Here's an example of the flaw in your know it all, one size fits all big central government, rebate:
9-25-01
Study: Costs rising for average California families
By Leon Drouin Keith
Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The wages needed for the typical California family to meet basic costs total nearly three times the federal poverty level, according to a report released Monday by a non-profit research and advocacy group.
The study by the California Budget Project found that a family of four needs an income of $52,034 a year to earn a modest living -- a 16 percent increase from 1999, when the organization first studied how much it takes to make a living in the state.
The study found that the cost of living is rising faster than the state's average hourly wage, which went up 9.5 percent, from $11.96 in 1998 to $13.10 last year.
Raising two children is tough all around California, said Jean Ross, the project's executive director. Housing costs are sky-high in urban and coastal areas, but because wages are lower inland, "in a lot of respects it's a toss-up," Ross said.
Making ends meet is particularly hard for single parents. An adult raising two kids while working one 40-hour-a-week job would need to earn close to $21 an hour to cover the basics, the report found. That's well over triple the state's minimum wage of $6.25 an hour.
"There has to be some broader awareness that the minimum wage standards are utterly contemptible -- they're not just ridiculous," said Bob Untiedt, executive director of the Hollywood Interfaith Sponsoring Committee, a coalition of churches and a synagogue working to improve the living standards of their community.
Untiedt said that although wealthier people may think that families can get by on much less than the report suggests, doing so means coping with hardships including overcrowded, substandard housing, a lack of transportation and no medical care.
"There really is a lot of struggle in the lives of lots of ordinary people," he said.
The project used the latest available federal and state data to estimate how much families need to pay for housing, transportation, child care, food, taxes and other necessary expenses. It did not take into account this year's federal income tax cut because details on the newest tax tables were not available, Ross said.
The report assumed the families had housing cheaper than 60 percent of their region's rental properties, and that they enrolled in individual health care plans through Kaiser Permanente or Blue Cross.
Although families in lower-cost housing or who have health care through employers or public programs would have lower expenses than the report indicates, there are other expenses that are not included, Ross said.
The study assumes that families rent their homes, do not send their children to private schools, are not saving money and aren't taking vacations, Ross said. "We don't even figure in two weeks at a state park," she said.
Ross said one thing federal officials could do quickly to ease the burden on families is to grant the state a waiver that would allow it to expand its "Healthy Families" program, which provides health care to children in families earning two and a half times the poverty level or less. The waiver would expand the program to the children's families.
So in effect, in your system, contrary to your promise of equality, the impoverished in Cal. for example would be subsidizing the impoverished in other states.
That system would be fair because?_________
ancient_geezer to lewislynn: "Certainly, the choice to live in a high rent area as opposed to an area that has lower rents and lower taxes, is not a function of necessity. The HSS povertyline is the determinate. How you allocate your income by your choices of where you live or what you specifically buy is your own affair, as it should be." 796 ancient_geezer
Zon to lewislynn: "Lying Lewi, I've seen you on several tax threads going back years. I have no need or desire to engage "heathens" such as yourself. People that lie and are dishonest are not to be respected. For with their dishonest actions they disrespect others. Scorn. That's what you've earned and deserve. I doesn't always have to be that way. You could come clean and regain honor. I'm not holding my breath though." 826 Zon
You probably think you can mislead and try to deceive the reader and that they should just comply with you and answer your questions or take you seriously. You're a joke -- you're clueless.