WASHINGTON — The nation's poverty rate remained stuck at 15 percent last year despite America's slowly reviving economy, a discouraging lack of improvement for the record 46.5 million poor and an unwelcome benchmark for President Barack Obama's recovery plans.

More than 1 in 7 Americans were living in poverty, not statistically different from the 46.2 million of 2011 and the sixth straight year the rate had failed to improve, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. Median income for the nation's households was $51,017, also unchanged from the previous year after two consecutive annual declines, while the share of people without health insurance did improve but only a bit, from 15.7 percent to 15.4 percent.

"We're in the doldrums, with high poverty and inequality as the new normal for the foreseeable future," said Timothy Smeeding, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in income inequality. "The fact we've seen no real recovery in employment and wages means we've just flatlined."

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I am not sure why anyone would be surprised with this. Over the last decade US has instituted policies that basically benefit the rich or those involved in the financial sector at the cost of the middle class and the poor.

Cutting interest rates close to ZERO basically provides an unlimited money supply to those already in power or with money and allows them to speculate on financial or real estate assets without risk. That in turn makes them even more money. Since the working poor don't have such an access they are left behind by default. I don't see anything in the US Economic policy that would change that any time soon.

Weather this is an economic, social or political issue is for you to decide. However, I would just mention that the US Economy cannot perform well if so many people are left behind. It might work for a while, but eventually it catches up to the rest of the US Financial system. In this case, as the US Financial Asset Bubble (the bubble that is basically artificially keeping the US Economy afloat) implodes, there will be hell to pay.

Maybe it's a good idea for someone to open a Guillotine manufacturing company in the US.

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