Where are all the poor people?

Listen to Dave’s Commentary: Where are all the poor people?

I just saw the new numbers —

The number of Americans in poverty hit 46 million last year, an all-time high, so where are they all?

The answer is that some of them are just down the hall.

“The Census Bureau says there are nearly 22 million what they call “double up households” in the U.S., where there’s at least one extra adult living in the home,” reports CBS’s Dave Cohen.

And 5.9 million of them are adult children living with their parents. And of those, about 2.6 million would be in poverty if they didn’t live at home.

In other words, we are learning to cope. We’ve created our own informal welfare state. Maybe that explains why, despite the worst economy since the Great Depression, the loudest political voices want the government to do LESS, not more.

Maybe it’s because my generation of parents, who built their lives around their kids, are overjoyed to have them back! Instead of the sterility of the empty nest, we can enjoy the fecundity of The Waltons!

The recession is bringing back the extended family. You can take the old soccer uniform out of its climate-controlled display case. And really, kids are best at this age: the 25-to-34s. They realize you’re not as dumb as they thought you were. They can cook without making a mess, do light plumbing repairs…the only possible drawback is that they take forever to go to sleep.

OK we get it.

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