We have the richest poor people in the world.
I know life is not peachy for everyone. There are some sad stories out there. But apart from extraordinary bad luck, just about everyone who is “desperately poor” in America has just made a long series of poor life decisions. The problem isn’t with “society”. The problem is that some people just screw themselves over.
Over the past half-decade or .... millions of Americans, including many families with kids, are mired in “extreme poverty”
Johnson’s War on Poverty began back around 1964. Why is this an issue now since the problem was solved way back then.
A TV station out west send a reporter undercover to panhandle and discovered that if you do it consistently every day you can clear $40K in a year, tax-free.
Yeah, nobody here is living on two bucks a day.
The ONLY thing that would make a child go hungry in the USA is irresponsible parents.
if a person worked minimum wage jobs for a couple of years, and became disabled, they get blow poverty disability checks- I believe the poverty line is around $14,000 per person- min amount disability is around $8000 per year- (however, one has to take into account that usually they also get medicaid/medicare with hardly any copay so that adds up per year if the person is sick and needs medical products or care- )
Illegals and a MAJORITY of legal immigrants (as high as 67% or so- the claim that we need ‘to do the work noone else will do” is a MYTH- almost 3/4’s of them go on welfare and never work) somehow get max welfare or disability, and get all the perks they can (ie housing, heating fuel, schooling etc etc etc) and get as much as $45,000 per year per person when everything is calculated together
There is a little town on the border population around 1,600 that was used for years to drum up grants, sympathy. The average income shown for the town residents was $11,000 per household.
Turned out there was a group in that town were involved in smuggling firearms to Mexico and they were arrested. Since then stash houses for trafficking have been busted there. Drug trafficking operations being busted goes back decades.
Unreported income is the most likely explanation for the poverty designation in many cases I am sure.
The author gives examples of people who are really down and out, are having a very difficult time. The people have very little job skills, little or no education, have no family support, or else hostile and harmful family, and are not members of a church or any group for that matter that could provide a helping hand.
The author of the book does a bit of sleight of hand, though. She describes these people as living under $2 a day poverty. She arrives at the $2 a day figure by not acknowledging the govt. assistance that is received: SNAP food assistance, Section 8 housing vouchers, Medicaid health insurance, EIC cash tax refunds.
In my opinion the people described would best be helped by a stronger economy that has more entry level employment opportunity.
Also, existing taxpayer funded institutions shouldn't be allowed to continue to degrade. I am thinking of public libraries, public schools, and adult education programs. These institutions serve all of the public, and can be very helpful to someone trying to get out of poverty.
“Poor” people typically spend $400 per month or more on cigarettes and lottery tickets.
They count declared income only. The person who has an income of $2 a day and gets benefits totaling $40,000 is listed as having an income of $2 a day. Food stamps, rent subsidies, free phones, don’t count. The person is still called “poor.”
The person with a salary of $45,000 is listed as having an income of $45,000. Federal and state taxes take 20,000, but he is listed as having an income of $45,000. So, he has less money than the lazy slob, but gets free everything.
A nation of ‘’poor people’’ who have cell phones and 50 inch plasma tvs.