Poverty is a human issue with many dimensions, including race, gender, occupation and geography. Its elimination is also multi-dimensional.
When not battling with minority members, the dominant Republicans in the Indiana House of Representatives might tend to the plight of 868,000 Hoosiers (13.4%) below the poverty threshold.
In the event it did not strike you, 868,000 people in 2019 was about the same as the population of 43 Indiana counties combined.
Before we go further, consider those poverty thresholds that include numerous benefits such as Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, Social Security, pensions, etc.
For a single person, under age 65,the threshold is income of $13,064. A college student, working half-time at $12.56 an hour, fits that description. Thus, Monroe and Delaware counties, with their relatively large college populations, lead the state with poverty rates in excess of 20%. Vigo and Tippecanoe are similarly college-impacted counties with large numbers of young, part-time workers.
Those four counties are among the top nine Indiana counties with poverty rates in excess of 17%. Switzerland and Crawford, in that same group, are traditional poverty locales, geographically distanced from opportunity. Fayette, Grant and Marion, also in the same group, are victims of major shifts in manufacturing.
For the household with one adult and one child, the threshold is $17,308. Two adults and two children, $25,465. How many of our state legislators can imagine living a full year, in this century, on so little income?
What is the color of poverty in Indiana? It’s white; 70% of all Hoosiers in poverty are white, but the poverty rate for the white population is only 11%.
By contrast, Black people are 19% of those in poverty while constituting just 9% of the total population; the poverty rate for Blacks is 27%.
The Hispanic or Latino populations of Indiana are 12% of those in poverty, but just 7% of all Hoosiers, with a 22% poverty rate.
Importantly for whites, Blacks and Hispanics, the poverty rate is higher in Indiana than in the nation at large. Indiana matches the national poverty rate (13.4%) only because our Black and Hispanic populations are a lower percentage of the total than is the case nationally.
Hendricks, Hamilton and Boone counties have poverty rates at or below 6% Hancock County’s rate is 6.7%. These four counties have relatively small Black and Hispanic populations. However, in 36 of Indiana’s 92 counties, the Black poverty rate is 33% or higher. A 33% poverty rate exists in 18 counties for Hispanic populations and in 16 counties for Asian populations.
What’s to be done to eliminate poverty, not just ameliorate it? Destroy the historically accepted barriers to education, health, employment and housing that exist for so many in this “State that Works” for so few.
Morton Marcus is an economist. Reach him at [email protected]. Follow his views and those of John Guy on “Who gets what?” wherever podcasts are available or at mortonjohn.libsyn.com.Send comments to [email protected].
