Posted on 10/12/2023 4:40:27 AM PDT by daniel1212
From all those lists of best books of 2022, here’s one with the potential to change public policy debate and discourse for the better. It’s The Myth of American Inequality, and the three authors are two Ph.D. economists, former Sen. Phil Gramm and his long-ago Texas A&M colleague Robert Ekelund, and former Bureau of Labor Statistics assistant commissioner John Early. Their subject is government statistics — and how they present a misleading picture..
the authors’ conclusion is that long-standing complaints about the American economy — that the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer, that we declared war on poverty and poverty won — are wrong...
The first reason is that Census Bureau statistics on income, on which just about everyone relies, do not include two-thirds of government transfer payments. That made sense in 1947, when Census started reporting the number, and most transfer programs —food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, the Earner Income Tax Credit, the child tax credit — didn’t exist.
But today they do, and the bottom two quintiles on the income scale (each quintile is one-fifth of households) get 59 percent and 24 percent of their incomes from government transfers.
Second, Census income statistics don’t account for taxes people pay...the bottom two quintiles of Americans essentially pay no income tax, while the top quintile provides 83 percent of federal income tax revenue.
When we take government transfers and taxes into account,...the “government takes and redistributes enough resources to elevate the average bottom quintile household into the American middle class.”....
The authors also expose another myth, the idea that Americans’ incomes have been stagnant over the past two generations....using other government statistics to supplement familiar indexes...“real average hourly earnings would have risen 74 percent over the last fifty years rather than the official reported number of 8.7 percent.”
The fact is hat while the constant cry of the Left is that "there is no justice," that their more reliable voter base are victims of injustice, not being treated fairly (which actually was the tactic the devil used on Eve, and which victim-entitlement mentality is what the Left inculcates in order to obtain power as supposed saviors), and that 25% of Americans are "food insecure'" and that millions "face hunger" every day (as we all do), the fact is that we live in an era with the highest standard of living ever known to man. Even worldwide, people are materially better off than generations past.
Yet prosperity is a test, and due to the deceptiveness of this then spiritual and family values overall decrease. Leading to ruin unless the country realizes a revival of evangelical faith.
93% of households in the U.S. had access to at least one car in 2019 (Federal Highway Administration).
The average American household owns at least two cars. (Statistica)
In 2016, only 20% of low-income adults reported having no access to a personal vehicle. - https://www.thezebra.com/resources/research/car-ownership-statistics/
80% of low-come households in the United States owned a flat screen TV in 2022 https://www.statista.com/statistics/663668/affluent-americans-who-owned-a-flat-lcd-led-oled-or-plasma-screen-tv/
The vast majority of Americans – 97% – now own a cellphone of some kind. The share of Americans that own a smartphone is now 85%
97% households in the United States with Less than $30,000 income own a cell phone, and 76% have a smart phone - https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/?tabId=tab-011fca0d-9756-4f48-b352-d58f343696bf
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Those payments to low-income people are generally not available to married people.
What you did not mention are the cash drains:
rent
insurance
property tax
prescription drugs
cable television, cell phone, Internet subscriptions
“that the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer”
Income and assets are different things.
The Poor Family may owe more than it owns, but still have a good income.
Under SNAP rules, it would generally be stupid for many millions of households to try to build wealth.
Some businesspeople refuse to acquire wealth in order to fend off lawsuits.
With every day, $1800/month rent digs a $60 hole in a household’s finances.
In most places on the Earth, just having A CAR, regardless how decrepit, makes you automatically RICH.
RENT - If you are "low-income" there are Subsidized Apartments. HUD helps apartment owners offer reduced rents to low-income tenants. To apply, contact or visit the management office of each apartment building that interests you.
And Public Housing and Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8) To apply for either type of help, visit your local Public Housing Agency (PHA).
INSURANCE - Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provide free or low-cost health coverage to some low-income people, families and children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people with disabilities. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) created government subsidies to help low- and middle-income people pay for health insurance. Medicare Part B is only free if you have a low income and are enrolled in one of the Medicare Savings Programs for financial assistance.
PROPERTY TAX - low income usually are renters, while A tool used in a number of jurisdictions for mitigating these effects on those with limited incomes is the property tax “circuit breaker,” which caps the amount of property tax that homeowners have to pay as a share of their income, much like the electric circuit breaker which provides protection against overloading an electrical system. - https://localhousingsolutions.org/housing-policy-library/property-tax-relief-for-income-qualified-homeowners/
Community health centers may offer prescription assistance to low-income patients.
You might qualify for free medicines (or low-cost ones) if: You don’t have health insurance. You don’t have enough health insurance to afford them. The drugs you need aren't covered by your insurance.
Medicare Part D provides drug coverage. The Extra Help program helps with the cost of your prescription drugs, like deductibles and copays. How to Get Low-Cost or Free Prescriptions
Certainly health costs are a problem, but the purpose of the article was to show that the Left works to increase and keep people dependent on the gov., meaning liberals, thus keeping them in power. For instance:
In 2017, Congress enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which expanded the existing Child Tax Credit program into a generous credit for millions of Americans Congress has pumped nearly $5 trillion taxpayer dollars into COVID-19 “relief” spending. The food stamp program has also been modified under the guise of COVID-19 relief. Beginning with the passage of the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act (FFCRA), the federal government suspended the work requirement for able-bodied adults without dependents in the program For millions of people, staying home still pays better than returning to work. - https://thefga.org/research/expanded-welfare-keeping-americans-from-working/
Some perhaps, but how hard is to for those with live-in boyfriends to state that they are single?
$1800/month rent? In the "low-come" densely populated city that I live in, a small 3 BR apt. with no parking in a 100 year-old building, often with mice, rats etc. is typically around $2400. Official average rent is 3k. Yet the vehicles are much better than when we moved here 30 years ago, and the pizza deliveries seem busy.
>> Some perhaps, but how hard is to for those with live-in boyfriends to state that they are single? <<
That’s the problem: Our current economic system pays people to have live-in lovers rather than get married.
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