the poverty rate
at 24 percent in 2002, up from 22.7
percent in 2001. The poverty rate
for Latinos was 21.8 percent.
A fric a n A m e r ic a n s ’ m ed ian
h o u seh o ld in co m e su ffe re d the
sharpest decline o f all groups, falling
by as much as 3 percent, while that
o f Latinos fell by 2.9 percent. Some
groups o f A sian A m ericans also
suffered sharp declines in median
household income.
O ne thing these latter statistics
underscore is how foolish, cruel, and
dangerous it would be to bar govern
ments from identifying the differ
ences that exist am ong Americans
Marc H. Morial is president
o f different racial and ethnic back and chief executive officer o f the
grounds, as Proposition 54, the failed National Urban League.
$20.00
427 NE Cook Street
@ The comer of
MLK & Cook
Portland, OR 97212
Workers Will Add to Their Coal Collection
by J eff T hompson
the recession. America has lost 2.2 mil
Unemployed Oregonians don't need lion jobs since 2000, with Oregon ac
to peek at their Christmas present from counting for 53,000 of those lost jobs.
Congress and the Bush Administration.
In recent weeks the job hemorrhage
They already know what they are get appears to have stopped, with the U.S.
ting this year - coal.
economy adding 82,(XX) jobs per month
Bush Administration boosters cel over the last four months. But this low
ebrate increased productivity (more level of growth won’t put Americans
output with fewer workers) and rapid back to work.
GDP growth (all of that mortgage refi
The U.S. needs to add 150,000 jobs
nancing), but most people judge the per month just to keep up with workforce
success of the economy by jobs.
growth, let alone absorb the millions
And in Oregon and in the rest of the who lost their jobs. To overcome the
country, jobs have not recovered from damage done by the 2 0 0 1 recession, the
U.S. needs tocreate nearly 7 million jobs.
And it’s a similar story in Oregon.
With 50,000 jobs lost and workforce
growth of 70,000, Oregon still has to
create 120,000 jobs to overcome the
recession's damage.
The upshot of mammoth job loss
followed by meager job growth is that
there remain millions of long-term unem
ployed across the country, many of
them in Oregon.
Despite this. Congress and the Bush
Administration decided to pull the plug
on the key federal extended unemploy
Ashley Farms
Smoked Ham
ment benefits program.
Heartfelt pleas from some in Oregon's
delegation had little impact.
Possibly Congress thinks that the
unemployed will be overjoyed that the
richest one percent of Oregonians, with
average incomes of $710,000, will re
ceive $41,000 in federal tax cuts in 2004.
If unemployed workers’ hearts aren't
warmed by tax cuts for affluent house
holds they can always bum the coal.
Jeff Thompson is a policy analyst
and economist with the Oregon Center
fo r Public Policy.
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