An estimated 850 000 people are homeless in the United States on any given night, according to advocates for the homeless.
These people are provided for -- at least here in Fresno. This number indicates nothing of any real consequence. If so what?
About 45 million people were without health care insurance for part of 2003, according to a US Census Bureau report published last week.
Understand that this figure is one which relates to private health care insurance. Somewhere around 19 million of this 45 million total are children fully covered in the community health care system. In California, it is against the law to turn away a child who has come to the hospital for health care. Another 15 million of this 45 million total are those who moved from one job to another, loosing their insurance but only for a time. The actual number of those who have no coverage is 11 million -- and that does need to be given some attention.
The report showed that since Bush took office in 2001, 4,3 million people have fallen below the poverty line. That brought the number of people living in poverty in 2003 to 35,9 million, or 12,5 percent of the population.
Nearly all of these people are young people in their 20's or younger and uneducated or untrained for better paying jobs. It is a transitory number -- the number remaining somewhat constant while most of the particular individuals, in time, move out of this total. My youngest daughter and her husband live on around $10,000 per year. She owns a new car. All of the furniture inside their very small home is new. They have a child -- four months old. Things are good for them. The fact that money is lean, that they are below the "poverty line," is not the problem. The problem is money management -- not poverty.
John
