We always hear about poverty, but just how does the government decide what poverty is? In the 1960’s, a formula was created to define poverty. It was assumed at the time that food comprised one-third of a family’s budget, so any family that earned less than three times the amount of money that it took to buy food for the household was assumed to be poor.
Every year, the government calculates what they think it should cost to feed a family, then multiplies that number by three to arrive at a figure for the poverty line. How do they calculate that? How do they know what it costs to feed a family? Easy. They look at what it cost a family in 1963 to sustain itself, then adjust that number for inflation. Nowadays, there are idiots claiming that this number isn’t accurate- and I will grant you it isn’t- but they are using that to claim the new poverty number is 16, that is, a family needs to make 16 times what it costs for food in order to not be poor: $140,000 per year for a family of four. If you are poor, you should get government assistance. By this math, 60% of our nation would be living in squalor.
That’s ridiculous.
Where is that number coming from? The leftists claim that this is because the cost of childcare, Internet, and cell phones. First off, if you can afford cell phones and Internet, you aren’t poor. There are people all over the world who manage to exist without those things. Social safety nets are there to make sure people don’t starve. They aren’t there to buy Pizza Hut, video games, and cell phone porn.
The left is invested in making this economy look bad. They want Americans unhappy with the economy. There is an election next year, and Americans vote with their wallets. The press needs to hammer this home every day: “The economy sucks, but Joe Biden’s 9% inflation was the best economy in the past 50 years. Vote for us.”
Instead, let’s use the World Bank’s definition: Making less than $3.00 per person, per day. Under that definition, a family of four would be living in poverty if they had a household income of less than $4,400 per year. I will even be generous- we live in the richest nation in the world, so make that $10 per person, per day. A family of four who makes less than $14,600 is below the poverty line.
Would it suck to make that little? Sure it would. Being poor sucks. However, $10 per person, per day would make you more wealthy than 61% of the planet. That’s why we can’t afford to keep importing more and more poor people- they aren’t enriching us, they are dragging us down into poverty with them.
11 Comments
Doug · December 3, 2025 at 6:46 am
Your personal exemption for federal taxes is the number the government considers the poverty level of one person. That’s its source. The personal exemption in 1913 was not based on a poverty level number. It was tens of thousands of dollars. Your personal exemption today would be near 150,000 dollars. That’s how the government has eroded personal wealth in the US since then.
Rick T · December 3, 2025 at 11:58 am
As much as the baseline can be manipulated using an actual daily budget number is immensely more accurate than the more common percentile definition. If the lowest decile is defined to be in poverty then having 10% of your population in that tier is a tautology, not a call to action to Just Do Something to raise them up.
The big public health issue is poor people are fat, not starving.
Dan D. · December 3, 2025 at 6:26 pm
“he big public health issue is poor people are fat, not starving.”
Indeed. I just finished the book The Dorito Effect and it is enlightening to say the least.
Michael · December 3, 2025 at 4:47 pm
“The leftists claim that this is because the cost of childcare, Internet, and cell phones. First off, if you can afford cell phones and Internet, you aren’t poor. There are people all over the world who manage to exist without those things. Social safety nets are there to make sure people don’t starve.”
Actually, some excellent not lefty financial folks I pay money for subscriptions (because I make money from their advice) brought up the 140K to be “barely middle class”. The Lefties ran with it abusing the message to harm Trump (shocking).
But the reason I snipped your comment here is to address it.
Internet and cell phone. How many employers will hire you if you don’t have a phone? How did Divemedic seek employment recently? Internet perhaps? Seems the middle class way to apply for meaningful employment.
NOT A LUXURY. May not be needed in 3rd world but in America…
That people don’t starve… Maybe it’s because I work at a local food bank and see those who are NOT abusing it (Dot Indians are the worst abusers IMHO recently, drive up in fine cars and grab stuff) who are working poor and need calories.
That safety net is pretty scrawny friend. It’s been a few decades since you were doing the living in a car thing. As EMS I know of families living couch surfing-living in their cars because local rules have the shelter breaking the families up across the town. Tomorrow night it’s going down to -2 degrees F before wind chill.
I know quite a few “middle class” folks that are economically brittle. They’ve bought into the send your kids to college and such stuff. A medical emergency beyond their insurance (and boy am I GRATEFUL for my Insurance after listening to them) or such and they are forced to tap the credit cards or worse Retirement Funds to cover that serious gap.
I’ve lived below my means for decades, I own my house but every year the taxes climb. Electricity and such have climbed far faster than my pay raises over the past few years. I could be retired but love my work and the happiness that it covers the tax bills and energy costs so far.
Divemedic · December 3, 2025 at 8:23 pm
1 I look for a job with a cell phone and Internet. I am not poor, nor am I paying for those things with taxpayer dollars. The fact that I can afford to pay for such things with my own money in no way means that others get to take my money by force so they can buy them too.
2 There are plenty of places where you can use the Internet for free. Try the library and numerous businesses. It isn’t the responsibility of the taxpayer to provide everyone with a personal Internet connection at taxpayer expense.
The US is the only nation in the world where the poorest 10% of Americans own televisions, $1k cell phones, $200 sneakers, cars, and order Doordash for dinner.
@HomeInSC · December 3, 2025 at 11:54 pm
Just a data point. An acquaintance’s 18 y/o daughter receives $600/mo from SNAP.
We eat quite well and have 3 adults in our household. I don’t do careful accounting but I think for a bit more than that we run our kitchen just fine
Divemedic · December 4, 2025 at 6:01 am
So are you saying that an 18 year old with no dependents is getting $600 per month?
@HomeInSC · December 4, 2025 at 10:47 am
That is my understanding. I can’t really pry to see if it is all SNAP but that is what she said. Not sure if she lumped together hers and her live-in boyfriend’s SNAP but her words were “I get.” That’s $3.75/hr Pretty wild, eh?
The two of them got fired from Waffle House.🙄
Didn’t want to do yard work here, said they were ready to pack it in after 1.5 hours. Just wanted to fish in our ponds.
If they really wanted to work I could keep them very busy, even teach them some building skills.
Essentially, minimum wage is not enough to live so we taxpayers are supplementing the wages. I’m not a fan of mandated minimum wages. I think if we threw out every single illegal, ended H1 and F1 visa programs, and instituted a benefit reduction over time Americans would adapt. Businesses would pay more and workers would have to work for the essentials.
Her mother cleans houses to pay her rent and vehicle costs.
Dumb kids.
Michael · December 4, 2025 at 7:33 am
Something for you to read Divemedic.
https://internationalman.com/articles/doug-casey-on-why-making-300000-no-longer-means-youre-secure/
Not everybody is as prudent as you and I are, living under our means and having enough cash-CD’s and PM’s to do without an income for several years.
When enough middle class are destroyed by Marxism’s grinding between taxes and inflation into serfdom it’s going to be ugly.
Tom235 · December 4, 2025 at 8:36 am
“Poverty” is the foundation of the US economy.
Michael · December 4, 2025 at 4:44 pm
As even as far back as the bible poverty is the “foundation” of economy.
I welcome you Tom235 or anybody to point out an economy that doesn’t have poverty in it.
“Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as “bad luck.”
― Robert Heinlein
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