W
ho are the working poor? They're the millions of people who have jobs that leave them mired at the edge of poverty. Their ranks include legions of retail clerks at chains like Walmart, fast-food workers, dishwashers, customer assistance representatives, home health-care aides, factory workers, and farm laborers. Some 46.2 million Americans now live in families where someone is working but earning less than the poverty line: $11,702 a year for an individual or $23,021 for a family of four. Many economists have a broader definition, saying that the working poor are those whose incomes do not cover basic needs: food, clothing, housing, transportation, child care, and health care. By that standard, there are more than 146 million Americans in the poor-but-working class. People in this category generally have no savings and survive from check to check, often filling in the gaps by going into debt. "Any little thing — a child getting sick, a car breaking down — those are quite significant events for these working families," said Brandon Roberts of the Working Poor Families Project.
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8 comments:
Those poverty lines of $11,702 for individuals and $23,021 for families of 4 are WAY too low.
If that we're the case $18,000 and $35,000 would qualify them as middle-class which is definitely lower class.
welcome to my world, and my greedy employer considers 30,000 a livable wage while he is living high on the hog. Typical of Salisbury.
5:35 your lucky if he's paying you what your worth. There's always the door to "high on the hog"!
Open your own business. Make the investment, pay ALL the taxes, fees, overhead, insurance, payroll, workman's comp, insurance for your employee's. Advertising, utilities...
Go to sleep on a Sunday night hoping the last week of the month will bring some sales so you can meet payroll...
Who exactly is greedy?
I'm sure that the Waltons (just ONE example of thousands), with a combined family fortune of over $150 BILLION, lose sleep over meeting the payroll. I'm not a business owner, but I know a few. Some are barely making it and some are deciding whether to buy their 16 year old a Jag or a Benz. ALL of them are crying the blues about paying more than the minimum wage. ALL of them. Argue what you will about wages, but STOP saying you CAN'T afford your payroll when you go to Jamaica 3 times a year, or own three houses in three different states and your wife hasn't had to work in 30 years. And neither has your girlfriend. I'm callin' BS on THAT. But I AM giving huge props to the businss owners I know who have given up a lot in order to make sure their employees keep their jobs. HUGE props. The Gates'? The DuPonts? The Johnson's? The Cartier's? The Waltons? The OTHER thousands and thousands of whining, greedy, and bitching billioniares and multimillionaires? Quit crying tears of poverty. Its a sickening and transparent display of self pity....
I hope nobody pays me what I'm worth. I can't live on that!
Who exactly is greedy you ask 6:47? Depends on how much profits the business is making, how much the bigwigs at the company earn, and how hard and long they work their employees.
A good example is most OC hotel owners and upper management who work their employees like dogs and slaves for 6-7 days/week paying them measly wages while those GREEDY tyrants live HIGH ON THE HOG!
lmclain, well said
Unfortunately for the poor in the US their best bet for decent wages, education and housing is the military. Luckily there's a never ending cycle of conflict as well as a never ending supply of the people looking to better their circumstances as best they can.
7:19,well said and may I add the politicans on the rich people's payroll also who trick us into voting for them just to keep their friends happy.
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