I took that line from the book “Parliament of Whores”.  It’s about 17 years old, but it’s still relevant today.  It was written by political satirist P.J. O’Rourke.  In his book he argues (tongue and cheek) that there is no poverty in America.  I agree.

I bring this up because Hillary Clinton has called for the creation of a “Poverty Czar” to deal with the nation’s poverty problem.  From what I’ve been able to gather, the number of poor people in the country has stayed pretty much same (as a percentage) for the past 150 years so I don’t see what the big deal is.

Let me show you some math.  According to the 2002 census there were 6.8 million families living in poverty, that amounts to about 32 million people.   To live in poverty, the federal government says you and your family of three to four need to make about   $19,000 a year.  If you make more than that, according to the federal government, you’re not in poverty anymore.  You won’t be staying at the Trump Towers, but you ain’t in poverty.

The general belief is that a family living in poverty makes about $7,200 less than the poverty figure.  That means someone needs to find them $7,200 and they are no longer in poverty.  They’re poor, but not in poverty.  Take that average $7,200 x 6.8 million families and that means you need $48,960,000,000 to get the poor in America out of poverty.

And since I am compassionate, I’ll make it an even $50 billion.

Now let’s see what’s being spent on people in poverty in this country; food stamps, energy assistance, earned income tax credits, housing assistance, Medicaid and anything else you can think of.

When you add it all up it’s easily $106 billion and change.  And it’s all tax free at that.  So if people living in poverty need $50 billion to get out of poverty and the government is  spending $106 billion, that’s an extra $56 billion for people in poverty.  Take that $56 billion and divide amongst 6.8 million families that’s an extra $8,200 a household.  Who couldn’t use an extra eight grand in their pocketbook.

This doesn’t even include the fact that many people in “poverty” have homes, cell phones, cars and live better than 75-percent of the rest of the country.  And here’s an interesting thought, the more education you have and more stable family you come from, the less likely you are to have a life of poverty.  Imagine that.

All this goes to prove the fact that no matter how much you spend you will always have the poor.  I do recall a famous carpenter saying that a couple thousand years ago.

Funny how those words still ring true today.

Posted: 04|7|08 at 3:19 pm by Abdul Hakim-Shabazz
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