Another look at poverty numbers

Another look at poverty numbers

The Nov. 3 headline “Youngs- town leads nation with a poverty rate of 49.7 percent” can be easily misinterpreted. The statistic does not measure the percentage of people living in poverty (the poverty rate) but their concentration. Forty-nine percent of people in Youngstown’s SMSA do not live in poverty, but 49.7 percent of those living in poverty live next to each other.

To see the difference, assume a population of 100 people, 10 of whom live in poverty and of those ten, five live next to each other and five are scattered throughout the rest of the city. The poverty rate is 10/100 or 10 percent while the poverty concentration rate is 5/10 or 50 percent.

The latter rate is what the Brookings article measures.

Don Milley, Boardman

Take responsibility for poverty

Since we have reached the pinnacle of poverty in Youngstown, it’s time for our city’s politicians to man-up and accept their well-deserved blame, such as Bob Hagan, who has been a political figure in this region for as long as I can remember.

Mr. Hagan shouldn’t try to deflect the blame onto state senators and state representatives in all other areas of Ohio. Our pathetic state of affairs is on the shoulders of him and the other lifelong politicians who feed off this area, providing nothing but monumental misery.

Gary David, Canfield