On the eve of the Million Worker March in D.C. it’s interesting to note this article by University of Michigan public policy professor Sheldon Danziger that shows why journalists should be paying more attention to the Census Bureau’s historical record instead of year-to-year data when covering poverty and income issues.
I think more attention should be given to the Census Bureau’s historical record, which is not in the press release, but can be found in the full report. For example, the official poverty rate in 2003 was the same as it was in 1975.
That means that there has been no progress against poverty, even though the economy grew over these three decades. And, there is no reference in the Census report — and almost no discussion in the press — of the fact that poverty is much lower in Canada and other industrialized countries than it is in the U.S.
At the Census briefing we were told that median household income is substantially higher than it was in 1967, and that it did not change at all between 2002 and 2003. And we were told that the share of total income received by the lowest fifth of households fell from 3.5 to 3.4 percent from 2002 to 2003.
However, we were not told that 3.4 percent is the lowest level recorded since the Bureau began this series in 1967 (one simply has to look at Table A-3, pp.36-37). The share of the lowest quintile was 4.4 percent in 1975.
In 1975, in 2003 constant dollars, the mean household income of the lowest fifth was $9,143 and that of the highest fifth was $89,829. In 2003, the lowest fifth received $9,996 and the top fifth,$147,078. Thus, most of the income growth of the past 30 years accrued to the richest households.
Most press accounts stated that “inequality did not increase significantly last year.” No one wrote that inequality has increased dramatically over the last 30 years and there are no prospects, given current economic conditions and public policies, for our returning to the more equal America of the previous generation.