More than 37 million people in America have fallen below the poverty line. Based on the Federal Government, a family, of two adults and two children, earning less than $21,027 a year is considered below the poverty line. Being poor in America has extended to many people, which cannot do anything about it. Jobs are not so easy to come by in this economy. How is a person supposed to find a job where there are too many overqualified individuals, that were laid off from their jobs, don’t mind taking a pay cut and would do anything to at least have a job. With the poverty line gaining more and more people, the middle class has been dramatically shrinking and no one can do anything about it. Many people are rushing towards the last resort of employment, which is the military, but even the Department of Defense is getting its budget cut. Often times, we don’t realize how bad it has become, because we go to our jobs daily, drive our cars normally and really don’t see what’s happening in peoples’ lives unless it’s your own loved ones on the line. How is a family of four supposed to live off of $21,027? What will they choose not to buy, the shoes, kids’ birthdays, their education or their entertainment? How do you tell a child that they won’t be having a birthday party, nonetheless a gift, because they can’t afford it? If a family makes a single dollar above $21,027, they wont be able to qualify for government-funded health insurance. How is that fair to those families that desperately need health insurance, because they can’t afford going to the hospital every time they get sick. This dollar amount that the federal government has set should be increased, due to the fact that no family can afford living with the basic necessities that will keep them alive and well.
As mentioned in this post, the poverty line in the United States is $21,027 for a family of 2 adults and 2 children. I feel like my family’s health insurance costs that amount alone and the prices continue to go up quite often. This makes me wonder how it is even remotely possibly to live on such an amount. I recognize that the cost of living differs from place to place, but still 21,027 seems like a completely unrealistic number to live off of. How does the government calculate this number? What does the person that makes 21,028 do? The one dollar that may put someone above the poverty line does not all of a sudden make everything affordable. I also wonder how often the government recalculates this number. It is clear that wages have not rose at the same rate as inflation, so regardless of your status and income, there is less cash flow. Because of lack of real wage increase, everyone is struggling. However, if everyone is struggling, including the government, if the poverty line were to increase, how would the government have the money to support all the new people that need support? Many people think the government should do more, but it seems that with a government in trillions of debt already, there is not much more it can do. The poverty line is not a cut and dry issue. While many people would benefit from the strict drawing of a line becoming a range, it could put the government in even more failure. I believe that we need to re-examine job availability and see what can be done to create more jobs for those Americans who are in trouble.