Okay. I call BS on those numbers. I’d say that article was garbage. 60 million Americans equals 1 out of every 5 Americans. $7 per day equals $2,555 per year. Even if it’s one person supporting four others in his family, that only raises the annual take to $12,775 (minimum wage would bring in $12,168). Not counting govt. aid, the Earned Income Credit for such a family with such income would be over $4,700 a year.
Please, there’s no way one out of five Americans (legal or illegal) is living off that level of income.
It’s true that I don’t see that proportion of the populous in that level of impoverishment in my everyday life. But then again, I live in a very prosperous Oklahoma, where thanks to low taxes, most adults even among the poorest of the poor can get at least one half-time minimum-wage job (or equivalent) and transfer the earnings therefrom to disposable income rather than taxes. I assume that California and most other states must be suffering mightily.
Even so, I didn’t call them the Lost Angeles Times (note Lost with a “t,” not Los) for nothing. The media over the past several weeks have served up a surprisingly huge proportion of incredulously bogus stories, and the classification of this statistic to the “bogus” pile would not surprise me.