© Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNGA food pantry opened by Second Harvest Food Bank, Santa Ana, CA, serves low-income families.
That's the grim assessment of the 2017 Prosperity Now Scorecard. The report was compiled by Prosperity Now, a Washington, D.C.-based organization seeking to help people - particularly people of color and those with limited income - achieve financial security and prosperity.
NO EMERGENCY FUND
The scorecard also shows that 46 percent of households in the Golden State didn't set aside any savings for emergencies over the past year, a higher percentage than the national rate of 43.7 percent.
It doesn't help that 21.1 percent of California jobs are in low-wage occupations. The scorecard found that 21.4 percent of Californians experienced income volatility over the past year, a situation that most often results from irregular job schedules.
Comment: Severe drought and hundreds of fires, the past few years, have taken its toll on California residences, businesses and agriculture hitting the mainstays of its economy, the sixth largest in the world. The results in the report are not surprising, likely indicative of other states as well and of times to come. That so many folks are not prepared for even three months of hardship is a prime indicator of how close the US is cutting it at the edge of disaster.