According to Linda Gorman in an essay published online by the National Bureau of Economic Research, poverty rates are generally higher among children than among adults. According to the study she cited, about 18% percent of all children lived in households with incomes below the poverty line. However, only 7% of those living in households headed by a married individual were living below the poverty line, while households with an unmarried head and children present had poverty rates of 40.3%. Gorman's study also showed that the probability of being poor in America varies tremendously by race. Blacks and Hispanics in America are statistically much more likely to be poor than whites. About 83 percent of white children living in two-parent households headed by someone with at least a high school education will escape long-term poverty even if they fall, at some point, below the government's official poverty line. Gorman writes that in addition to marital status, race, and the other factors listed above the national unemployment rate, median wages, and wage inequality in the lower half of the wage distribution all are significant determinants of poverty rates in America. Gorman also dispelled a popular misconception involving legal immigration. She explained that U.S. immigrant population has had only a marginal effect on poverty because their numbers in relation to the total population of the United States are too small to affect the overall poverty rate significantly.
One of her more interesting comments was that increases over tine in welfare spending in the United Stated have produced only modest reductions in poverty. Furthermore, that effect has become even more modest over time as the federal government continues to adjust the official poverty line (Gorman).
According to a report published in 2007 by the federal Government Accountability Office, 37 million people or about 13% of the total population of the...