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Working Poor, Working Hard, Takin’ Shortcuts
Poor Americans – a group of the population of hundreds of millions – who don’t pay federal income taxes do have jobs, but they earn to little to pay taxes, either legally or because paying them would impoverish them beyond survival. This is not lazy Americans sucking off the rest or a tax revolt: this is life in conditions where, in just the last three years, the word American Dream was replaced with American Austerity. Since the banking collapse in 2008, incomes have fallen by the most since the Great Depression. More than 50% are below the poverty line. Almost two-thirds of the 33 million people living in families below the poverty line have at least one family member who worked in 2011, according to the Census Bureau.
Incomes Fall in the US Most Since Great Depression
In fact, the number of people who worked full-time last year in the lowest income group – those who earn less than $20.262 a year, soared 17.3% in 2011. This was by far the largest increase for any group. Food inflation in the markets is not 2% like the federal government would lie to us about, but closer to 10%, like nations in diverse parts of the world, from South America to Southeast Asia.
More than 30% of people who owe no income tax don’t owe because of credits for the working poor and children. Nearly 9 million people have income less than $40,000. The great majority have their income tax liability is cancelled-out by the income tax credit, aimed at encouraging the poor to hold down jobs. But, these aren’t the most comfortable of jobs. Grueling hours and increasing amounts of pressure put on the employee due to the sour job market as well as uncertain times for the small-to-medium sized business owner creates a general psychosis across the nation, developed from a paranoia of living on the edge.
“A lot of people are working many hours, working very hard, but not making a lot of money,” said Elaine Maag, senior research associate at the Urban Institute.
Eligibility for the refundable credit depends on income and family size, and an individual or family begins to become ineligible at around $17,000 or income, though a single mother with two children could earn up to $42,000 in adjusted gross income and receive a small amount from the credit. The maximum credit such a family could receive is $5,200. That $5,200 is likely to directly into food. And, if not food, then into services, education, and perhaps even an after-school activity for the children. Of course, some will have to be put aside for things like parking tickets and, as their kids get younger, other tickets. Especially if they are an “other” ethnicity among a subtle, once protestant nation.
Contrary to the belief the Mormon Romney promulgates that 47% of workers simply don’t pay income taxes and depend on social welfare selfishly, many of the poor who receive income-based benefits do work, and work quite a bit. Nearly 50% of the households with children that received food stamps in 2010 also had a working family member, which makes this group three times as prevalent as those who rely solely on welfare. To qualify for food stamps, families and individuals must loosely have a total monthly income at or below 140% of the poverty line, around $23,000 a year for a family of four. Minimum wage workers are well below that threshold, as they average only about $15,080 a year.
But, let’s be realistic, candidates rarely say what they truly believe, if they truly believe anything at all. Romney was not only reflection his own prejudices, but perhaps first and foremost the prejudices of his voter-base. He was perpetuating a myth in the US that the poor are lazy and live off the rest of us. That’s a wrong assumption, for fraudulent, too big to fail corporations take far more welfare than the working poor. Far more.
“They are working, playing by the rules, but it’s not enough to support themselves,” said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, senior policy analyst at CLASP, which advocates for low-income workers.
Well, whether or not they are playing by the rules, the working poor will have to take responsibility for their actions, no matter if its working slavishly in the pursuit of getting-by or taking shortcuts where they are presented so as to enjoy their lives on earth.
As SV covered, 50% of Americans are now living below the poverty line, and its not as if life down there is comfy:
And that’s derived by using the official number, not the correct number. In a world where the oxygen of the way things are is deceit, the way things are can be an absence of light. With a more accurate unemployment number, as reflected in the U6 reading (the government’s broadest number), the number of unemployed is 22%. This is common sense except for among the ostrich people. So, let’s do this again but with accurate numbers: 22% of 315 million makes 69.3 million unemployed. That is nearly three times the amount of the official number. Now we are left with 245.7 workers, whom are fewer than the 289 million assuming an official unemployment figure, 28% of whom makes 68, 796,000. So, now, when we add 69,300,000 – that is, those unemployed – to the number making poverty-wages, 68,796,000, we get a total of about 138,096,000 at the poverty line in the United States today. That is nearly 44% of the population living in poverty.
2012-09-22 09:43:03
Source: http://silvervigilante.com/working-poor-working-hard-takin-shortcuts/
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