Economist's View: The Increasing Risk of Poverty:

"This is another reason why many people report dissatisfaction with the current economic situation even though the numbers indicate a strong economy. It surprised me to learn that one third of the population in their 40's spent at least a year below the poverty line in the 1990s:

America's 'Near Poor' Are Increasingly at Economic Risk, Experts Say, by Erik Eckholm, NY Times: ...Americans on the lower rungs of the economic ladder have always been exposed to sudden ruin. But in recent years, with the soaring costs of housing and medical care and a decline in low-end wages and benefits, tens of millions are living on even shakier ground than before, according to studies of what some scholars call the 'near poor.'

'There's strong evidence that over the past five years, record numbers of lower-income Americans find themselves in a more precarious economic position than at any time in recent memory,' said Mark R. Rank, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis...

In a rare study of vulnerability to poverty, Mr. Rank and his colleagues found that the risk of a plummet of at least a year below the official poverty line rose sharply in the 1990's, compared with the two previous decades. By all signs, he said, such insecurity has continued to worsen.

For all age groups except those 70 and older, the odds of a temporary spell of poverty doubled in the 1990's... For example, during the 1980's, around 13 percent of Americans in their 40's spent at least one year below the poverty line; in the 1990's, 36 percent of people in their 40's did, according to the analysis.

Comparable figures for this decade will not be available for several years, but other indicators — a climbing poverty rate and rising levels of family debt — suggest a deepening insecurity, poverty experts and economists say.

More people work in jobs without health coverage, including tempor"