If living, or rather trying to live, in poverty was not a harsh enough reality to face, the U.S. census data released last week will surely make it the bleakest recession Americans have had to live through.
One out of every seven Americans lives in poverty today, a household income of $22,000 or less.
The increased number of decreased incomes has caused many to sustain themselves with the help of three particular methods.
First, welfare is no longer a mortifying idea to consider. Welfare ranges from health care to child care assistance and unemployment compensation to housing assistance.
Spending food stamps is something families do together now on a Saturday afternoon instead of hitting up the mall. Living by stamps instead of dollars has gone from unfashionable to a popular trend among a growing percentage of Americans, explains the Associated Press.
“The number of U.S. households receiving food stamps surged by 2 million last year to 11.7 million, the highest level on record, meaning that 1 in 10 families were receiving the government aid. In all, 46 states and the District of Columbia had increases in food stamps, with the largest jumps in Nevada, Arizona, Florida and Wisconsin.”
The second change people are making is at the very basis of who they eat their government-funded meals with.
Cohabitation shot threw the roof in 2010. The Census showed an increase from 6.7 million living together in 2009 to 7.5 million this year. USA Today went on to explain why couples are skipping out on a costly wedding ceremony and just sharing a living space:
“The percentage of couples in which both partners were employed dropped significantly, says Census family demographer Rose Kreider, who analyzed the data. “That suggests maybe they moved in together related to lack of employment for one of the partners.””
Finally, since the jobs are hard to come by, one’s time unemployed might as well be spent being productive, as Mark Mather, a demographer at the Population Reference Bureau said to USA Today.
“You finish your bachelor’s degree, and there’s no job available. More people are going for masters or some kind of professional degree.”
No wonder there was also a rise in higher education last year. The share of people with a bachelor’s degree or higher went from 27% in 2006 to 27.9% in 2009.
