An elderly woman lives on a very tight fixed income. She depends on food stamps to provide enough food so that she can pay for her rent and medical expenses.
A married man with four children loses his job. His unemployment compensation has run out and he relies on receiving government help for rental assistance and buying food for his family.
These are real situations facing real people. In fact, recent statistics show that one in two Americans are living at or near the poverty level. That means up to 50 million Americans are poor, the highest number since the Census Bureau began tracking poverty rates in 1959.
But despite the growing numbers of poor people — many of them formerly considered “middle class” — we aren’t hearing much about poverty in the current political campaign. It seems to be an issue that everyone is avoiding like the plague.
Everyone except the U.S. Catholic bishops, that is.
