On Mon, 3 Sep 2001 13:40:16 -0400, Dennis Raphael
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Nancy Krieger <[log in to unmask]> on 09/03/2001 12:22:49 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>fyi ...
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2001 11:29:35 +0100
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Minimum income standards in the United States <fwd>
>
>> Study shows hardships for working families
>>
>> The Economic Policy Institute has produced a new
>> study showing that 29% of working families in the
>> United States with as many as three children under
>> age 12 do not earn enough income to afford basic
>> necessities. The book examines the cost of living
>> in every community in the U.S. and determines separate
>> "basic family budgets" - the amount a family would
>> need to earn to afford food, housing, child care,
>> health insurance, transportation, and utilities -
>> for each community. Go to: http://www.epinet.org
>>
>> An online supplement, the Family Budgets Calculator,
>> generates an itemized budget for more than 400 metropolitan
>> areas by various family types. Go to:
>>
>> http://www.epinet.org/datazone/fambud/index.html
Something to Think About....
If Earth's population was shrunk into a village of just 100 people-with all
the human ratios existing in the world still remaining-what would this tiny,
diverse village look like? That's exactly what Phillip M. Harter, a medical
doctor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, attempted to out. This
is what he found:
57 would be Asian
21 would be European
8 would be African
14 would be from the Western Hemisphere
52 would be female, 48 would be male
70 would be black, 30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian, 30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual, 11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59 percent of the entire world's wealth, and all 6
would be from the United States.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death
1 would be pregnant
1 would have a college education
1 would own a computer
The following is an anonymous interpretation:
Think of it this way. If you live in a good home, have plenty to eat and can
read, you are a member of a very select group. And if you have a good house,
food, can read and have a computer, you are among the very elite. If you
woke up this morning with more health than illness... you are more fortunate
than the million who will not survive this week. If you have never
experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony
of torture, or the pangs of starvation... you are ahead of 500 million
people in the world. If you can attend a church meeting without fear of
harassment, arrest, torture, or death...you are fortunate, more than three
billion people in the world can't. If you have food in the refrigerator,
clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep...you are richer
than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and
spare change in a dish someplace...you are among the top 8% of the worlds
wealthy. If your parents are still alive and still married...you are very
rare, even in the United States. If you hold up your head with a smile on
your face and are truly thankful ... you are blessed because the majority
can, but most do not. If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch
them on the shoulder ... you are blessed because you can offer healing
touch. If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two
billion people in the world that cannot read at all.
|
