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unhinged
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'by the end of 2013, there were forty-five million americans officially living below the poverty line - about one in every seven persons in the country. to understand what this means in practical terms, consider that to be officially poor that year a single individual would have to have made less than $11,188; the threshold for a two-person household averaged $15,142; for three persons $18,552, and for a family of four $23,834. in other words, if you made even $12,000 in 2013 as a single individual, you would not be considered poor in america despite how incredibly difficult it would be to live on such an income. likewise, if you and your pattern had one child and your combined income reached even $19,000, you would no longer be considered poor, despite your precarious economic station; so too in a family of four earning even $24,000 a year. so when we speak of poverty, we are talking about substantial financial insecurity. worse still, a growing number of americans are not simply poor but living in extreme poverty, defined as income less than *half* the poverty lines above. as of 2013, nearly twenty million people lived in this state of destitution, which is an increase of about eight million since 2000.' - tim wise
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