American Insanity: Calculating Poverty
Mike Walker, Col USMC (retired)
All,
Let us begin the unpleasantness.
PART I: WHAT WE DO NOT WANT TO KNOW
Outside a few extreme cases, real poverty does not exist in the United States. Having seen real poverty overseas, I know of what I write.
According to the US Census Department, the world’s population is about 7.1 billion people.
According to the World Bank, beyond the shores of rich countries like the United States, some 1.5 billion people live on $1.25 a day or less, that is less than $460 per year.
Another 900 million live on between $1.25 and $2.00 a day or less than $750 a year. The majority of the world’s population lives on $5 a day or less and the overwhelming majority of the people on planet earth live on $10 a day or less, that is under $3,700 a year.
After learning this, some American smart aleck always points out that the cost of living is a lot cheaper over there.
True, life is a lot cheaper over there because really living in poverty on this planet means no plumbing (no running water, no shower or bath or sink or toilet). You build your own oven from bricks and mud and it burns on wood. There is little or no furniture and, if you are lucky, the floor is not pressed dirt but a concrete slab or mat you weaved out of dried grass.
There is no electricity and that means no radio, TV, cable/satellite package, or DVD player. There is no microwave, computer, or phone and when the sun goes down it gets dark, as many cannot even afford a lantern or the fuel.
So yes, Mr. Smart Aleck, your rent and utility bills are very small indeed. And do not even think about ever owning a car. You hit the nail on the head, Mr. Smart Aleck, life is very cheap over there.
That leads us to the harsh truth: When people talk about the American poverty level, they are talking about living as one of the wealthiest top 10-20% of the people on the planet.
Most of us have no idea of how lucky we are to live in the United States. That is a TRAGEDY, but what is INSANE is how we Americans count people living in poverty.
PART II: CALCULATED TO FAIL
When it comes measuring income for the neediest Americans, i.e. identifying those living at or below the poverty level, the system is PLAIN AND SIMPLY BROKEN.
Allow me to explain.
The only thing that the bean counters count is earned wages. While that is THE critical statistic, stopping there is STUPID!
We have spent over $20,000,000,000,000.00 on the “War on Poverty” that began fifty years ago and as far as the poverty bean counters are concerned, almost all of that is worth $0, nada, nothing, zip, the big goose egg.
Think about how incredibly irrational that is.
Let us take a family of three that has no income and use my home state of California as an example.
1. The family will receive free health care through MediCal, the state component of the larger federal Medicaid program. Based on the IRS estimate of $333 per person per month, that is a $12,000 benefit.
2. Based on reporting from the Kaiser Family Foundation, the family will also qualify for just under $1,800 in food stamps and the child will receive free meals at school.
3. The family will also qualify for housing support, to include utility bills, either through Public Housing or Section 8 funding. This will vary due to location and associated costs up to maximum of $2,200 per month. If we take the middle figure of $1,100 per month, this is a $13,200 benefit.
4. Finally, and again based on Kaiser Family Foundation analysis, the family will receive $7,756 in cash grants as part of the California TANF program.
5. All told, this represents $34,756 in support.
6. According to Families USA, the 2013 U.S. poverty level for a family of three was set at $19, 530 in annual earning and please do not forget that over a billion people exist on less than $460 per year.
It also needs to be added that this aid does not include private charitable organizations and dozens of smaller federal, state, and local programs that provide additional help to the family.
Clearly, the American social safety net is doing good work. That is something we should be proud of, right?
WRONG!
To the poverty bean counters, it is all money flushed down the proverbial toilet.
To those bright guys and gals in Washington D.C., our family of three has $0 in income and everything described above did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO REMOVE THEM FROM THE POVERTY STATISTICS.
Is that CRAZY OR WHAT???
Here is stunning idea for the fools in Washington, how about reporting TWO (2) numbers:
Keep reporting the poverty number based entirely on earned income.
AND…
Report a second number showing how many millions of people were moved above the poverty level through these programs.
Gee, people might actually consider the programs as a social good! I know it is a scary concept, but some people might see that Washington actually makes a difference for the BETTER in lives of our most needy citizens.
Nah!
Lets continue to play dirty inside-the-beltway politics as usual and continuously bad mouth the people we disagree with.
I mean, who really wants to make things better anyway if you can’t vilify your opponents?
Mike
