考研阅读精选：贫者、近贫者与你
『三分之一的美国人正过着贫困或接近贫困的生活，如果国家不改变政策，越来越多的美国人将身陷困境。』The Poor, the Near Poor and You
贫者、近贫者与你
Nov. 23rd 2011 | from The New York Times
Whatis it like to be poor? Thankfully, most Americans do not know, at leastnot firsthand. And times are tough for the middle class. But everyoneneeds to rec
http://images.koolearn.com/casupload/upload/fckeditorUpload/2011-12-19/image/9461b2ea2c284346819b3e671c6ae355.jpg
ognize a chilling reality: One in three Americans — 100 million people — is either poor or perilously close to it.
The Times’s Jason DeParle, Robert Gebeloff and Sabrina Tavernisereported recently on Census data showing that 49.1 million Americans arebelow the poverty line — in general, $24,343 for a family of four. Anadditional 51 million are in the next category, which they termed “nearpoor” — with incomes less than 50 percent above the poverty line.
As for all of that inspirational, up-by-their-bootstrap talk you hearon the Republican campaign trail, over half of the near poor in the newtally actually fell into that group from higher income levels as theirresources were sapped by medical expenses, taxes, work-related costs andother unavoidable outlays.
The worst downturn since the GreatDepression is only part of the problem. Before that, living standardswere already being eroded by stagnating wages and tax and economicpolicies that favored the wealthy.
Conservative politicians andanalysts are spouting their usual denial. Gov. Rick Perry andRepresentative Michele Bachmann have called for taxing the poor and nearpoor more heavily, on the false grounds that they have been getting afree ride. In fact, low-income workers do pay up, if not in federalincome taxes, then in payroll taxes and state and local taxes.
Asked about the new census data, Robert Rector, an analyst at theconservative Heritage Foundation told The Times that the “emotionallycharged terms ‘poor’ or ‘near poor’ clearly suggest to most people alevel of material hardship that doesn’t exist.” Heritage has its own,very different ranking system, based on households’ “amenities.”According to that, the typical poor household has roughly 14 of 30amenities. In other words, how hard can things be if you have arefrigerator, air-conditioner, coffee maker, cellphone, and other stuff?
The rankings ignore the fact that many of these are requisitesof modern life and that things increasingly out of reach for the poorand near poor — education, health care, child care, housing andutilities — are the true determinants of a good, upwardly mobile life.
Government surveys analyzed by theCenter on Budget and PolicyPriorities indicate that in 2010, just over half of the country’s nearly17 million poor children, lived in households that reported at leastone of four major hardships: hunger, overcrowding, failure to pay therent or mortgage on time or failure to seek needed medical care. A goodeducation is also increasingly out of reach. A study by Martha Bailey,an economics professor at the University of Michigan, showed that thedifference in college-graduation rates between the rich and poor haswidened by more than 50 percent since the 1990s.
There is also agrowing out-of-sight-out-of-mind problem. A study, by Sean Reardon, asociologist at Stanford, shows that Americans are increasingly living inareas that are either poor or affluent. The isolation of theprosperous, he said, threatens their support for public schools, parks,mass transit and other investments that benefit broader society.
The poor do without and the near poor, at best, live from paycheck topaycheck. Most Americans don’t know what that is like, but unless thenation reverses direction, more are going to find out. (565 words)
文章地址：
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/24/opinion/the-poor-the-near-poor-and-you.html
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