Well, you can draw the line wherever you want so you can get practically any number … 98%, 50%, 15%.
But by saying that 98% of the US is poor, you lose all credibility because even a cursory investigation shows that much more than 2% of the population is well-off and comfortable.
Also : Poor is the US is much different than poor in Bangladesh.
There is a difference between wealth inequality and wealth.
For example, let’s say there are 100 people … one person has a yearly income of $1 billion and the others each have have an income of $100,000. All of them can live comfortably on their incomes. There is income inequality but the 99 are not poor.
About 20% of Am. families make a six figure income. One hundred thousand dollars per year would make a rich man of a single individual, but it reduces a family of four to ability to pay for the bare essentials. In the USA this family of four or more with a six figure income (100,000 per year) would be considered poor. The % of persons, families who make less than this is more than 20. So, what happened to the American dream–that anyone can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and, with true grit and practical husbandry, get the rewards of prosperity?
According to the latest polls it takes an income of $50,000 per year for a family to break even. That leaves 72% of the population who can’t do this. I’d consider the 72% to be poor.
What does that mean?
A family of how many?
What does “break even” mean?
What do families which “break even” have? Houses? Cars? Vacations? Savings? TVs?
What do you expect people to have in order not to be considered poor? How do the non-poor live?
Poor–a family of four making less than 50,000 dollars per year. Vacations? Forget it. As Alice noted, it takes all the running I can do to stay in the same place.
You betray a hedonistic need, the need to “want”. Its what everybody “wants” isn’t it, that is most important. If people want a son, it is their divine right to fuck and breed 18 babies until they get a son…sarcasm
If they want their male chromosome so bad, put it in a DNA bank. Only special people, like Tesla, should be able to breed endlessly like that.
These are not the statistics I found for a family of four. How did you come up with them? They would only apply in a place where food and rent are cheap. Such places are rare nowadays.
You never provide references to back up the numbers that you post. We don’t know where you got your numbers.
Again, you don’t give the expenses of your family of 4 with an income of $50,000. You just say that they live where rent and food is expensive and we are to believe you.
Less than $50,000 a year - how much less than that?
Many people do not go on vacations. Is that such a big deal? We spend so much and come home so tired. What’s the big deal about vacations?
I like to look into people’s carts when I go food shopping just out of curiosity. I often see so much soda, so many sweets, et cetera. Money is squandered. What would be saved by having better nutritional food could send a family of four on a nice little vacation.
We need to be more discriminate with our money.
I have a friend who always complains about not having enough money; yet, every weekend they go out to eat. I see multitudinous images of her and her family on facebook eating, drinking. I bring it up to her and what does she say - well, we have to live, don’t we?
People are really spoiled, hedonistic - spend, spend spend and yet they never seem to have enough money.