Nearly 75 percent of the nation's largest cities experienced a drop in urban hardship — a measure of factors such as poverty levels, unemployment, and crowded housing — between 1970 and 2000, according to a report released today by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government.
A long-term study of 55 cities determined that more than 36 percent had "improved" on hardship levels over the three decades, and more than 38 percent had "strongly improved." Those in the latter category had a 20 percent or greater reduction in an index known as the "hardship score" during the period, researchers said. The worst hardship score is 100.
Matt's Chat
I blame Bush and his evil tax cuts myself. Great Depression indeed...Here's the meat of it:
To determine each city's hardship score, researchers considered six factors compared to a national standard:Chad? Phil? Johns? What do you have to say for yourselves? You've mislead America...
Unemployment (the percentage of unemployed population over age 16).
Dependency (the percentage of the population under age 18 or over 64).
Education (percentage of the population of those over age 25 with less than a high school diploma).
Income level (per capita).
Poverty (percentage of people living below the federal poverty level).
Housing (percentage of occupied housing units with more than one person per room).
"We often see images of extensive urban hardship in the media, leading us to believe that high levels of poverty and adversity are the norm, but that's not the case," said Richard P. Nathan, director of the institute, which is the public policy arm of the State University of New York.
Mark's Remarks
Remember when the Republicans did their filibuster over judicial appointmentts just about a year ago? Remember how the Dimocan'ts kept holding up a sign saying 3 million jobs lost, 3 million jobs lost? Well, now they are talking about 1.7 million jobs lost and it is just about a year since that filibuster...That means in just a year we have created 1.3 million jobs...In just three years since 9/11, we have rebounded greatly from the ashes of the pre-terrorist attack days. Of course, the Left spins this into abysmal poverty, but this study, done by the hardly conservative State U of New York, sheds light onto the media bias and invective from the Left. They are not about reporting facts, but distorting them. Even though we do have a VERY SMALL percentage living in poverty, our poor are still the richest in the world--with on average 2 cars, cable tv, and a dvd player for two televisions. In fact, obesity, not hunger, is one of the biggest problems with our poor. Hardly two Americas, now, is it? John and John, YOU have misled America.
