-Caveat Lector-
Myth
"If working steadily at any job is enough to avoid poverty in the great
majority of cases, then features of the economy become largely irrelevant
to poverty or dependency. Motivation is inevitably more at issue than
opportunity." Lawrence Mead, political scientist
Reality
Working steadily at a job is NOT enough to avoid poverty.
In 1994, an individual working full time at the minmum wage earned $8,840
a year. The EITC could add as much as $2,528, for a total of $11,368.
The poverty line for a family of 3 in that year was $11,817.
The percentage of workers who earn poverty level wages and receive few or
no benefits has increased in recent years.
In 1993, 27% of all workers earned less than the amount needed to keep a
family of 4 above the poverty level, compared with 24% in 1973.
Government programs intended to help workers displaced from their jobs,
were cut back in the 1980s.
Myth--
"What happened in the 1980s--prosperity at home, strength abroad--directly
contradicts every liberal shibboleth." Rush Limbaugh
Reality
Most families have experienced increased economic stress during the 1980s
and 1990s.
Facts:
Both average hourly wages and median weekly earnings are lower now in
terms of real purchasing power than they were in the 1970s.
Real wages have declined most dramatically for those without a college
degree.
Only those families who were able to send another person, usually a wife
and mother, into paid employment have been able to increase their total
income. THey did so at the expense of time previously devoted to family
labor, including child care.
The threat of job loss has increased, even among older, better-educated
and highly paid workers.
Downsizing, layoffs and general restructuring increased the likelihood of
an unexpected decline in earnings, especially among lower income workers.
Only the richest Americans are paying lower taxes than they were in the
1970s.
The tax rate on the rich has declined at the expense of ordinary working
people.Tax cuts implemented in 1978 and 1981 on the richest 1? lowered tax
revenues. If 1977 tax rates had been in effect in 1992, the government
would have enjoyed an additional 164 billion dollars--84billion in
additional direct revenues and 80 billion inreduced interest on debt.
Inequality inwealth in the US is at its worst point since the 1920s. The
richest 20 percent of all households held nearly 85% of the US household
wealth in 1989.
The top 20 percent of wealth holders received 99% of the total gain in
marketable wealth between 1983 and 1989. The top one percent alone
garnered about 62 percent.
Wealth is now more unequally distributed in the US than in other developed
countries, including Great Britain.
In other words, during the Reagan-Bush-Clinton years, the United States
has been converted into a nation of haves and have-nots... If these
dynamics are not reversed, in a few short years, the US will begin to look
like a developing country, if it doesn't already, for those of youw ho
have visited some of our inner cities
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screeds are not allowed. Substancenot soapboxing! These are sordid matters
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frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
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