Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2015 11:55:38 -0500
From: “Tom Glendinning”
Subject: Joltin Joe – Economic Statistics – Chatlist # 5169
Poverty statistics are available online at many sources. Though parsing the data from the US Census Bureau
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/37/37037.html is difficult, our county Economic Development Corp will have all kinds of information. http://www.chathamedc.org/
NC Policy Watch has a page with a county search tool. Chatham County has a poverty rate of 18%, greater than 1 in 6. Siler City reached a rate of 20+ % in the 2010 census, but has since lost a major employer.
http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/county-snapshot/
I do remember reading that Siler City had a single parent household poverty rate of 40+% post 2010 census. I am not willing at the moment to find that source again. However, I use reliable sources such as census.gov, and non-partisan economic data generators.
While we have an enviable median income level, it is concentrated in the eastern part of the county. This level disqualifies us from certain favorable government loan, grant and aid programs.
We are a county divided economically, demographically. In our politics, we should be mindful of that fact, so as not to favor those policies and regulations which will do harm to poor, disadvantaged people, like raising taxes, spending tax money, making businesses harder to start or to operate, making permitting expensive and zoning prohibitive.
Tom Glendinning
“It takes an intelligent fool to make things bigger and more complex……….. It takes a touch of genius to move in the opposite direction”
You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.–Wayne Gretzky