2000 vs 2015 might be a bit of a cherry pick. 2000 was the last year of the .com boom. The unemployment rate was bouncing off 4%. Yea, 2000 was the minimum overall poverty rate from 1990-present. There were two very similar maximums. 1993, and 2010-2014.
Not that it actually changes the point…
These days the most economically stressed group is families with young children. This improves pretty significantly once the kids reach public school age.
Used to be the elderly were overwhelmingly in desperate poverty, but social security/medicare/medicaid(which pays for most nursing home care) ended that quite effectively.
For families the big one is the public schools, but that usually kicks in at 5-6 years old.
Clearly we should be doing more for young families.
IMO:
free public preschool & at least much more daycare assistance
medicare pregnancy-18
government funded baby time off 12 months for primary caregiver, 2 months for secondary.
