My dear Honeymustard..........leave it to you to post a thorough study of the Heritage Foundation -- on poverty no less! Let's see. The poor aren't poor if they own a refrigerator. The poor aren't poor if they live in housing less than sub-standard. The poor aren't poor if they make poor choices in terms of what they might consider "quality of life" amenities. Did the Heritage Foundation publish a report on average "household DEBT" related to these poor families. I think you'd do much better reading a good book on the cyclical downward spiral of poverty in America.
And by the way ----- MANY of the poor in America aren't lazy ass individuals just sucking the government tit. They work.....they work 2 and 3 jobs JUST to be able to afford to buy their cars, insure their cars, put gas in their cars and repair their cars -- alone. Do the math at $15 an hour minus taxes -- and then of course ADD the sales tax they pay on items they purchase! Do the math! Do the math on just what a monthly budget of a family looks like when you bring home a take home pay of $24,960 (after taxes of 20% -- and that does NOT include cost of health insurance) $2,080 per month! Housing, clothes, food (and it's rising costs), gas, insurances, repairs, utilities (ah yes, I guess they could all turn their heat down to 60 during the winter!!) etc. Add it up and then ask yourself, "Just HOW are these people affording amenities as listed by the Heritage Foundation?" Debt -- lots and lots and lots of debt! "Hey -- you can't afford that x-box. SAVE your money, invest your money so you've got something to fall back on in case of catastrophic illness -- or so when you're old you can actually AFFORD $7,000 a month for a nursing home!" Yeah --- sure!
And then the Republicans OPPOSE raising of the minimum wage to $9 an hour. $9.00 an hour!!!! This from the "family values" people! And Paul Ryan wants Congress to pass a law exempting employers from paying overtime for 40+ hours.
The Economic Terrorists of our day are determined to keep the lower classes as low as they possibly can without encouraging a knee-jerk reaction that might lead to revolution. And then the conservative think-tank Heritage Foundation has the gall to publish a report essentially saying that even our poor have it "better" than the average middle class person -- 20 years ago!!
Well.......let's see a debt comparison from the average middle class person 20 years ago to the current debt of the "average" poor now.
Or let's put it this way............if the average middle class person making $60K a year is having trouble "making it" to the American Dream ---- how do those making $25K a year manage????? To quote Uncle Mitt: "They think they're entitled to housing....to food....(check out his 47% speech of "horse-pucky!")