- St. Louis - Americans have long accepted
the notion that "there will always be poor among us," but a soon-to-be
published study may make that truism less comfortable by showing that a
majority of Americans will themselves live in poverty for some portion
of their adult lives.
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- "Nearly two-thirds of all Americans
and more than 90 percent of African Americans will experience at least
one year of living below the poverty line during their lifetime,"
said Mark R. Rank, Ph.D., lead author of the study and an associate professor
of George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in
St. Louis.
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- The study, conducted by Rank and Thomas
A. Hirschl, a professor of rural sociology at Cornell University, is based
on an analysis of income data for thousands of Americans for a 25-year
period ending in 1992, a span in which official poverty rates fluctuated
between 11 and 15 percent.
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- Although agencies have long tracked the
number of people currently living in poverty, this new study is the first
to offer solid estimates on an individual's odds of experiencing poverty
across a lifespan. The results, to be published in the May 1999 issue of
the journal Social Work, provide a startling picture of just how common
the experience of poverty is in America.
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- An average American, now age 20, has
about a 60 percent chance of spending at least one year living in poverty
at some point in the future.
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- By age 35, about 31 percent of the U.S.
population will have experienced a year in poverty. By age 65, the figure
rises to 51 percent, and by age 85, it exceeds 66 percent.
-
- African-Americans face much more daunting
odds -- nearly 50 percent will experience a year of poverty before age
25; more than 60 percent by age 35; nearly 85 percent by age 65; and a
whopping 91 percent will have spent a year in poverty by age 75. Americans
tend to think of poverty as "something that happens to someone else,"
but this first-of-a-kind analysis by Rank and Hirschl drives home the fact
that poverty is a mainstream issue, one that can not be attributed simply
to individual lack of motivation, questionable morals and so on. Furthermore,
the findings provide a new and powerful argument for the importance and
the retention of an adequate social safety net based on individual self-interest.
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- "For the majority of Americans,
the question is not if they will experience poverty, but when," the
study concludes. "Rather than an isolated event that occurs only to
what has been labeled the "underclass," the reality is that the
majority of Americans will encounter poverty firsthand during their adult
lifetimes."
-
- And, while the study clearly contradicts
the popular notion that poverty is a problem only for blacks, its findings
do demonstrate just how few blacks in this country are able to completely
escape the hardship of poverty in their lifetimes.
-
- "The fact that virtually every African
American will experience poverty at some point during his or her adulthood
speaks volumes as to the economic meaning of being black in America,"
Rank writes.
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- ____________
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- Rank, an expert on poverty, welfare and
social policy, is the author of "Living on the Edge: The Realities
of Welfare in America" (Columbia University Press, 1994). The book,
which shatters many common myths about welfare and the poor, is based on
10 years of research involving extensive data analysis and hundreds of
face-to-face interviews with welfare recipients. Other recent research
includes the analysis of a national survey of 13,000 American households
to determine the extent of intergenerational welfare use.
-
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- Note: This story has been adapted from
a news release issued by Washington University In St. Louis for journalists
and other members of the public. If you wish to quote from any part of
this story, please credit Washington University In St. Louis as the original
source. You may also wish to include the following link in any citation:
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/04/990408065854.htmhttp://www.scien
cedaily.com/releases/1999/04/990408065854.htm
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