How does per-capita personal income vary by state, once we adjust for regional differences in both: a) personal taxes, and b) prices?

FIND OUT HERE.

Re: The working poor in America

In America tonight, tens of millions of men and women will struggle to get to sleep because they are stressed out about not making enough money even though they are working as hard as they possibly can.  They are called "the working poor", and their numbers are absolutely exploding.  As a recent Gallup poll showed, Americans are more concerned about the economy than they are about anything else.  But why are Americans so stressed out about our economic situation if things are supposedly getting better?  Well, the truth is that unemployment is not actually going down, and the real unemployment numbers are actually much worse than what is officially being reported by the government.  But unemployment is only part of the story.  Most American workers are still able to find jobs, but an increasing proportion of them are not able to make ends meet at the end of the month.  Our economy continues to bleed good paying middle class jobs, and to a large degree those jobs are being replaced by low income jobs.  Approximately one-fourth of all American workers make 10 dollars an hour or less at this point, and we see them all around us every day.  They flip our burgers, they cut our hair and they take our money at the supermarket.  In many homes, both parents are working multiple jobs, and yet when a child gets sick or a car breaks down they find that they don't have enough money to pay the bill.  Many of these families have gone into tremendous amounts of debt in order to try to stay afloat, but once you get caught in a cycle of debt it can be incredibly difficult to break out of that.

So what is the solution?  Well, the easy answer would be that we need the U.S. economy to start producing more good paying jobs, but that is easier said than done.  Our big corporations continue to ship huge numbers of good paying manufacturing jobs out of the country, and millions of Americans have been forced to scramble to find whatever work is available.  Today, there are so many very talented American workers that are trapped in low wage work.  According to the Working Poor Families Project, "about one-fourth of adults in low-income working families were employed in just eight occupations, as cashiers, cooks, health aids, janitors, maids, retail salespersons, waiters and waitresses, or drivers."  A lot of those people could do so much more for society, but they don't have the opportunity.

Sadly, the percentage of low paying jobs in our economy continues to increase with each passing year, so this is a problem that is only going to get worse.  So don't look down on the working poor.  The good paying job that you have right now could disappear at any time and you could end up joining their ranks very soon.

The following are 35 statistics about the working poor in America that will blow your mind...

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It's time

The Time to Eradicate Poverty Has Arrived

Dick McDonald

Today the people of the United States of America have an opportunity to make the world a better place. Rather than wasting time compromising the political ideologies of progressives and conservatives, Americans could use that time to employ modern economic and scientific advancements to eradicate poverty. 

The USA could lead the world into a new era where prosperity is the rule rather than the exception.

For example, if  Americans had enough money on which to live a decent life and a million-dollar nest egg to retire on (then pass on to their families) we wouldn’t need government to tax Americans to fund safety nets like Social Security and Medicare.  We wouldn’t have a $138 trillion debt to contend with; America would be financially solvent and countries all over the world would emulate us.

All economies throughout history have been free enterprise, free market, capitalist economies unless temporarily sidetrack by populist ideologues practicing socialism or dictators employing tyranny. Therefore in order to make a free enterprise, free market, capitalist economy like ours into one that sponsors the prosperity of the poor and lower classes it has to create the opportunity for the poor to invest in that economy and prosper in its growth.

Man hasn’t had the tools to address poverty until recently. With the advent of the digital age, massive and flexible databases, the internet and instant communications he now has them.  He can make dramatic nation-wide moves that will eventually enable all the people to achieve the American Dream of financial independence. No political party or political think tank is even attempting to address making the poor rich. It is the time to do so; in the process most of our economic and social ills will either fade or disappear entirely. 

We can’t make the poor rich without making all citizens even richer. To do that requires a simple change in the way the government does business. Instead of imposing a 15.3% payroll tax on income we propose the government send that money undiluted directly to an independent unreachable trust for all citizens to be maintained in each taxpayer’s own “USA” – universal savings account – and immediately invested weekly on their behalf and under their direction into indexed stock funds for their working life. 

The average American makes $50,000 a year and pays either 15.3% in payroll taxes if self-employed or shares in paying that amount with his employer if he works for somebody. The yearly $7,500 ($50,000 x 15%) investment amounts to $300,000 (40 years x $7,500) over an average 40-year working life. Invested weekly in indexed funds at the average rate of return of the S&P 500 in 40-year cycles generates a $4 million nest egg which throws off a $33,333 a month retirement check without reducing the principal. See here for the computation by year.

Today the market cap of all stocks on American exchanges is about $50 trillion. If in 40 years just 150 million Americans had a $4 million nest egg the market cap would be $600 trillion. In other words it took 236 years to get to $50 trillion. It would, under my plan, take just 40 years to add $550 trillion to that amount at today’s prices.

Given the choice of becoming a millionaire without investing a dime out of your present paycheck or staying on welfare and dependency programs most will opt for the former. In this manner the Plan, www.theusaplan , will wean welfare recipients off welfare and reduce the need for excess government workers.

Millions of jobs will be immediately created by the infusion of almost a trillion dollars a year into the stock market where the selling shareholders will no doubt invest much of their proceeds in new exciting ventures that will require millions of new employees.

In this manner the poor will be helping create their own new jobs and working-life income and at the same time insuring themselves of an affluent retirement and the best old-age medical care on the planet. 

