Posted on 12/05/2012 8:53:35 PM PST by JerseyanExile
The federal government now considers a family of four in New York City to be poor if its pre-tax income is below $37,900.Even with full medical coverage.
The calculation helps explain why newly revised Census Bureau figures hike the number of poor Americans to 49 million as of last year, further widening an already yawning gap between ordinary perceptions of poverty and how the government sees it.
This breathtaking number begs the question: What does it mean to be “poor” in the United States?
To the average American, the word “poverty” means significant material hardship and need. It means lack of a warm, dry home, recurring hunger and malnutrition, no medical care, worn-out clothes for the children. The mainstream media reinforce this view: The typical TV news story on poverty features a homeless family with kids living in the back of a van.
But poverty as the federal government defines it differs greatly from these images. Only 2 percent of the official poor are homeless. According to the government’s own data, the typical poor family lives in a house or apartment that’s not only in good repair but is larger than the homes of the average non-poor person in England, France or Germany.
The typical “poor” American experiences no material hardships, receives medical care whenever needed, has an ample diet and wasn’t hungry for even a single day the previous year. According to the US Department of Agriculture, the nutritional quality of the diets of poor children is identical to that of upper middle class kids.
All these government statistics were based on the Census Bureau’s old definition of poverty. The new definition, released last week, stretches that gap between common-sense and government perspectives even further.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
My wider point is that the folks that are working won’t have those things either if we continue down this path.
Bless you.
Freepers wont waste 75% of a dollar to send you a quarter.
Obama is going to destroy all compassion with envy and Gov waste.
Forgive my asking, but if it’s just social security at 70%, and NOT disability, wouldn’t that be a choice you made?
I am truly not understanding your condition. If you need SSDI and yes, an attorney is wise, they do NOT require any payment up front! They get paid on the back end.
As for medical care, I don’t understand your claim. I am uninsured and have no issue getting medical care, without medicare or medicaid.
I would like to understand what you are saying here. Thanks
You can receive medical care in any ER in America, and you cannot be refused care due to inability to pay. There are also clinics for the poor if need be.
I just don’t understand how you can pay rent and utilities, buy food, and have enough money for the Internet when you receive less than $665 a month from social security and have no other income. Please enlighten us with your magnificent budgeting secrets.
I think what they mean by “medical care when needed” is when a person is having a heart attack or needs hospitalization....insurance over the last 50 years has totally messed up our medical system...it used to be affordable to see a doctor for ailments needing attention because insurance (and government) was not involved. JMHO
That’s the standard of living for you. I knew a guy living on fixed income in Chicago, he had only a small apartment, and even then he got a discount from the landlord for doing work at the building. Moved down to Alabama and the same income got him a multi-acre spread and he didn’t have to work anymore.
Isn’t pride one of the 7 deadly sins? If I was truly in need of medical care and had no insurance, I would avail myself of any legal source of care I could find. If it involved charity, I would swallow my pride and accept their help.
People, this is where we find America.
This is a compassionate society that is taxing all accomplishment away to level the field.
When things were tempered, we had compassion for the unfortunate and the fortunate, as well as all in between.
We were a land of ambition and compassion.
Obama is stripping ambition.
I don’t wish to over analyze this.
Lord knows I aint rich, but I do not covet what others have.
I think I can say that honestly, and I think I can honestly say I have compassion for folks that have less than me.
I know one thing.
I can only take those things one at a time.
I can’t expect the politicians to spend the bounty wisely.
Witness Obama and Boehner
Ted Kennedy started us down this road with the HMOs
Prior to that and HIPPA a fellow could work out a payment plan with a side of beef or shingling a roof. Those things are verboten now and administrators will decide what is best for you.
Ask Mooochele. Shes been to all of them with groups of 100 or more.
Poverty statistics are phony. They only count income when they decide who is living in poverty. Non-cash benefits from the government - food stamps, medical care, housing, utilities, meals at school for the kiddies, the “free” education in government schools, and even a free Obamaphone are not counted as income. If you had all these things provided for you and had some income, would you call that living in poverty?
I know fellows that spent 25 years in service in the military in war zones for the last 12 years and Obama just axed their Tricare.
I have paid into the system since I was 14 and I can see they are going to pull the rug out just before I get there.
It stinks. But there it is.
Well, I manage. Living in a rural area where housing is dirt cheap, though utilities are not, I stay in my house until winter arrives (it’s paid for, taxes are peanuts, and its market value is under $10k) and then make myself useful at the home of a relative who needs company. I can’t afford heat, don’t pay rent, the kid is a self-supporting adult, I have no debts and own no cars.
What’s really amazing is not how I budget the income, but how little one needs to be happy, provided one hasn’t numerous obligations.
Don’t buy a house by incurring a mortgage; same goes for car; don’t use credit cards; don’t borrow money; go easy on the water and electric usage.
Incidentally, the last time I paid for internet, it was dialup and around $9 a month.
People don’t need a lot of money. They make choices — sometimes expensive ones — and then they think they can’t unmake them. Mortgages, student loans, car loans, credit cards, hobbies, habits...it sure adds up if you’re not careful!
Of course I chose it. I could either take early SS, or go on welfare. I believe welfare would have been a lot more: free food, free heat, and Medicaid. But it's mooching, so I took the Soc Sec instead. My late husband had to pay into the system, like it or not; the govt gambled he'd live longer than he did, and they lost!
I am truly not understanding your condition. If you need SSDI
Whether I need it or no, whether the lawyer is paid up front or no, the doctor most certainly needs to be paid. Who is to pay him? I can't. It's that simple.
I am uninsured and have no issue getting medical care, without medicare or medicaid.
Glad to hear it. But where I live, there are no doctors who do freebies, and the hospital ER will provide little besides references to individual physicians elsewhere -- FAR elsewhere -- unless the patient is suffering a hemorrhage, a heart attack, or some other condition liable to result very soon in a dead patient on the premises.
I would like to understand what you are saying here.
I'm saying that although nearly everyone seems to believe it, the poor do not enjoy access to health care. Hospitals do what they must to avoid legal repercussions, but doctors are still asking -- quite properly -- to be paid for their services.
Pardon me for not addressing this in the previous post. (It is so past my bedtime!)
But no, you can NOT receive medical care in any ER in America, and I don't recommend that you try, unless you can afford the insane ambulance fee. Nor are there free clinics within everyone's reach.
You can say it over and over, like an article of faith; everyone thinks it's true; but it simply isn't true. In fact, even if you have a life-threatening condition, it's no guarantee you'll get care. You'll get some attention, but not necessarily care.
Now I really must bid you good night, sweet Prince.
Where (approximately) do you live? I live (by choice) in the northeastern Texas Piney Woods, and the living standard here is pretty low...
Do min wage workers not pay any withholding tax either? It’s really unreal. They need to be paying more.
You got it. I wonder if a future age will peg ours as "Tammany Hall got into the morals line."
The scary part is, once some of them do realize it they react by dehumanizing the rich. Dehumanizing is the standard way to cut off empathizing with a certain group of our fellow humans.
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