People below the poverty line often aren’t really poor. Many of them receive tax-free income and welfare benefits that aren’t even considered in determining whether someone is below the government’s official poverty line.
One sign of that fact is that middle class people (households in the middle fifth of households in terms of income) consume only 29 percent more per person than people in the bottom fifth of all households — the so-called poor. That’s what economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas found, as they noted in Sunday’s New York Times.
Moreover, most Americans below the poverty line live better than the average Western European, and possess things — like air conditioners, cable TV, and dryers — that many European households lack. Moreover, many of them own their own homes, typically, a three-bedroom house.
Many forms of income are invisible under federal law. For example, Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian’s ex-girlfriend, Lisa Bonder, received $600,000 per year in child support from him for her child (even though the child turned out not to be his), but none of that was taxable. That’s because child support isn’t treated as “income” by federal law, no matter how big the child support award is, or how much of it is actually spent on the custodial parent, rather than the child. So a recipient can be rich, yet qualify for all sorts of means-tested government welfare benefits.
Loading ...
The welfare systm need a overhaul but trucking some users to work fare.
I work for 50 years before I got a home and then it was passed down from my in laws after death .
I was a widow at 58 and I worked for a living just 2 weeks before my 69th birthday.
My question is why should illegals and those who have money to live nicely on get welfare???
The poverty line income for a family of four is $20,000. That is making $9.60 per hour working the 2080 hrs a year. Yes there are people who abuse the system because of no integrity or ethical values and that number is probably larger than anyone would care to admit. 12% of the population (37 million or so) earn below the poverty level and the majority of them do not even apply for assistance because of their pride and values, believing some else is more deserving. Every year the number of people living below the poverty increases as the cost of living goes up and wages stay the same.Things do need to change, Society needs to change, moral and ethical values need to be privelant.