According to a study developed by the Economic Innovation Group, approximately 35 million Americans live in “persistent poverty” in the country, this figure is 72% higher than anticipated despite the fact that the United States has struggled since the 1960s to reduce inequality.
The study focused on populations where the poverty rate has remained above 20% for more than 30 years, the analysis was carried out through a census, in small geographic divisions of the counties where most of them have thousands of residents in a state of povertyas is the case of Vermont, Maine or New Hampshire, in which their general measures do not qualify as persistently poor, but their small towns do fall within the classification.
For EIG’s research director, Kenan Fikri, “if large swaths of the country are full of people who are not reaching their full potential, So the country as a whole is not reaching its full potential.”he told CBS, adding that “these are the parts of the country that need help the most.”
12% of the population is poor
The census shows that about 38 million people are currently below the poverty line, this represents 12% of the population nationwide. Calculations showed that according to federal guidelines a single adult individual earning less than $15,000 a year is considered poor and a four-member household that annually has a maximum of $30,000 dollars is considered a poor family.
Therefore, during the last 30 years a large part of the population has not benefited from the important economic growth of the country. The report highlighted pockets of persistent poverty in rural areas of the South and Appalachia. “They have been impervious to multiple cycles of economic growth,” Fikri said.
And it is that regardless of their annual income, These populations usually have other types of problems such as medical care, infrastructure, even access to education. For August Benzow, research leader at EIG, these regions experience “some kind of economic or demographic impact that put them on this path of high poverty, and there has been no compensatory intervention,” he said.
A possible solution
Benzow further explained that once these communities fall into the cycle of persistent poverty “financial institutions and investors tend not to invest and this creates a calcification or a lack of opportunities where it is much more difficult to start a business or buy a house,” he said.
Although there is no quick and totally effective solution for this problem, the main initiatives would be private sector investment that attracts capital and creates employment, and in turn invest in education. “There must be more investment, but it must be more intelligent, experimental and innovative”, highlights the research leader at EIG.
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