A self-reporting statistic with a qualifier attached.4/5 wrote:In the United States the following statements are true about people labeled as living in poverty:
96% say that their children were never hungry in the last year because they couldn't afford food.
First: Food insecurity. Food insecurity is defined as limited or uncertain availability of nutritiously adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.
In 2014, 48 million people (15.4%) were food insecure in the United States. This included 13.1 million children.
Now, that is in fact down from a peak of around 20 million children during the Reagan years. However, it's *still* misleading if used as a demonstration of how the lower classes have benefitted from economic growth, because all of the change has occurred in states that have built robust, well-funded food distribution programs for the poor (free breakfast programs at schools have helped, too). In states like North Dakota, which have opted not to develop these services or cannot afford to, conditions have not improved.
In other words, proximity to wealthy people with an appreciation for social services is the determining factor, not any personal circumstantial benefit derived from national economic growth.
