Providing further proof that America hasn’t pulled out of its economic crash, the number of people in all income brackets who have been forced to skip eating for 24 hours because of a lack of money or food has doubled since 2010.
According to a new poll from Zogby Analytics, 9 percent of Americans reported that they “have gone without food for 24 hours at a time because of a lack of money or food in the past month.”
Pollster John Zogby and his wife Kathy have been asking the exact same question since 1987, during which the results have “never veered” from an average of 4 percent to 4.5 percent.
He called the shocking results “startling” and “sad,” and said that it is likely that the hunger percentage is actually higher. That’s because his was an online poll 11,979 and it is probably that “we are missing people too poor to have online access at home.”
While most would expect the poor to make up the bulk of the hungry, Zogby over the years has found that it hits nearly all wealth classes, even those in the $150,000 income bracket. Many, he said, often have lost their job or part of their income, suffered a temporary setback or face unexpected bills.
In his latest survey, 11 percent of those in the $100,000-$150,000 income bracket had been forced to skip eating for a day. The West had the highest rate, in part because more poor Hispanics live there, said Zogby.
“Hunger is not concentrated in one section of town nor is anyone automatically immune. When we say that wages have stagnated and that people who shop for food know more about inflation than official government statistics, this Zogby Poll reveals one of the realities that Americans are facing,” said the pollster, who also provides Secrets with a weekly report card on President Obama.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
