Are you poor?

The Federal guidelines for the poverty level threshold for a family of 4 is approx. $20,000, with a level of $10,000 for a single individual.

As most of us know, it is impossible to consider this amount as a real level of poverty, and a more accurate level would likely be $30,000 for a family of 4 and a level of $15,000 for a single individual. The actuaries just haven't caught up yet with real life.

On a simple yes/no scale, are you poor? Use the revised guidelines to make your decision, please.

I wanted to make this anonymous so we can look at the issue strictly from a statistical point of view. Thanks.

but we still have to watch our bottom line at the end of the pay period. Frankly, I wonder how the poor even survive in this country, especially when gas prices have made it much more expensive just to get to work.

All it would take is one major crisis and I would be broke and to the point where I would have to sell the house.

Poor.

But richer than most in heart, spirit and friends :-)

At one point, my kids qualified for state health care.
We were bringing NOTHING in.

Needle has pegged the other way, but nothing is SECURE.

Poverty Guidelines - Federal
http://www.workworld.org/wwwebhelp/poverty_guidelines_federal.htm

Size of Family Unit - 4 - $20,650

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Minimum wage increasingly lags poverty line

http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm?id=2611

by Liana Fox

The recently released 2007 federal poverty guideline highlights the severe and growing inadequacy
of the minimum wage. Currently, a full-time minimum wage worker (40 hours/week, 52 weeks/year)
would earn $10,712 a year, falling nearly 40% below the $17,170 poverty level for a family of three.
Even after factoring in the earned income tax credit, which was designed to bring low-wage workers
up to the poverty line, this worker would still fall short of the poverty line.1

The minimum wage is at its lowest real value in over 50 years and has not been raised since 1997.
This is the longest stretch of federal inaction since the minimum wage was first instated in 1938.
As the basic income required to support a family has grown with inflation,2 the minimum wage has
not kept pace with the rising costs of goods. As a result, federal inaction leaves minimum wage
workers in an increasingly dire situation.

Every day that Congress fails to enact a higher minimum wage, workers lose purchasing power.
However, if the minimum wage bill currently under debate in the Senate (HR 2) were immediately
passed, this gap would be significantly reduced. In 2009, this bill would raise full-time minimum
wage workers above the poverty line for a family of two for the first time in over a decade.
While this modest bill would still place minimum wage workers 18% below the poverty line for a
family of three, it would provide much needed relief to low-wage workers and their families.

Notes
1. In 2007, families with two or more children will receive an EITC equal to 40 cents for each dollar up to $11,790 earned,
for a maximum benefit of $4,716. A single worker with two children earning $10,712/year would qualify for a $4,285 tax credit
under the federal EITC program, receiving a total of $14,997in 2007, which is $2,173 below the federal poverty level.

2. It is widely recognized that the poverty line substantially understates the income needed to support a family.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/faq.shtml#differences">Key Differences Between Thresholds and Guidelines

I figured out somewhere in my early 20's(I'm now 28) that it was all an illusion anyway, and chose to live as simply as I could while still being a member of society(because human interaction is nice). So I may be poor economically, but on the other hand I honestly don't give a crap. It's all just arbitrary, and the green tinted pieces of paper only have value because...well, not sure, but you can burn them to stay warm.

She's in grad school, living off student loans, and I'm working full-time and pursuing my BA. Several times in the last year we've had to postpone paying rent for a month or more. We've had the phone shut off several times and went a few days without electricity. When my car broke down, I sold it for scrap metal and rode my bike everywhere. When my bike broke down, I waited until I had saved up enough money to get the chain and cassette replaced. I'm 32 years old. Thankfully, I work full-time as a cook, so I can bring home leftovers.

We're poor, but there's a LOT of people a lot worse off than us. Having said that, it's still goddamned insulting that I - nor any of those worse off than me - can't get paid a living wage in America, supposedly the greatest, most advanced country in the world.

The amount I make is really nobody's business, but I work in a Union job, with a decent wage and decent health insurance. But in reality, how much money has is somewhat immaterial, it's what in one's heart that is important. I have known several people who would be considered poor monetarily, but are very good hearted people. One cannot put a price on that.

I'm not money hungry and never have been but it's nice to have a roof, food and electricity! ;)

As a kid, we were frequently hungry poor. No money, no food. We were occasionally homeless.

There is nothing romantic or noble about poverty.

But, if you travel to a 3rd world country where there is not even the hope of escaping poverty and hunger is an everyday and endless struggle, you begin to see why people make revolutions.

i have to ask for help(stamps). we both work. two in college next semester on grants/loans..daughter is going thru DARS so has tuition waved for her deafness, thank GOODNESS. the other will have to get loans, since he worked last year, and didnt qualify for the grant,.

We literally live day to day, not week to week. H gets paid daily for his computer repair/car repair.
Luckily I make extra working at home, so can stay with the two younger ones.

Each day we have electricity, we are thankful. We have to have internet, so DH can fix computers.

I buy our clothes at garage sales and goodwill. No biggie. Just nothing left over. gas is about killing us.

when my job ends. I have money in the bank, about enough to get through to September, but no idea what's next.

Debt can make you poorer than your income would indicate, btw.

...before I got a part-time union job.

That lifted me above the line.
I've stayed above for the past 14 years and now make above the national median.

I'm so po I can't afford the other "or" to make poor :P

No, seriously, my family can best be described as doing "ok" right now. We were a lot better off until around September '05 when the gas prices shot up dramatically. What used to go into savings now all goes into the gas tank :(

but i was fortunate enough to land a really good job about a year ago pulling me back into the middle class ranks...it's scary how LONG it takes to find a suitable replacement job/career these days, used to be you could get yourself back up and running with unemployment assistance within 6 months or less...

good paying solid middle class jobs with a future and benefits are becoming a thing of the past, i thank God every day that i m one of the luck ones again.

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