The Real Numbers: Half of America in Poverty -- and It's Creeping toward 75%

[hfojvt]

117. my parents don't participate in the labor force

yet my dad makes more money in retirement than I do for working full time.

I know another retired guy who makes over $100,000 a year.

Just because you are not in the labor force, does not mean you are poor. In fact, it often means the opposite - that you are rich enough to not have to sell yourself to the daily grind.

As for median net compensation, that likely includes millions of teenagers. 4 million youths working summer jobs in 1996 http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2000/09/art2full.pdf

Making below median income.

Neither the labor force participation rate, incarceration, nor the median net compensation change the facts about median household income, nor the distribution of income. As in 60% of households making over $33,000 a year and 40% of households making over $53,000 a year. http://www.ctj.org/pdf/taxcompromise2010.pdf

The assertion that because the average income of the bottom 75% is $31,000 (by the RW Tax Foundation's lousy estimate) that 75% are near poor remains absurd.