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Opening Arguments

Fish-in-a-barrel time

The first two paragraphs of a story about new Census data:

The number of Indiana residents living in poverty increased 13 percent from 2004 to 2005, according to new census data, but advocates say even more people are struggling to make ends meet.

More than 740,000 residents were living below the poverty line in 2005, an increase of more than 88,000 people from 2004, according to the 2005 American Community Survey released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. It was the third consecutive year that the state's poverty rate grew.

And, from later in the story:

Donna McCall, 36, and her three young children are staying at a shelter in Indianapolis because she has no job and no other financial support.

"I didn't have enough to get by on," she told The Indianapolis Star for a Wednesday story. "I didn't finish high school and don't have my GED yet, so I can't really find a job that pays enough to live."

You connect the dots.

Posted in: Hoosier lore

Comments

Bob G.
Thu, 08/31/2006 - 4:48am

If you want IRONY...think on this:

The Southeast side of Fort Wayne has the SECOND LARGEST amount of BUYING POWER with the densest population (no jokes, OK?)...and yet...this SAME part of town has the HIGHEST number of UNEMPLOYED (and in many cases too lazy to work) people in the city. Too many people walking around ALL DAY with nothing to do...(but shop)?

BUT...we ALSO have the HIGHEST crime rate...the highest welfare rate...and a heckuva lot of NEW cars & SUVS to go around, so if we do the math on this....
CRIME not only pays (in many cases).but it pays pretty damn well!

I guess that renewal plan on Creighton to open a "Drugs R Us" fell through...shame about that. The "buying power" is there!

;)

B.G.

credo
Thu, 08/31/2006 - 6:43am

Poor Donna and some others thinks education will guarantee you employment, wrong. It is called privilege, based on race and gender. How else can you explain the number of incompetence folks that are running our government?

tim zank
Thu, 08/31/2006 - 7:12am

Credo...you're a perfect example of why an education is so very very important.

Jeff Pruitt
Thu, 08/31/2006 - 7:55am

Before we get too carried away w/ connecting dots let's not forget that only 19% of low-income Indiana families have no high school diploma.

In fact, 42% have at least some college experience.

http://www.nccp.org/wizard/wizard.cgi?action=B&page=dem_1

credo
Thu, 08/31/2006 - 1:20pm

There are different types of education, and I have both, Jeff points out poverty includes those with a college experience, and that's the rest of the story

Jane
Thu, 08/31/2006 - 7:29pm

Jeff Pruitt cites some statistics. The web site he leads us to defines low income as anyone under twice the federal poverty level. For 2006, by this definition, a low income family of four would be anyone making under $40,000.

Even with this rather generous definition of low-income we find that 19% of them didn't finish high school as opposed to 3% of those above that level. (It doesn't show us stats for those actually below the poverty level.)

This data also shows that 57% of "low-income" families are led by a single parent as opposed to 19% of those with higher incomes.

Study after study has shown that getting married before you have children and staying married are strong predictors of financial well-being. And anyone who wants to argue that those with less education aren't generally at a disadvantage is almost surely being disingenuous.

tim zank
Fri, 09/01/2006 - 5:26am

Jane, Thanks for researching the statistics. That certainly would tend to skew Jeffs assertions. There is a lot misinformation out there.

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