Poverty Intensifies In Fitzwalkerstan

In several sets of dismal statistics the economic implosion in Wisconsin was brought into sharp focus by the U.S. Census Bureau. For example: "To all those Wisconsin workers who feel like they've been economically squeezed in the first decade of the 21st century: It's not your imagination. It's reality. Adjusted for inflation, median household income in the state declined 14.5% between 1999 and 2010, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday. The rate of decline in Wisconsin dwarfed the national drop of 8.9% in median household income over the same period." Even worse was the poverty rate in Milwaukee which is now the 8th poorest city in the United States, worse than Katrina battered New Orleans. "Milwaukee's poverty rate was 29.5% last year, up from 27% in 2009. In all, 171,521 people - including nearly half the city's children - lived below the poverty line in 2010 as Milwaukee remained among America's 10 most impoverished big cities." The rate of child poverty in Milwaukee is now approaching a staggering 50%. "The stark figures detail the continued economic devastation wrought by America's Great Recession. Poverty among Milwaukee's children shot up to 46.1% last year, up from 39.4% in 2009, according to Census Bureau estimates. Among minorities, 41.4% of Milwaukee's black residents and 32.3% of Hispanics were poor."