To the point of being three times the median income. Especially after the Government pours your money at them:
Shot: Lots of money thrown
In 2018, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the average family with children that was defined as poor by the government received $20,700 in cash, food, and housing benefits, and another $17,000 in medical care and $5,000 in social services.
Taxpayers also spent $22,500 on non-means-tested public education for the family’s children. Total government resources came to $65,200 per family per year. The average poor family also had $18,100 in earnings and other private resources. Adding this to the government assistance brought the average total resources to $83,300 per poor family.
Chaser:
For starters, the government undercounts earnings in low-income families by a third. Then, government deliberately excludes nearly all of the current 89 means-tested welfare programs when calculating its official measures of poverty and inequality. Of the $65,200 in government benefits and support received by the average poor family, Washington counts only $3,125 as income in its official poverty measure.
Hangover:
The Build Back Better Act would add another $11,300 in annual benefits to the average poor family, bringing total government support to $76,400 per family. Total government and private resources combined (including education and services) would rise from $83,300 to $94,600 per year. Private resources plus government cash, food, and housing would average $48,200 per year, nearly twice the official government poverty level for these families.
…The system is rigged. The taxpayer is trapped like a hamster in a running wheel. No matter how fast the hamster runs, he never gets anywhere. No matter how much the taxpayer spends on welfare, official poverty will remain unchanged. Even worse are the harmful incentives built into the legislation. The bill raises the rewards for teen pregnancy and childbirth and increases the penalties for marriage.
(H/T: The Daily Signal)
