76-09-A5
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Poverty[edit]
Transcript[edit]Our government has set a level of income below which everyone is to be considered as living in poverty. Incidentally, that income level is 800% higher than the world's average income - not the world's poverty level -- its average income. Last Fall the Census Bureau released figures indicating that in the war on poverty, poverty is winning. The Bureau said that in spite of the billions and billions of dollars we take from the workers and producers and redistribute to those below the poverty line there are more poor people than there were a year ago. The present total according to the Census Bureau is roughly 25.9 million of our fellow citizens. Now comes a different figure from a different source. According to the New York TIMES, the Congressional Budget Office (which I will refer to for the rest of this broadcast as the C.B.O.) says the Census Bureau only uses cash income in arriving at its figure of 13.8% of Americans living in poverty. But in the last ten years non-cash help -- fringe benefits with a definite cash value - have gone up from less than $2Y2 billion to more than $40 billion. So adding in such things as food stamps, housing aid, Medicare and Medicaid, C.B.O. says that after taxes only 6.9, not 13.8% of Americans are living below the poverty line. That figures out to just half the number of poor the Census Bureau found or just under 13 million people. There is an interesting point which prompted me to use the term a few seconds ago about "after taxes". C.B.O. found that the poverty total was only 6.7% of the population before subtracting taxes. It jumped to 6.9% after taxes were paid. The principal tax paid by the poor is the Social Security tax. Somehow it seems that one of the aids to the truly poor would be to exempt them from giving that money to government, which government then returns to them in the form of grants. But, that's probably too simple a solution for government to think of. But, to get back to the main point -- roughly 13 million Americans living below the poverty line are helped by government funds either in direct cash, food stamps, public housing, medical care, etc. The total bill for this government help is, according to the report, roughly $200 billion to bring 13 million people up to at least the poverty line, which is $2,800 for a single individual, $5,500 for a family of four, and proportionately higher for larger families. Divide 13 million into 200 billion and we come out with about $15,000 for every man, woman, young person, child and baby. That would be $60,000 for the average family of four. Well, we know, of course, that those who need help aren't receiving anything like $15,000 a year so there is only one conceivable answer. Like so many other things done by government there must be a huge administrative overhead. What would government have to say if it were discovered that a private charity was taking in more than 515,000 for every $2,000 or $3,000 it gave to the needy? This is something to think about when Congress talks of federalizing welfare or forcing us all into a government run health insurance plan. |
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