The Poor Lose the Ability to Buy Food

Because of the recession, the poor continue to lose the ability to pay for sufficient food. It is another sign that the financial situation of the lower class has become decoupled from that of the middle class. The unemployment problem has a stranglehold on people who live below the poverty line more than any other group.

According to a new Gallup poll, “The percentage of Americans reporting that they had enough money to buy the food they or their families needed continued to decline in October, nearing the record low seen in November 2008. The percentage who did not lack money for food in 2011 fell to 79.8% from 80.1% in September, continuing a decline that began in April.” If November 2008 was not the worst month in the history of the American economy since the Great Depression, it was close.

The food affordability problem puts even more pressure on the federal government to find solutions to the jobs problem. The trouble also potentially puts more of a burden on Washington to spend money for programs to help the poor and unemployed. The situation may become worse in the near future. Congress may not extend unemployment benefits beyond 99 weeks. If this insurance is not extended, the number of people who live below the poverty level will balloon by hundreds of thousands next year.

The ability to feed a family may be the best barometer of the plight of Americans in financial trouble. If so, the people most hurt by the recession have little hope — perhaps even if the economy begins to revive.

Methodology: Results are based on telephone interviews conducted as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index survey Oct. 1 to 31, 2011, with a random sample of 30,289 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, selected using random-digit-dial sampling.

Douglas A. McIntyre