(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Life's a Bitch and Then You Die [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-01-20 Congress Seal Social Security is a government Insurance Program that provides financial assistance to eligible individuals, typically those who are retired or have a disability. It is funded by payroll taxes collected from individuals over their career lifetime, and the amount of benefits an individual receives is based on their income and work history. It never has been a hand out because the money does come from taxes paid by the people who receive the money and goes back to the individual in their later years when they need it. Public assistance programs, on the other hand, are typically means-tested and provide support to individuals or families in need based on their financial situation. That money comes from Federal funds and State funds based on what is allotted/agreed by each. Members of Congress and their staff are eligible for certain benefits, including access to healthcare through the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and subsidies that help cover the cost of their premiums. There has been debate about whether these benefits should be changed or eliminated being as most in Congress make far more money than their constituents do, the Congress base pay is $174,000 and some argue that lawmakers should be subject to the same rules and regulations as their constituents and they need to pay so they have skin in the game too. They can afford their premiums far better than most Americans. The never solved issue of poverty and inequality in the United States is a complex one, with a variety of factors contributing to the problem. Mainly those at top have more stable jobs, perks and pay than the rest of America combined. Factors such as stagnant wages, rising healthcare costs and rent, and a lack of affordable housing have made it increasingly difficult for many Americans to make ends meet. Congress does nothing to fix this. They would rather bitch over sub par Social Security benefits that the retired or disabled Americans get and they wished didn't. This is money not even owned by the Government, it's the peoples money! But Congress acts as though the people are stupid enough to fall for their ignorant crap. The number of people experiencing homelessness also is a particularly troubling aspect of this problem, and addressing it will require a multifaceted approach that addresses the root causes of poverty and inequality and fixing it. Last it means our Lawmakers need to open their damn eyes and see the harm they are doing and for once show some compassion for the people instead of their damn wallets and diarrhea of the mouth for a change, and they need to realize they are not in the position of their constituents the lawmakers have it better, they should live within their means, they have no clue and lawmakers nowadays act as though they are the entitled. Proportion of Americans living below the poverty line in each county of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico according to the 2016 - 2020 American Community Survey. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States For many families, the costs of housing, health insurance and medical care, transportation, and access to basic telecommunications take a much larger bite out of the family's income this year than a half century ago. It’s too much for many to bare. Basic needs in many states are not met, and many states fudge their numbers, and refuse to budge any help to the people. Many families are now doubling up in homes to increase the income. The fact is people are not thriving like they used too. Many families can't make it on their own. If you are making minimum wage then you can't afford to rent a decent home and they end up many times renting from a slumlord. living in their car, or abandoning their home and moving into their RV. The number of homeless in the US is estimated at 552,830, but these numbers are what is reported and no one knocks on doors to see how many homeless are living with family and friends. With around half a million individuals living in a state of homelessness, and many are not even counted, things are not looking great. Reasons are health cost, rent cost, buy outs, wages below par. This all lays on Government not doing their jobs, and keeping people poor by not raising wages. You can’t make a living off of scraps. https://livingwage.mit.edu/ living wage calculator The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that about 20.6 million people, or 30% of all hourly, non-self-employed workers 18 and older, are considered “near-minimum-wage” workers. This is defined as those who make more than the minimum wage in their state but less than $10.10 an hour. 1,740 for 30 hours work before taxes. 2,320 for 40 hours work before taxes. minus the 1,295 for rent the rest is for child care, and you might be able to pay your utilities if you starve to death or walk to work. If you work in the food industry you are working 20-30 hours per week and basically your check is gone before you get it. Unless the place you work at is short of workers. In many fast food stores that is the case at some. Many other more popular have full staff. As of February 2022, the average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the United States reached 1,295 U.S. dollars, up from 1,100 U.S. dollars a year before. But in my area rent for a two bed is $1780.00 per month $7.25 an hour, isn't enough for full-time workers to pay bills in any state, according to living-wage data published by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Low-paid workers may need to work extra jobs to pay bills and are often unable to save for emergencies. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/02/the-7point25-minimum-wage-doesnt-help-families-pay-the-bills-in-any-state.html Minimum wage doesn’t help families pay the bills in any state If the minimum wage is the minimum it should cover at least rent and utilities. Decades ago it did. The fact is that over a third of the total workforce (52 million Americans) makes less than $15 per hour. 247,000 U.S. workers earn exactly the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. While that is only 0.15% of the working population, it still represents thousands of families across the U.S. https://www.zippia.com/advice/minimum-wage-statistics/ Minimum wage statistics Links below: Compiled federal, state, and local data from over 70 government sources and 120 databases. America in Facts 2022: An Annual Report for the Nation https://usafacts.org/annual-publications/annual-report/ Presidential Quotations https://www.ssa.gov/history/pres.html Minimum wage in America: How many people are earning $7.25 an hour? https://usafacts.org/articles/minimum-wage-america-how-many-people-are-earning-725-hour/ Poverty rate https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2022/acs/acsbr-014.html Georgia’s Minimum Wage Is Still $5.15. That’s Not Unusual In The South https://www.wabe.org/georgias-minimum-wage-is-still-5-15-thats-not-unusual-in-the-south/ If I learned anything in my life time it was that people don't like to be in certain categories. They also want to be remembered by the good things they have done. Our Lawmakers are not well liked by everyone. But they sure want to be. This got me thinking that maybe what the public needs to do is rank them in categories that the public is passionate about. Say you have 5-10 categories and you come up with 5-10 things that are important and you give the lawmaker a 1-5 score on each? The only thing is that it has to be set up in a manner that the scoring mechanism can't be hijacked. I am not even sure if that is possible. Unless you can come up with a release date for the stats and keep it private until then. Yes poverty is not as bad as it was decades ago. But, we shouldn’t even be dealing with poverty today. Everyone should be educated, in decent health, a good job, in the job they want, live in a decent home in the neighborhood they want to live in and have transportation available. Our planet is being treated really bad too and we need to stop this crap. No one in this rich country should be homeless, have food insecurities, be bankrupt from medical bills. pollution should not be an issue It just seems that corporate America is pulling the punches at the public and this planet and if we so call get out of line they go ballistic on the people by voting in corporate lovers that put even more pressure on the people. It has to stop, the people are supposed to be in charge here not corporations. In the south they can hide what they do. It doesn’t mean it’s not going on, it just means they know how to hide it. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/20/2148363/-Life-s-a-Bitch-and-Then-You-Die Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/