Just how poor do we have to be, to be considered to be living / working in Poverty?
http://www.incap.org/IIWFpdf/2007/Final_WPFP_Report.pdf
You really should want to read the information contained on the link above. It contains some real eye opening information on what income level constitutes Poverty and sufficiency or why a living wage is so important.
An excerpt: A Realistic Definition of “Low-Income” [
This report follows the lead of many researchers by focusing on those working families who are considered “low-income.” These are working families earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. In 2004, the year in which the number of low income working families was calculated, a family of four earning less than $38,000 was considered low]
Key Characteristics of Low Income Working Families
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Nearly 400,000 adults are present and working in these families.
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Ninety percent (90%) of the parents are between the ages of 25 and 54.
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Fifty-five percent (55%) of these working parents have no postsecondary education.
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Twenty-eight percent (28%) of these working parents have no high school degree.
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Thirty percent (30%) of these families have at least one parent with no health insurance.
FACT: 90 percent of low-income working families in Indiana have at least one parent between the ages of 25 and 54.
So just how much to does anyone need to make to be considered to be classified among the working Poor?
About $31,000.00 per year if you are single, $37,000.00 per year for a family of two, and $42,000.00 per year if you are married with a pre-schooler at home with a full time mommy.
So when you stop to think about it, almost all of our public safety workers are working poor, our Military are working poor, and just about any service industry worker trying to compete with any union wage type product producing almost any kind of product is poor. But is this realistic to think we can make these figures work for us here in the USA and still position ourselves in the wold marketplace and be competitive? I mean how does an American working Poor person or family compete with a working poor person in China, India or some Island country working for three bowls of rice and a few fish-head a day? I that same person came to America and plied their same trade and skill set would they "Make It" in America? Or would they have to make the same wages as what we are being told is a Living Wage? $14.75 per hour on a forty (40) hour work week, for fifty two weeks a year?
My best guess is they would need to make the $14.75 per hour and even if they make a "Living Wage" that wage does NOT include health insurance, savings, and any form of personally owned transportation. So what are we doing in America to insure we are not creating a nation of Economic Slaves?
What do you think? What do you Say? What is your opinion?
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