Posted on 11/25/2002 7:57:37 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Edited on 04/12/2004 5:46:29 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
This month's election reaffirmed that while California is highly fragmented along cultural and economic lines -- the most complex society in the history of humankind, in fact -- its politics are largely the province of its whitest, oldest and most affluent residents.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
All those children living in poverty that California voters, according to this writer, are eventually going to have to rescue are the offspring of all of that cheap labor that has been imported, legally and illegally. For California to raise its already high taxes in order to take care of this situation would be yet another subsidy to the businesses that employ that cheap labor -- and they receive a huge public subsidy as it is.
Finally, I wonder at this writer's ignorance of how most people grow up: unless you're born to older parents, your parents' income increases at you get older; people with teenage children have (and need) greater resources that those with younger children, and they've had some time to accumulate those resources as they work their way up the career ladder. I realize this isn't true in all instances, but as a general rule, in America, that has been the case since the end of World War II.
"Indeed, the poverty rate for under-5 kids in California is higher than it was two decades ago." That's because we have more illegal aliens here than we did two decades ago.
I'm gonna go hide my wallet!
[ Latest Poverty Guidelines ]
[ Summary Figures and Federal Register References – Poverty Guidelines Since 1982 ]
[ Information Contacts/References – Poverty Guidelines & Thresholds – History of U.S. Poverty Lines ]
[ Is There a Single Definition of "Income" That is Used with the Poverty Guidelines? ]
[ Computations for the 2001 Poverty Guidelines ]
There are two slightly different versions of the federal poverty measure:
The poverty thresholds are the original version of the federal poverty measure. They are updated each year by the Census Bureau (although they were originally developed by Mollie Orshansky of the Social Security Administration). The thresholds are used mainly for statistical purposes — for instance, preparing estimates of the number of Americans in poverty each year. (In other words, all official poverty population figures are calculated using the poverty thresholds, not the guidelines.) Poverty thresholds since 1980 and weighted average poverty thresholds since 1959 are available on the Census Bureau's Web site.
The poverty guidelines are the other version of the federal poverty measure. They are issued each year in the Federal Register by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The guidelines are a simplification of the poverty thresholds for use for administrative purposes — for instance, determining financial eligibility for certain federal programs. (The full text of the Federal Register notice with the 2001 poverty guidelines is available here.)
The poverty guidelines are sometimes loosely referred to as the "federal poverty level" (FPL), but that phrase is ambiguous and should be avoided, especially in situations (e.g., legislative or administrative) where precision is important.
A more extensive discussion of poverty thresholds and poverty guidelines is available on the Institute for Research on Poverty's Web site.
| Size of Family Unit |
48 Contiguous States and D.C. |
Alaska | Hawaii |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $ 8,590 | $10,730 | $ 9,890 |
| 2 | 11,610 | 14,510 | 13,360 |
| 3 | 14,630 | 18,290 | 16,830 |
| 4 | 17,650 | 22,070 | 20,300 |
| 5 | 20,670 | 25,850 | 23,770 |
| 6 | 23,690 | 29,630 | 27,240 |
| 7 | 26,710 | 33,410 | 30,710 |
| 8 | 29,730 | 37,190 | 34,180 |
| For each additional person, add |
3,020 | 3,780 | 3,470 |
SOURCE: Federal Register, Vol. 66, No. 33, February 16, 2001, pp. 10695-10697.
The separate poverty guidelines for Alaska and Hawaii reflect Office of Economic Opportunity administrative practice beginning in the 1966-1970 period. Note that the poverty thresholds — the original version of the poverty measure — have never had separate figures for Alaska and Hawaii.
The poverty guidelines apply to both aged and non-aged units. The guidelines have never had an aged/non-aged distinction; only the Census Bureau (statistical) poverty thresholds have separate figures for aged and non-aged one-person and two-person units.
Programs using the guidelines (or percentage multiples of the guidelines — for instance, 125 percent or 185 percent of the guidelines) in determining eligibility include Head Start, the Food Stamp Program, the National School Lunch Program, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and the Children's Health Insurance Program. Note that in general, cash public assistance programs (Aid to Families with Dependent Children and its block grant successor Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Supplemental Security Income) do NOT use the poverty guidelines in determining eligibility. The Earned Income Tax Credit program also does NOT use the poverty guidelines to determine eligibility.
The poverty guidelines (unlike the poverty thresholds) are designated by the year in which they are issued. For instance, the guidelines issued in February 2001 are designated the 2001 poverty guidelines. However, the 2001 HHS poverty guidelines only reflect price changes through calendar year 2000; accordingly, they are approximately equal to the Census Bureau poverty thresholds for calendar year 2000. (The 2000 thresholds are expected to be issued in final form in September or October 2001; a preliminary version of the 2000 thresholds is now available from the Census Bureau.)
The computations for the 2001 poverty guidelines are available.
Go to the page of Information Contacts and References on the Poverty Guidelines, the Poverty Thresholds, and the Development and History of U.S. Poverty Lines.
It's almost all imported poverty. Many of the poorest children are conceived and born into welfare just for the purpose of getting easy citizenship for the parents. The poor children being brought in by the millions are actually better off here than they were because here they can get many government handouts, free breakfast and lunch at our schools, free health care and all the rest. Not good for our country or our taxpayers ---but no one cares about that anymore.
That's true too --I've seen the kind of cash they're carrying and it's quite a bit more than I'm carrying, or even more than most Americans have in a bank account. It's not so bad earning $4-5 an hour if no taxes get taken out and sometimes they can make $80 to $100 a day without taxes getting taken out.
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