More than 46 million Americans lived in poverty last year,
according to new census data released today. That’s the largest
number of poor Americans since the government began collecting
such data 52 years ago. U.S. real median household income also
fell last year, to $49,445 — a 2.3 percent drop from 2009. The
data shows that households in the Midwest, South and West all
experienced declines in real median income, while income in the
Northeast remained stable. On Point has gone beyond the
statistics and looked at the very real consequences poverty. At
the beginning of the recession in 2009, we talked with U.S.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and took a look at the
staggering number of Americans living on food stamps. We also
spoke that year with Barbara Ehrenreich about lives lived around
the poverty line. And just yesterday, we spoke with author Paul
Osterman about the realities of low-wage work.