Boy, it sure looks like our current country the United States of America is going the way of our former country India.

The US Census released the poverty numbers today.

And they are real UGLY. So bad that they are the highest since poverty estimates started 51 years back.

There were 43.6 million people living in poverty in 2009, up from 39.8 million in 2008.

America’s official poverty rate has gone up to 14.3% in 2009, up 1.1% from the prior year.

That this is the third consecutive increase is hardly a surprise given the economic collapse in the U.S. that is decimating the ranks of the middle class and crushing the poor.

The poverty line in 2009 for a single adult was $10,830 in pretax cash income and $22,050 for a family of four.

Uninsured Numbers Rise
The numbers of uninsured continues to swell and reached 50.7 million in 2009, up from 46.3 million in 2008.

As we’ve said ad nauseum, ad infinitum, the cabal of greedy doctors, mercenary hospitals, callous pharmaceutical firms and immoral insurance companies have made basic healthcare a mirage for tens of millions of Americans. Indian and Pakistani doctors in America are among the greediest bastards.

A 1997 Harvard study estimated that 100,000 people die in America every year because of lack of medical care. In the 13 years since the study was conducted, there has been a significant increase in poverty and rise in the uninsured numbers. So, it’d be no surprise to learn that a quarter-million people die in America for want of medical care. Since these deaths are individual incidents spread over the large country, they go unrecognized, unreported and unlamented.

The census reported that 10% of children under 18, i.e. 7.5 million kids were without insurance.

Things Will Worsen
We do not expect to see much improvements in the years to come. The unemployment situation continues to be grim and foreclosures are continuing in record numbers leading to more homelessness.

If anything, the poverty and uninsured numbers will continue to worse, particularly if the Republican Party or the whacko Tea Party members gain more seats in Congress.

Some Tea Party candidates have already made it clear that they plan to work to repeal the Healthcare Bill passed by Congress a few months ago at President Obama’s urging.

Because of Republican policies that mostly favor the wealthy corporate elite, the incomes of most Americans has remained stagnant or decreased over the last decade in real terms. The economic collapse has exacerbated things for the poor and middle class and made a bad situation worse.

What America needs right now is Class Warfare to prevent the top 1% from further skimming off the majority of the earnings.

  Poverty, Unemployment