The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality recently issued its first annual report entitled The State of the Union on Poverty and Inequality 2014. In the report, some of the nation’s leading economists examine labor markets, poverty indicators, income and wealth inequality, the safety net, and poverty’s impact on health and education.
One of the key findings of the report is that due to the most recent Great Recession, the “official poverty rate increased from 12.5 percent in 2007 to 15.0 percent in 2012, and the child poverty rate increased from 18.0 percent in 2007 to 21.8 percent in 2012. The current poverty rates for the full population and for children rank among the very worst over the 13 years since 2000.”
The report concludes, “The country’s economy and labor market remain in deep disrepair whereas our various post-market institutions (e.g., the safety net, educational institutions, health institutions) have a mixed record of coping with the rising poverty and inequality that has been handed to them by a still-struggling economy and labor market.”
The above report is the just the tip of the iceberg which is also a reflection of the failed policies of President Barack Obama who has acted more like President Calvin Coolidge than FDR.
Although many of the items cited in said report are structural inequalities which have been in existence before President Obama took office however the fact remains that President Obama has not aggressively attacked poverty or the gross inequities that have existed between the classes.