Thursday, July 1, 2010

Walter Williams: Poverty in the U.S. is anything but

"According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the 2009 poverty guideline was $22,000 for an urban four-person family. In 2009, having income less than that, 15 percent or 40 million Americans were classified as poor, but there's something unique about those "poor" people not seen anywhere else in the world.

What's defined as poverty is misleading in another way. Official poverty measures count just family's cash income.

It ignores additional sources of support such as the earned-income tax credit, which is a cash rebate to low-income workers; it ignores Medicaid, housing allowances, food stamps and other federal and local government subsidies to the poor." [Walter Williams]

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