The surging ranks of America's ultrapoor

A difference between the very poor in the U.S. & in developing countries such as Bangladesh and Ethiopia is that in the U.S., many ways that poor people in the poor countries use to survive, are illegal in the U.S. Eg., begging, scavenging garbage dumps, several families living in a room, etc.

I suggest reading the whole article at the following link

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-surging-ranks-of-americas-ultrapoor/

By Aimee Picchi MoneyWatch September 1, 2015

By one dismal measure, America is joining the likes of Third World countries.

The number of U.S. residents who are struggling to survive on just $2 a day has more than doubled since 1996, placing 1.5 million households and 3 million children in this desperate economic situation. That's according to "$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America," a book from publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt that will be released on Sept. 1.

The measure of poverty isn't arbitrary -- it's the threshold the World Bank uses to measure global poverty in the developed world. While it may be the norm to see families in developing countries such as Bangladesh and Ethiopia struggle to survive on such meager income, the growing ranks of America's ultrapoor may be shocking, given that the U.S. is considered one of the most developed capitalist countries in the world.

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"These families, contrary to what many would expect, are workers, and their slide into poverty is a failure of the labor market and our safety net, as well as their own personal circumstances."

To be sure, the labor market has been rocky for many Americans, not just the poorest. But changes in how employers deal with their low-wage workers have hit many of these poor Americans especially hard, such as the rise of on-call scheduling, which leaves some parents scrambling for hours and dealing with unpredictable pay.

Retailers such as Walmart (WMT) and fast-food companies increasingly are using sophisticated scheduling software that allows them to tinker with work schedules at the last minute, depending on their stores' needs. That reduces costs for the employer, but it can make life difficult for employees, especially those with children and dependents.

"Time and time again, we would constantly see people's hours cut from week to week," said Shaefer, associate professor of social work at University of Michigan. "Someone might have 30 hours one week, down to 15 the next and down to 5 after that. We saw people who would remain employed but were down to zero hours. This was incredibly common in this population."

Other workforce problems include abuses such as wage theft and unhealthy workplaces, which lead to health problems and missed work, he noted.

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Many of the families Edin and Shaefer interviewed saw themselves as workers, the researchers noted. Rather than the negative stereotype of the "welfare queen" created by President Ronald Reagan, the families that are suffering with less than $2 a day want to work and are using self-reliance to get by. That hasn't stopped the stereotype from proliferating, even though Edin and Shaefer note that extreme poverty in America is an equal-opportunity affliction: It hurts single parents, married couples, white, blacks and Hispanics, as well as rural and urban families.

"One thing that surprised me was a clear attachment to the labor force," Shaefer said. "They saw work as a way to lift themselves up out of those circumstances."

So, how do families living on so little get by? They tend to rely on a few strategies, including selling their own plasma for $30 a pop and selling scrap metal.

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Some women barter for goods and services using sex. Private charities provided very little assistance. Dealing in drugs wasn't common, Edin said, perhaps because the researchers were interviewing families, which might be less likely to engage in drug use given the presence of children.

"In no cases did [these strategies] raise people out of poverty," Edin said. "$60 would be the maximum per week" for earnings through these methods. "There was no case where someone was living high off the hog from this informal economy."

Edin and Shaefer have some solutions in mind for easing the plight of America's ultrapoor. Reforming TANF is one potential pathway, while increasing the quality of jobs available to people at the bottom of the income ladder is another. They also noted that government-sponsored work programs, such as the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression, could also help put these families back on track.