FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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Over Half of Americans Under 18 Live in Poor Households Needing Government Assistance

Aug. 24, 2018 (EIRNS)—According to the latest statistics published by the U.S. Census Bureau, and reported by CNSNews.com on Aug. 22, in 2016 some 52.1% of all American youth under the age of 18 lived in households that were receiving “means-tested government assistance,” i.e., their level of income/poverty justified participation in aid program such as food stamps or free school lunches.

This is a sharp rise over the last two decades, under the British Empire-run Bush and Obama Administrations. In 1998, some 36.9% of children under 18 years of age lived in such households; by 2008, that had risen to 40%; in 2013 it broke 50% for the first time; and it rose steadily for the next four years, to stand at 52.1% in 2016. In absolute numbers, this meant that 38.4 million out of the 73.6 million people under 18 in the U.S., lived in households receiving such means-tested government assistance.

The demographic breakdown indicates that the problem is even worse: The higher percentages of those receiving benefits are in the younger age cohorts. For example, the national average for all ages in 2016 was 35.9% living in such households; in the 18- to 24-year cohort, it was 40.1%; and in the under-18 group, it was 52.1%. In other words, there is an inverted pyramid, in which poverty requiring such federal assistance is disproportionately affecting the young.