Posted on 11/04/2019 11:46:30 AM PST by ETCM
The average bottom-quintile household receives $45,389 in government transfers. Private transfers from charitable and family sources provide another $3,313. The average household in the bottom quintile pays $2,709 in taxes, mostly sales, property and excise taxes. The net result is that the average household in the bottom quintile has $50,901 of available resources.
The average middle-income household is only 32% better off than the average bottom-quintile households despite earning more than 13 times as much, having 2.5 times as many of prime working-age individuals employed and working more than twice as many hours a week.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Antipoverty spending in the past 50 years has not only raised most of the households in the bottom quintile of earners into the middle class, but has also induced many low-income earners to stop working.
Just a few excerpts. Much more detail in the linked WSJ article.
OTOH,there are more than a few who didn't work *as* hard as I did...and that would explain why I'm richer than they are.
Great article. Thanks for posting it. It supports with data an argument I have made for years, i.e. we won the War on Poverty - the “poor” today live much as the middle class lived (at least in a material sense) in the 50’s and early to mid 60’s.
“My understanding is that in many parts of the country, if you work hard at a low-paying job you may well end up with less money in your pocket than someone who makes absolutely no effort to be productive and who just lets the government money roll in.”
There is truth in that. Fifty years ago we would ride through town looking for hands during ginning season. Most refused the offer of work, as it would negatively impact their welfare payments. More profitable to sit on the porch.
True, but it is, unfortunately, an "endless war". Some thought that those lifted out of poverty would take advantage of their improved lot in life and the war would be "won". Instead, their grandchildren are now drawing those benefits right along with them.
My 56 tear old daughter is on disability ( bogus ) and gets the equivalent of $45,000 pretax income by my calculations from state and federal funds. I rationalize this as being a rebate foe the taxes I have paid and still pay, as do my other two children. But it pains me to think about it after paying for her college degree. She is also not the only one of her generation in this situation.
“The average middle-income household is only 32% better off than the average bottom-quintile households despite earning more than 13 times as much, having 2.5 times as many of prime working-age individuals employed and working more than twice as many hours a week. “
This isn’t by mistake.
In MA you have to earn over 60,000/year to live as well as those who don’t work.
The destruction of the middle-class is a goal of the Deep State.
EVERY state and govt department has a well fare program.
When the USSR went kaput, there was only one welfare program, the federal pensions.
Although my idea is unworkable, what I would like to see is this — People on government assistance (Welfare) should be moved to tiny towns in Liberal states (Maine, Vermont, MA, etc.. They should be provided some sort of government housing, and they should receive cheese, powdered milk, beans and rice every month.
Not much more. It should be an awful life. And if they proceed to have children, they should get less food. If they agree to be sterilized, they can have more food. It’s their choice.
Of course, if they don’t want life to suck, they can be moved to a real place and find real work. It’s up to them.
This is why democrats need to push socialism.
They have started to approach that tipping point where the dependency state (not safety-net programs but full time government dependents) don’t just want TVs and cell phones, they want to keep up with the jones and get free health care and college too.
It’s never about how good you’ve got it. It’s always about how good other people have it.
bkmk
The Truth About Income Inequality..
Some people work harder than others and get paid more and that’s why there is income inequality.
Then there’s the majority of millenials who don’t know how to work and they’re just idiots.
I can do a dish washer Job but can a dish washer do my IT job?-)
Income equality is just a huge steaming plate of BS!
Income inequality is a direct function of general inequality
Those less equal have less income
Inequality can be remedied but it requires poor old hard work
Most of these “inequality” talking points and “theories” are pure bullsh*t.
That's one of the points the authors make, without diving into the politics of the haves vs the have-nots, race, sex, etc. They back it up with numbers that show the talking points of SJWs and the leftists/socialists are at best misleading, and more accurately, lies (or as you put it, bullsh*t).
I think middle class people need to see this. It publicly answers the questions they have about unemployed people they see shopping in the same stores they do, driving the same cars, wearing the same clothes and eating at the same restaurants. Yet Elizabeth Warren and her ilk still call them "poor", and they want you to pay more, more, more.
I’m from Mississippi and we’re pretty much the welfare capital of the U.S. Every time I go into Wal-Mart I’ll see a young 20’s woman with a string of children following behind her, it’s not hard to deduce that she’s unmarried. 100% of the time she’ll pull out the yellow and blue Mississippi EBT card to pay for her goods.
Unwed mothers having children has become the defacto job for part of the population in my state. Having five kids by the time they’re 22 or so guarantees them an income practically for life, not just a subsistence living but a good income of $50-80K a year from all the various government programs. That’s more than most 22 year old women will make if they stay in school, make good grades, and graduate with a bachelor’s degree. The one who gives birth for a living isn’t in debt for student loans either. Many of these women didn’t finish high school and certainly don’t have the work ethic to finish college yet they’re able to manipulate their way into a position where they’re bringing in more money than someone who works hard and attempts to succeed in life.
A cynic would ask who’s the dumb one?
I have a cousin the same age as me that got married at 16 and got pregnant almost right away. Not too long after the baby was born they divorced. She never married again but wound up having 5 kids. Stayed on welfare until her last kid was a sophomore in high school and they kicked her off. No education. No work experience but she had to find a way to support herself or starve. She took a few classes and became a CNA (I think that’s her title). She makes crap money and is 65 and has no hopes for ever retiring. She can either starve on minimum social security or keep working. Those babies are good support but once they get older the welfare money stops and then you’re screwed.
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