by Barry Burch Jr.
A full four years has passed since the official end to the recession, but you wouldn’t know it by reading the results of a recent poll conducted by Gallup.
The poll shows that a great many people, 1 in 5 actually, are having trouble acquiring a basic necessity for living – food. This is the highest percentage seen since 2011. These people claim that they do not have enough money to buy food for themselves, not to mention their families.
Despite approaching nearly half a decade since 2008, a year that the United States experienced its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression in the 1930s, the poll indicates that Americans have still not been able to reach the pre-recession mark.
In November 2008, the number of families who were reportedly going hungry peaked at 20.4 percent, according to Gallup’s poll.
As reported by NBC News, there were less than 17 percent of people who claimed to have any trouble covering their food bills.
The national polling company stated, “These findings suggest that the economic recovery may be disproportionately benefiting upper-income Americans rather than those who are struggling to fulfill their basic needs.”
You don’t say . . .
The results, also known as the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, are based on telephone interviews. The interviewees, are comprised of approximately 16,000 adults that are 18 and older and living all over the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
One potential reason for Americans finding that they are unable to make ends “meat,” could be stagnant wages.
An annual “Food Security” report ran by the federal government was released last week, revealing that nearly 18 million families had some form of difficulty keeping food on the table in 2012. Those in the report that ran out of money, skipped meals and lost weight due to lack of food.
Barryburchjr@gmail.com
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Sunday, September 29th 2013 at 1:27PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
