'Dismal' prospects: 1 in 2 Americans are now poor or low income

From MSNBC courtesy of Eschaton:

Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.

The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.

"Safety net programs such as food stamps and tax credits kept poverty from rising even higher in 2010, but for many low-income families with work-related and medical expenses, they are considered too 'rich' to qualify," said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan public policy professor who specializes in poverty.

"The reality is that prospects for the poor and the near poor are dismal," he said. "If Congress and the states make further cuts, we can expect the number of poor and low-income families to rise for the next several years."

More here.

This is worth repeating: "prospects for the poor and the near poor are dismal." Now go back to the excerpt's first paragraph and note that the poor and near poor now comprise half the country. Half the fucking country has "dismal" prospects. Because they are poor. Meanwhile, politicians from both parties wrangle about how to dismantle the social safety net.

A few days ago, the New York Times' Paul Krugman decided that we should just straight up call this a depression. Not quite as bad as the Great Depression--I mean, the unemployment rate hasn't hit twenty percent yet--but still pretty fucking bad. Indeed, this is a severe crisis. Half the country is in poverty or on the verge of it, with absolutely no prospects for improvement.

And conservatives dismiss the Occupy movement as a bunch of stupid hippies trying to reinvent the 60s.

Anybody, anybody, who argues that we should do nothing, or that the government should cut social spending, or that we should cut taxes on the rich, or that the way out of this is to give business whatever it wants, is an enemy of the United States. I don't give a fuck if they wave the stars and stripes like it was a big enormous penis; I don't give a fuck if they've served in Congress for twenty years, or fought in the Big One, or make the greatest apple pie ever. If you're opposed to helping the poor, you know, half the fucking country, you're the enemy.

And you'll end up like the French aristocracy did, circa 1793.

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