The times are hard

I take government and study based numbers with a bit of salt as any set of numbers can be manipulated. Recent numbers on poverty, and Rutherford county's numbers don't look good.

The latest U.S. Census numbers show Tennessee's poverty rate rising more quickly than the national rate. Economics experts say things have probably gotten worse since these figures were tallied in 2005.
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In Nashville, traditionally the area's most impoverished county, census figures showed the poverty rate actually went down 1 percentage point from 2004 to 2005. The stats put Davidson County's 2005 rate at 14.7 percent; almost 1 point lower than the state poverty rate but about 1.5 points higher than the national rate.

We don't stack up that well when it comes to other Nashville area counties.

According to the census figures, Rutherford County's poverty rate is increasing faster than any of Nashville's other neighbors. Figures show the county's 2005 poverty rate at 11.8 percent, almost 2 percentage points higher than the previous year and 4.3 points higher than the 1997 rate.

These "latest numbers" are a bit old as they are 2005, but how do they stand up to the praise county politicians repeat about the growth and success of our county?