"If people left school like I did now, they would be poverty-stricken," says Dave. "Unless you are academic, then you are destined for a life of no prospects".
If I were forced to choose just one area, to pick the most promising opportunity, it would be addressing poverty, especially child poverty and the adverse conditions in homes and communities that are tightly linked with poverty.
When the Census Bureau released new Supplemental Poverty Measure numbers on poverty, which are more comprehensive than the standard measurement, it also included estimates of how many more people would be in poverty without some of these vital programs.
Without Social Security, more than half in that age group would be in poverty.
It is estimated that a further 135,000 would be in poverty if their spending on tobacco were taken into account.
"We have kids whose parents are wealthy, and we have 20percentt who would be considered poverty level".
Dr. Smeeding said that in a typical case, a struggling family, like a mother and children who would be in poverty on their own, stays with more prosperous parents or other relatives.
By this same measure, more than half of seniors -- 54.7 percent -- would be in poverty, but for Social Security.
When he announced his bid for governor, Villaraigosa said the focus for his campaign would be education, poverty and Californians left behind in the "new economy".
More importantly, when comparing Obama to past presidents, a better measurement would be the poverty rate, since it takes population into account.
