Statistics can paint a picture that reflects our current values and our future prosperity.
1. 15% of us are in a breadline.
Altogether, there are now almost 46 million people in the United States on food stamps, roughly 15 percent of the population. That’s an increase of 74 percent since 2007, just before the financial crisis and a deep recession led to mass job losses.
2. Half of U.S. Households pay no Federal Income Tax…yes, none.
47 percent of American households pay no federal income taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center.
3. 30% of the citizens we produce are marginally employable. And our production rate of tax-paying, self-suffucient citizenry is worse in our big cities.
A report released in 2008 by an educational advocacy group founded by retired general and former Bush administration Secretary of State Colin Powell found that almost half of all public high school students in the US’ fifty largest cities fail to graduate.
The report stated that only 52 percent of public high school students in these cities graduate after four years, while the national average is 70 percent.
Related Information in Prosperity View
- College Education – Finding Value in the High Cost and Student Debt in a Global Economy – Bill Gross
- Household Spending and Saving Appears to be Finding the Happy Medium
- Corporate and Household Debt Declining – Now it’s Government’s Turn
- Buy an Annuity and Delay Social Security – GAO
- Unemployment High, Lower Debt Levels – Will Government Spending and Debt Help Economy?
- The Relationship of Unemployment and Education Level and Implication for Economic Recovery
- Balance Sheets are the Focus in Age of Deleveraging
- Emerging Markets and Commodity Currencies – Roubini Predicts Dollar Drop
