One issue that’s been a major message in this year’s Democratic presidential primary is income inequality. Bernie Sanders has made it a central issue of his campaign.
In fact, in a recent debate he has claimed that rebuilding the middle class is important enough to be his one issue, and it is an issue that hits home for much of America. While the top 0.1% get richer, the middle class shrinks. Those formerly middle class people are going down in income, not up.
Recently, sociologists from Cornell and Washington University have crunched some numbers to show just how likely it is that you’ll fall near or below the poverty line at some point in your life, and the results are a bit surprising. Well, okay, maybe not that surprising.
After analyzing over 40 years of income data, they have found that 54% of Americans will experience poverty or near poverty at some point. That may not be as surprising as it sounds. With skyrocketing student loan debt and low paying entry-level jobs, many people could be living in poverty for quite some time as soon as immediately after graduation.
The good news here is that many Americans tend to work their way out of poverty rather quickly. One of the sociologists reported that the length of poverty is typically one to three years, with a minority of the population experiencing long-lasting poverty.
You can use this calculator developed from their research results to assess your own risk of hitting poverty. Let us know your results!
Featured image is by Paulien Osse, available under a Creative Commons 2.0 license.
