Recent Forum Topics › Forums › The Public House › 10 Poverty Myths
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March 21, 2015 at 5:05 pm #21222znModerator
10 Poverty Myths, Busted
March 28, 2014
by Erika Eichelbergerhttp://billmoyers.com/2014/03/28/10-poverty-myths-busted/#.VQ0qcf1yVQE.facebook
1. Single moms are the problem. Only 9 percent of low-income, urban moms have been single throughout their child’s first five years. Thirty-five percent were married to, or in a relationship with, the child’s father for that entire time.*
2. Absent dads are the problem. Sixty percent of low-income dads see at least one of their children daily. Another 16 percent see their children weekly.*
3. Black dads are the problem. Among men who don’t live with their children, black fathers are more likely than white or Hispanic dads to have a daily presence in their kids’ lives.
4. Poor people are lazy. In 2004, there was at least one adult with a job in 60 percent of families on food stamps that had both kids and a nondisabled, working-age adult.
5. If you’re not officially poor, you’re doing okay. The federal poverty line for a family of two parents and two children in 2012 was $23,283. Basic needs cost at least twice that in 615 of America’s cities and regions.
6. Go to college, get out of poverty. In 2012, about 1.1 million people who made less than $25,000 a year, worked full time and were heads of household had a bachelor’s degree.**
7. We’re winning the war on poverty. The number of households with children living on less than $2 a day per person has grown 160 percent since 1996, to 1.65 million families in 2011.
8. The days of old ladies eating cat food are over. The share of elderly single women living in extreme poverty jumped 31 percent from 2011 to 2012.
9. The homeless are drunk street people. One in 45 kids in the United States experiences homelessness each year. In New York City alone, 22,000 children are homeless.
10. Handouts are bankrupting us. In 2012, total welfare funding was 0.47 percent of the federal budget.
March 22, 2015 at 10:36 am #21240nittany ramModerator10. Handouts are bankrupting us. In 2012, total welfare funding was 0.47 percent of the federal budget.
That’s the biggest welfare myth out there and it’s perpetuated by Mitt Romney and his ilk with their 47%’er bullshit. Unfortunately, the elite are good at making the middle class believe that the poor are responsible for their tax burden.
March 22, 2015 at 1:15 pm #21243PA RamParticipant10. Handouts are bankrupting us. In 2012, total welfare funding was 0.47 percent of the federal budget.
That’s the biggest welfare myth out there and it’s perpetuated by Mitt Romney and his ilk with their 47%’er bullshit. Unfortunately, the elite are good at making the middle class believe that the poor are responsible for their tax burden.
I get so many things in my email or on Facebook about welfare handouts and how horrible it all is and on Facebook they always get tons of LIKES. If I post something about the top 1 percent and how money flows to the top all I get are crickets. No one gets it or cares. After all–the 1 percenters are “earners” the “doers” the “job producers” or whatever other myth they want to believe.
It always irritates me. I always tell them that they’re closer to the bottom and the top and the ones most likely to NEED welfare if their lives collapsed.
But it doesn’t get through their walls.
Frustrating.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. " Philip K. Dick
March 23, 2015 at 8:56 am #21283wvParticipant10. Handouts are bankrupting us. In 2012, total welfare funding was 0.47 percent of the federal budget.
That’s the biggest welfare myth out there and it’s perpetuated by Mitt Romney and his ilk with their 47%’er bullshit. Unfortunately, the elite are good at making the middle class believe that the poor are responsible for their tax burden.
Well thats the number that caught my eye.
(a lot of the other points were confusing to me)But there’s all kinds of algebra out there,
on this topic. Lots of numbers.
This site says “welfare” is nine percent.
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/welfare_budget_2012_4.htmlw
v- This reply was modified 9 years, 9 months ago by wv.
March 23, 2015 at 11:58 am #21298PA RamParticipantWell thats the number that caught my eye.
(a lot of the other points were confusing to me)But there’s all kinds of algebra out there,
on this topic. Lots of numbers.
This site says “welfare” is nine percent.It all depends on what you’re looking at. A lot of people will see 9 percent and think that this is only about handouts in the form of food stamps or money to welfare frauds. The truth is that they throw different things under the “welfare” umbrella including social security disability payments, unemployment and worker’s compensation. So yes–it depends on what numbers you are looking at and how they classify them.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. " Philip K. Dick
March 23, 2015 at 12:03 pm #21299wvParticipantWell thats the number that caught my eye.
(a lot of the other points were confusing to me)But there’s all kinds of algebra out there,
on this topic. Lots of numbers.
This site says “welfare” is nine percent.It all depends on what you’re looking at. A lot of people will see 9 percent and think that this is only about handouts in the form of food stamps or money to welfare frauds. The truth is that they throw different things under the “welfare” umbrella including social security disability payments, unemployment and worker’s compensation. So yes–it depends on what numbers you are looking at and how they classify them.
All true.
At any rate 9 percent is still low.
Also, if you look at that pie-chart, Military spending is 21 percent,
and Education is 3 percent.
Now if we knew nothing else about a ‘nation’ what kind of society
would we ‘predict’ would emerge from a nation
that allocated money that way?w
vMarch 23, 2015 at 2:58 pm #21316ZooeyModeratorMore on health care than defense?
I don’t remember ever seeing a budget graph in which defense was much under half the overall budget.
March 23, 2015 at 6:14 pm #21333wvParticipantMore on health care than defense?
I don’t remember ever seeing a budget graph in which defense was much under half the overall budget.
Well l dunno what the facts are,
but i know i dont trust that pie-chart.I mean there’s a lot of ways to define
“defense” spending and a lot of ways
to define “health-care” spending.w
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