Poverty

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Poverty
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In most areas of the U.S., a family of four must
have an annual income of 36,000 to afford the
basic necessities of life like food and housing.
This is double the federal poverty
level. Source (Low-Income Children in the
United States, 2003, National Center for Children
in Poverty)
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Individual Choice, Responsibility Free - Will?
Social Circumstances Beyond Ones Control?
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Losing Ground American Social Policy, 1950 -
1980 Charles Murray
According to Murray, America has a permanent
underclass of unproductive citizens who prefer to
live on welfare. They are unwilling to make the
effort to hold a responsible job and get ahead
in life. They remain in poverty by choice. Since
their children receive little educational
encouragement at home and become mired in a
cultural setting that destroys the work
ethic, they grow up to be copies of their parents
thereby perpetuating the existence of an
underclass.
Such people do exist - in the millions - 3 to 6
million. They are the toughest challenge for
policymakers because almost nothing about their
lives equips them to escape from poverty and the
circumstances that surround them.
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Poverty in the United States
But -- recent estimates indicate that the
underclass make up only 10 to 20 percent of
the roughly 36 million - one in eight Americans -
who live below the poverty line.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau
of Labor Statistics, for the year 2000, 6.4
million people - 20.7 percent of all poor people
- were classified as the working poor
individuals who spent at least 27 weeks in the
labor force (working or looking for work), but
whose incomes fell below the official poverty
level.
The majority of the working poorthree-fifths
were full-time workers 14.8 off all poor
people
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Among those in the labor force for 27 weeks or
more in 2000, about 6.4 million were classified
as the working poor. The working poor thus made
up 4.7 percent of all persons who spent at least
27 weeks working or looking for work.
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Persons employed in occupations that usually do
not require high levels of education and that
are characterized by relatively low earnings were
more likely to be among the working poor. For
example, 10.3 percent of service workers were
classified as working poor in 2002. Service
occupations, with 2.2 million working poor,
accounted for 29.3 percent of all those
classified as the working poor.
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Poverty in the United States
Despite working, these people remain poor because
they hold menial, dead-end jobs that have no
benefits and pay the minimum wage or below.
The federal minimum wage of 5.15 an hour adds up
to only 10,712 for full-time work (before
taxes). It takes 8.20 an hour for a full-time
worker to earn enough money to reach the poverty
level for a family of four.
The two million Americans working in nursing
homes earn, on average, between 7 and 8 an
hour.
The median wage of the estimated 2.3 million
child-care workers is 6.60 an hour, usually
without benefits.
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Nearly one quarter of all workers more than 28
million in all -- earn less than 8.78 an hour,
the amount needed to lift a family of four above
the poverty line with full-time work (about
18,200 a year). (Economic Policy Institute,
The State of Working America 2002-03, p. 355)
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http//www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty.html
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Which is the bigger cause of poverty today that
people are not doing enough to help themselves
out of poverty, or that circumstances beyond
their control cause them to be poor?
TOTAL
DEMOCRAT REPUBLICAN INDEPENDENT
People not doing enough 48 37 63
48 Circumstances 45 57 31 46
If the government were willing to spend whatever
it thought was necessary to eliminate poverty in
the United States, do you think that this is
something that could be accomplished, or not?
Yes 47 56 34
47 No 49 40 61
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Which of the following statements comes closer to
your own views Poor people today have it easy
because they can get government benefits without
doing anything in return, or poor people have
hard lives because government benefits dont go
far enough to help them live decently?
TOTAL DEMOCRAT REPUBLICAN INDEPENDENT
Easy 46 38 60
45 Hard 43 55 28 45
Do you think that most welfare recipients today
really want to work or not?
Work 47 55 37 48 Not
Work 44 38 55 41
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Michael O. Emerson Professor of Sociology Rice
University
Christian Smith Professor of Sociology 
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
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Explaining Racial Economic Equality The
Interviews (N117)
The large majority nearly three-quarters --
answered in terms of lack of motivation and
cultural deficiencies (i.e., bad choices, bad
relationships) which are seen in terms of
individual decisions, not culturally rooted
values. Black Americans lack hope and vision
they lack ability to see what is truly
possible. African Americans according to many
of the respondents are not true accountable
free-will individualists, are relationally
dysfunctional, and sin both in relying on
programs rather than themselves, and by shifting
blame to structurally based reasons for
inequality.
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Anti-structuralism
Since race problems are seen essentially as
individually based, such social structural
explanations as unequal access to resources,
segregation, or institutional discrimination are
deemed by many White evangelicals as either
irrelevant or simply wrongheaded. Moreover,
evangelicals generally believe that sinful
individuals typically deny their own personal
sin by shifting blame somewhere else, such as on
the system. Evangelicals are selectively aware
of social institutions they see those that
both impact them in their own social location and
tend to undermine accountable free-will
individualism ie. affirmative action programs.
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Blaming the Victim William Ryan
There is a marked tendency in our society for
people in fortunate circumstances to blame
people in less fortunate circumstances for their
plight. Rather than focus on broader social
factorsfactors that are often beyond the
immediate control of individualsthat might
contribute to ones situation, people seek to
explain it by referring to some sort of
character failing. The poor, for example, are
often thought of as defective personalities or
deficient moral types. They are people who do
not share our values they are not like us.
Their impoverishment is their own fault. They are
deserving of their situation and thus
undeserving of our societys aid. If only
they worked harder. . . .
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Blaming the Victim William Ryan
According to Ryan, blaming the victim involves
four simple steps
1. Pick a social problem.

