Quote:
Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk
Welcome to the system. Of those 44 million considered at poverty level how many pay taxes on what they do earn?
|
To be at the poverty level, the single income is $10,830 or less. Add about 4-5k per household member. None pay any taxes at all (income). All pay FICA on their pittance.Note that FICA comes off the AGI, so they pay
under the $828.50 that is FICA times 10,830)
Bottom line is that we could spend less than 50% of what we do now, and also entirely eliminate medicaid, AND have ZERO poor in the US (poor as defined by the government).
Right now every poor person (even though they never actually see it) has 20k spent on them. Each kid only takes ~5k to be above the poverty level, so kids get 4X their poverty level in fed gov subsidy. Adults all get 2X that level of spending. Many of the poor are kids, too, so the inefficiency is even worse than I paint it.
Also, that is just FEDERAL spending. States spend quite a lot per capita on poverty/means tested programs as well.
It boggles the mind.