Here's a short, well done video that simply and clearly shows the reality of being poor in the U.S. Just the facts.. thought provoking view of how anyone (cannot) live decently on very low income...
http://www.usccb.org/cchd/povertyusa/tour.htm [1]
put together by the Catholic Campaign
for Human Development, there's a lot of other good information and reliable data on their site. check it out.