The 2000s may be even better, at least in the US, as the
proposed new tax bill leaves no millionaire behind.  But,

Today's NYTimes cites a new Congressional Budget Office study
that finds nearly 60 million people in the US lack health
insurance at some point during the year.

At the same time, the proposed tax cut will,
according to the Children's Defense Fund:

* force Head Start to close the door on 40% of eligible disadvantaged
        preschoolers;

* drop over 200,000 children from child care programs over the next
        five years, and 570,000 children from afterschool programs next
year;

* jeopardize Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program and result
        in denial of 9 million children needed quality health care.



-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis Raphael [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 10:38 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Wealth is health...

1990s a good decade for the rich: Statistics Canada

OTTAWA - The rich got richer in the 1990s, while everyone else's before
tax
income stayed just about the same, as did the number of children living
in low
income families, Statistics Canada said on Tuesday.

The final installment of data from the 2001 Census shows the income of
the
8,371,020 families across Canada was nearly unchanged from 1990 to 2000,
increasing less than $500 to $55,016.

Low income families saw little or no improvement in their finances
through the
decade, but those at the top made their piles significantly larger.

Families in the top 10 per cent made 28 per cent of all the money earned
in
2000. That's up from 26 per cent a decade earlier.

Those in the bottom 10 per cent accounted for about two per cent of all
income,
about where they were in 1990.

The Census data show that about 18.4 per cent of children were living in
low
income families in 2000, which is about the same percentage as 10 years
earlier.
However, the 1981 Census showed 19.4 per cent of children in low income
households.

As for seniors, about 16.8 per cent of them live in low income
situations.
Twenty years ago, the low income rate of people older than 65 was nearly
double
that, at 29.8 per cent.

Single parents also did better through the 1990s, seeing their median
income
rise 19.3 per cent to $26,008.

Statistics Canada defines a family as a married couple or a couple
living
common-law, with or without children of their own, or a lone parent with
at
least one child living in the same dwelling.

Single adults without children ? what the Census refers to as
"non-family
persons" ? saw their median income top $20,000, up 6.9 per cent in the
past
decade.



Written by CBC News Online staff

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