80% of the US Population is at or below the POVERTY line - WHY is this NOT a National Emergency???

[haele]

105. Median on wage income is a different statistic than median on population.

Skew in the elderly on social security, the disabled on SSDI, people living on interest income, small business owners or family business owners, students, children, and the unemployed, and you can easily have 80% of the population with a household income between the federal poverty line and the median wage income, in which there is not a large difference.

Population/household income figures are very compressed at the lower quintiles, and then really open up in the two upper quintiles.

There is also the perception on what is "poverty", because there are a lot of different interpretations depending on what aspect of poverty you are looking at.

Is it food insecurity?
Is it the ability to secure adequate housing?
Is it wages or job opportunities?
Is it access to transpiration?
Is it the ability to match basic expenditures against household income?

Is poverty living Shanty-town/living in a refrigerator carton under an bridge poor as opposed to just being able to rent an apartment that is too small for your family and only having to make a decision about paying basic bills and food when there's a unexpected crisis?

Is it requiring government assistance just to survive, or requiring government assistance to be able to stretch your income enough to pay all the bills and still provide medical, child care (if needed), transportation, and the occasional thrift store shopping spree for clothes or utensils?

Does a family making $50K a year deserve the same basic amount of assumed support as the family making $20K a year or, heck, even $70K a year if they live in a high cost of living location? If you've stripped away all unnecessary spending and still can't afford to pay for the basics to survive where you live, it doesn't matter if you're making $20K or $50K or $70K.

If after you strip out everything, all expenditures but the basics of what is necessary to get you to where you need to be for your income - if you still don't have enough income to put a roof over your family's head and food on your family's plate every night without going into a negative financial balance, you're in poverty.

I'm not even counting medical necessities, or pets, or school in this.

How we treat people who work and are still struggling and under pressure - especially with the resources we are wasting on frivolous crap that produces nothing and helps no one, says a lot about our society.

Those at the top .5% - the upper portion of the upper economic quintile, are making a shitload off this class war.

Haele
edited for speeeling.