Crisis Plunges US Middle Class into Poverty

Poverty as a mass phenomenon is back. About 50 million Americans have no health insurance, and more people are added to their ranks every day. More than 32 million people receive food stamps, and 13 million are unemployed. The homeless population is growing in tandem with a rapid rise in the rate of foreclosures, which were 45 percent higher in March 2009 than they were in the same month of the previous year.

The loss of a job often marks the beginning of the end of a middle-class way of life.

unemployment is often followed a rapid plunge into abject poverty.

The crisis in the lower third of society has turned into an existential threat for some Americans.

Many private corporations across America are withdrawing their funding for social welfare projects.

many state governments have cut back their social budgets.

state constitutions, which prohibit states from going into debt, imposing a forced regime of frugality.