Wednesday, August 12, 1998

The temporarily poor

A new Census Bureau study paints a portrait of American poverty that is both distressing and heartening.

Distressing because the study shows that from 1993-95, just over 30 percent of Americans lived in poverty for at least two months. Heartening because poverty is not, as sometimes assumed, a permanent condition. Only 5.3 percent of those who fell below the poverty line stayed there for two full years. There is escape, especially in a rising economy.

A heartening finding is that an intact, traditional family is the surest antidote to poverty. Married couples had fewer and shorter brushes with poverty than single parent families

A distressing finding is that in 1994 nearly half of female-headed households had a brush with poverty, more than three times the rate of married couples. And single mothers were eight times as likely to live in chronic - two years or more - poverty as married couples.

Social theologians endlessly debate the cause, effect and cure of impoverished households, but the hard fact remains that single motherhood is the surest ticket to poverty.