• Decide how people who suffer from the problem
• differ from everyone else.

3. Define these differences as the cause of
the problem.
4. Respond to the problem by trying to change
the victims, not the larger society.
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Blaming the Victim William Ryan
Blaming those who find themselves in unfortunate
circumstances for their situations serves to
reduce others psychic discomfort. Could it
happen to me, too? Blaming the victim
reinforces the consoling notion for those in
fortunate circumstances that life is fair.
People get what they deserve. Bad things happen
to bad people.
That couldnt happen to me because I am not like
them. Im responsible. I work hard. Bad things
happen to bad people
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Blaming the Victim William Ryan
How consoling is the converse Bad things happen
to good people. Even though I work hard and do
everything right, I, toobecause of
circumstances beyond my controlcould end up
like them?
The fact that the overwhelming majority of the
poor are also loving parents, churchgoers,
law-abiding citizens, and good neighbors seems
immaterial. There is considerable evidence
that, when asked about their values, poor people
sound as much or more mainstream than most
better-off Americans.
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Maximum Monthly Benefits TEXAS US
(Median) (Family of 3, no income reported) 1996
(AFDC) 188 415 1998 (TANF) 188
421 2000 (TANF) 48 of median 201 421

Monthly Food Stamp Allotment Per Person (2000)
75.98 72.78
For the year 2000 75.98 x 3 227.94
72.78x3 218.34 201.00
421.00 monthly allowance
428.94 639.34 x 12
x 12 yearly payment
5,147.28 7,672.08
13,738 37.5 - 55.9
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Getting Something for Nothing
Yearly Payment TEXAS U.S. Median TANF
FS 5,147.28 7,672.08
Tax Deduction for interest payments on
mortgage 7 mortgage - 30 tax bracket
Interest Payment Tax Refund
150,000 10,602 3,181 200,000 14,136
4,241 250,000 17,670 5,301 300,000 21,204
6,361 350,000 24,738 7,421 400,000 28
,272 8,482 450,000 31,806
9,542 500,000 35,340 10,602
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Absolving the Rich Demonizing the Poor
Governor Declares Welfare Fraud Program a Major
Success In 1996 New York Gov. Pataki finger
imaging to weed out welfare cheats. Roughly
25,000 of cheating were detected 3.4 of the
747,000 cases
Texas TANF Fraud 1998 According to testimony
presented to the Senate Committee on Human
Services the Texas Department of Human Services
disqualified only 3.2 of its entire TANF
caseload for fraud in FY 1998. Money involved
amounted to 1 of the TANF Food Stamp program.
Much of Food Stamp fraud is perpetrated by
retailers. The biggest fraud case in Texas
February 1998 March 31, 1999 involved six
store owners in Houston defrauding the FS
program of more than 2 million.
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Absolving the Rich Demonizing the Poor
According to the latest Roper Poll conducted for
the IRS Oversight Board 24 OK to
cheat 11 OK to cheat a little here and
there 5 cheat as much as possible
According to IRS figures, 17 cents of every
dollar owed in federal taxes is never paid IRS
Commissioner Charles O. Rossotti testified at
Senate Finance Committee Hearings that taxpayer
non-compliance underreporting income and
fabrication of deductions costs the federal
government not including offshore
funds. 2000 250 billion 1998 195
billion 1996 170 billion
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Texas rates second in the nation for hungry
families. It is estimated that 1.1 million
children in Texas are hungry or at risk of
hunger. This is 32 of all Texas
children. Source Center for Public Priorities
2002 and Americas Second Harvest 2003
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Families and Children in Texas
In Texas, there are 2,947,658 families, with
5,722,847 children. Low-Income Families 41
(1,214,809) of families with children are
low-income (National 34). Families in
Poverty 17 (500,898) of families with children
are poor (National 14). Low-Income Children
46 (2,628,237) of children live in low-income
families (National 37). Children in Poverty
20 (1,170,325) of children live in poor families
(National 16).
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Many low-income parents in Texas families are
employed 63 (771,338) of low-income families
include at least one parent who is employed
full-time/ year-round. 25 (305,379) of
low-income families include only parent(s) who
are employed either part-year or part-time.
Just 11 (138,093) of low-income families have
no employed parents.
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In Texas, parents with limited education are more
likely to be low-income 36 (433,507) of
low-income families are headed by parent(s) who
do not have a high school degree. Only 7
(120,689) of all other families are headed by
parent(s) who do not have a high school degree.
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Low-income families in Texas are more likely to
be headed by a single parent 43 (520,969) of
low-income families are headed by a single
parent. 19 (321,192) of all other families are
headed by a single parent.
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In Texas, black and Latino children are more
likely to live in low-income families 22 of
white children live in low-income families.
51 of black children live in low-income
families. 66 of Latino children live in
low-income families.
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In Texas, young children are more likely to live
in low-income families 50 of children under
age 6 live in low-income families. 43 of
children age 6 or older live in low-income
families.
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