Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near poverty or a reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, according to survey data exclusive to the Associated Press. The data suggested a widening gap between the rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs, news reports said.
This new data comes as President Barack Obama said that his priority is "rebuild the ladders of opportunity" and reverse income inequality.
"I think it's going to get worse," said Irene Salyers, 52, of Buchanan County, Va., a declining coal region in Appalachia. Married and divorced three times, Salyers now helps run a fruit and vegetable stand with her boyfriend but it doesn't generate much income. They live mostly off government disability checks.
"If you do try to go apply for a job, they're not hiring people, and they're not paying that much to even go to work," she said. Children, she said, have "nothing better to do than to get on drugs."
Poverty transcends race: Newsmax reported that economic insecurity among whites, in addition to minorities.
The number of those classified as poor remains at 46.2 million or 15 percent of the population, due to lingering high unemployment following the recession. While the poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics are nearly three times higher, absolute numbers have suggested that predominant face of the poor is white, according to Newmax.
More than 19 million whites fall below the poverty line of $23,021 for a family of four, accounting for more than 41 percent of the nation's destitute, nearly double the number of poor blacks.
