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So what do you want to see happen? Entitlements ended and the minimum wage people start begging you for money much worse than ever before in the street every time you turn around? I don't think all of them will be nice to you after you refuse them.
I love Conservative's fuzzy math! If you make minimum wage only how do you just earn $3,625 in a year? That figure alone throws off everything else purported in the article! I know a lot of people who work minimum wage and I can assure you that they all don't get or qualify for everything listed.
Section 8? That program has been closed for years here in Florida with a 2 year waiting list. Food stamps? Well try feeding your family on a salary of $1,160 a month if your a single parent with 3 kids! Then paying your rent & utilities!
A family of four making $60,000 a year has over FOUR times the income than a single parent making minimum wage at $13,920 a year!
WTF is this anyways? A witch hunt against the poor? This reminds of Reagan during the 1980s and his vendetta against Welfare cheaters which by the way turned out to be a flat out LIE!
Now tell me which income would you rather have?
Only the math challenged would find any validity to this absurd argument.
In kind payments, NSLP, Medicaid and CHIP, Rent Subsidies and LIHEAP, can not be included in any estimate of disposable income. That is nonsense.
After tax income of the family of four making $14,500 is $17,570 in disposable income*
After tax income of the family of four making $60,000 is $43,966 in disposable income**
If we assume, for the moment, that the inkind subsidies reflect equal expenses for both families totaling $29,807 per annum, the family of four making $60,000 would still have a disposable income of $14,159, while the family of four making 14,500 without those inkind subsidies would have a negative disposable income of -$12,237!
*income minus taxes plus EITC
*income minus taxes
Now what did was that saying about lies, damned lies and statistics? The OP's link appears to be a case of all three.
This article is extremely subjective and incorrect. The Medicaid, free lunch (which I doubt is going to $1800/year), Section 8 and utility assistance programs cannot be counted as disposable income since it is not income that can be saved or spent. The Medicaid amount ($16,500) is totally ridiculous in comparison to a healthcare premium. The average yearly cost for health insurance for a family is $13,770, the employee is responsible for 30% of that ($4131/year). Contrary to what the author of this article is attempting to communicate, it is not easy or fun being poor and working some hard labor minimum wage job. To think that some people want to get rid of the minimum wage, which would only result in more entitlements and subsidies. SMH This article is so biased.
For the 60K family (notice the number of children is not specified) and the minimum wage family with a single parent and three children, it assumes the average cost of childcare is $9600. That is $800/month. I suppose this is assuming that one of the children is a baby or toddler but if not, that number is unrealistic. Furthermore, the combined state and federal tax amount for the 60K family is $16,034 but they failed to subtract the child care tax credit and obviously, the family has more than one dependent. This amount in taxes is unrealistic for that income for a family with children.Obviously there are going to be some deductions and credits. The EIC is counted for the poor families but no deductions or credits are counted for the middle class family.
As for the poor families, they would not have that much disposable income when they are only receiving $170/month from TANF and $302/month from other sources and if you include the EIC,their total monthly income would be $542 cash and $526/month for food stamps. Food stamps do not pay for diapers, clothes, transportation, laundry detergent, toilet paper, etc. That would have to come out of their cash. The utility assistance program does not pay for the entire utility bill, nor does section 8 pay the entire rent. So I guess the disposable income is $542/month before bills, rent and necessities are paid. If you subtract childcare at $200/month, they are left with $342 without having paid for anyting else.
As for the minimum wage family, their section 8 subsidy cannot be more than the section 8 subsidy than the welfare recipient family. Section 8 subsidies are based on income. After taxes and with the EIC credit, they end up with $1463/month. If you subtract $800/month they end up with $663/month, before any other expenses are paid.
The middle class family, after taxes (with no credits or deductions counted), they end up with $3663.83 per month. If you subtract childcare ($800) and the same amount of food as the food stamp recipients ($526) and estimate $344/month for their health insurance premium (the cost of the average employee contribution for a family), they end up with $ 1993 left before paying for anything else. If we subtract the school lunch amount ($150/month), they still have $1843. Not hard to live on in MS where the cost of living is low.
Maybe the OP would want to try living on minimum wage for awhile, then get back to us on what a wonderful, life-changing experience it was!?
But I kinda doubt it................................................ .....
Steve
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