Poverty Measurements Questioned : Mandates Are the Problem

As long as poverty is seen as a positive situation rewarding one party with a steady voting base, nothing will be done of solve the problem. It is imperative to never clearly identify poverty and it's causes. Progressives rely on confusion and chaos

Ever wonder where the 'third rail' saying in politics comes from? Well here it is. The third rail is the power rail that makes the trains run. In politics its the Fear and intimidation used by the democrats to rally and divide people from common sense.

Never, ever reward clear thinking with political support. Individual thought destroys progressive socialism.

The progressive's have always used Social Security and Medicare for the elderly and the disadvantaged as a club to beat them into line saying if they don't vote for us to continue the free stuff to help them survive, the Republicans will take it away and you all will die.

And why not, right? It has worked for decades. Every time the alarm goes out  by Republicans that the system of welfare is going broke and something has to be done to repair it, out come the democrats howling and pointing their fingers at the Republicans, ' see, they want to take away your only source for survival, they want you all to die. They don't care whether you live or die like we do.'

The result of progressive socialist democrats is the system will fail exploding poverty and pestilence to unheard of levels. And who will be blamed by democrats and the media, and I repeat myself,  Republicans of course. 

Federal Poverty Measurement Is Misleading
Source: Robert Rector, "Self-Sufficiency Rate Stagnates, Welfare State Grows," 2014 Index of Culture and Opportunity, Heritage Foundation, 2014.

July 28, 2014

The poverty rate today sits at 15 percent, the same rate that existed in the 1960s when the government's War on Poverty began, explains Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation.
But why has poverty remained at the same level when federal and state welfare spending has dramatically increased and is now 16 times higher today than it was in the 1960s?

Rector explains that the Census Bureau's poverty measures are incomplete. Poverty is a measurement of income below a specific threshold, yet income includes only wages and salaries -- not welfare benefits. Thus, spending on the federal government's 80 welfare programs (which provide cash, food, housing and medical care) are not included in a person's income.

• The government spent $916 billion on means-tested welfare programs in 2012, aiding 100 million Americans and costing an average $9,000 per recipient.
• Yet, only 3 percent of that $916 billion was considered "income" for poverty measurement purposes.

Without considering these government benefits, poverty cannot be an accurate indication of a person's living conditions, says Rector.