A rising tide lifts all boats. Unfortunately America’s boat has been in dry dock too long. Enacting my plan will be the rising tide that makes the poor rich as well as everyone else richer.  The country will then be exceptional place we claim it is.

Let’s agree poverty has no place in the 21^st Century.

Read all about the Prosperity Commission’s USA Plan and its Rise Up Theory of Economics here.  Join us in our effort to make the world a better place.  You can e-mail us your thoughts at dick@...

MODEST NEEDS: Help for the 'working poor'

At Modest Needs, we work to promote the self-sufficiency of the 'working poor' - the hard-working but low-income individuals and families that conventional philanthropy has otherwise forgotten.

We have elected to undertake this mission because we recognize that a significant gap exists in the social service 'safety nets' of developed nations like the United States and Canada.

This gap leaves low-income but generally self-sufficient individuals and families without access to small amounts of short-term, emergency assistance in favor of providing significant amounts of long-term assistance to these same individuals and families once they've fallen deeply into the cycle of poverty.

In keeping with our mission, Modest Needs offers grants to low-income but generally self-sufficient households, displaced workers struggling to return to the workforce, permanently disadvantaged persons struggling to afford medical care, and small non-profit organizations. Our grants are designed:

• To prevent otherwise financially self-sufficient individuals and families from entering the cycle of poverty, when this might be avoided with a small amount of well-timed financial assistance;
• To restore the financial self-sufficiency of individuals who are willing to work but are temporarily unemployed by providing these persons with the means to return to work;
• To empower permanently disadvantaged individuals who otherwise live within their limited means to continue to live independently, despite a temporary, unexpected financial set-back related to their medical conditions; and
• To strengthen small non-profit organizations by providing a forum whereby such organizations can apply directly to the general public for the help they need to complete the relatively inexpensive projects that will allow them to better serve their clients and communities.

To the best of our knowledge, Modest Needs is the only legitimate non-profit organization of its kind serving the United States and Canada.

FIND OUT MORE

You'll never guess who's going to actually pay the Obamacare Individual Mandate Tax

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Introducing THE USA PLAN

The USA Plan is bold and truly revolutionary. It should satisfy both capitalists and collectivists, Republicans and Democrats, Libertarians and Anarchists and everyone in between because it makes the poor, the middle-class and the rich wealthier – in fact it delivers the American Dream to just about everyone.

www.TheUsaPlan.com

The USA Plan is designed to increase the wealth of all citizens not just the few. It is triggered by the reduction of taxes imposed on them by government. The Plan is based on the Rise Up Theory of Economics which elevates the financial rights of the individual over those of the state.


The Rise Up Theory does for the poor and middle class what the "Trickle Down" Theory did for the rich - it makes them wealthy. It closes the gap between the rich and the poor and eliminates the cry for social justice. It reduces the income disparity which has become a major political issue for which no party has been proposing a workable solution. The USA Plan is that solution.


It is a simple concept, it redirects the 15.3% presently paid by individuals (and in the case of employees, their employers too) in the form of payroll taxes into a personally-owned investment account ( a “USA” – a Universal Savings Account)) that will grow into millions over the citizen's working life. The funds are invested in safe indexed stock funds that have historically been growing at over a 10% rate for the last 25 years.


At that rate of return a taxpayer or household making an average $50,000 per year would invest 15% per year or $7,500 and generate over a 40-year working life a $4 million nest egg. Go to the website www.theusaplan.com to review the year by year analysis of how the $300,000 ($7,500 x 40 years) accumulates, grows and compounds into a $4 million-dollar nest egg which will throw off a $33,000 a month retirement check.


As it will not require a taxpayer to invest his after-tax dollars into IRA or similar retirement plans it will cost no more than what is presently being taken by government. Americans can then use their after-tax cash to support their chosen lifestyles. The USA Plan will insure them of an affluent retirement and enough monthly income to buy the best medical care on the planet. The Plan eliminates the need to save for retirement.


As we know all private and public pension funds are all heavily invested in the stock market. By creating a vehicle to fund the growth of the private sector the investment of “USA” funds will immediately create millions of new jobs while at the same time guaranteeing the taxpayer a million-dollar nest egg at retirement. It will explode the overall wealth of the nation. The USA Plan is a short- term solution as well as a long-term solution we all are looking for.


Man has been saddled with poverty since the beginning of time. The few who were fortunate enough to be born into wealth or smart enough to accumulate it throughout history have always been a very small number of people. American independence changed all that to enable more 0f the population to become wealthy.


Unfortunately one-hundred years ago that independence permitted the people to give the right to tax incomes to the state which has been perverted into a mechanism to funnel wealth to the very few who know how to legally avoid taxation - Guys like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates whose fortunes have never been taxed because we don’t tax the appreciation in value until the stock is sold.


America has never attempted to solve the riddle of poverty but has left that up to the individual. He or she either sinks or swims AFTER TAXES. And there is the problem. By punitive taxation and suffocating regulation that raise all costs of living most Americans can’t save or work their way out of poverty. The talk of the American Dream of financial independence is just that – talk.


The Rise Up Theory of Economics as incorporated in the USA Plan will solve the riddle of poverty and generate all kinds of peripheral benefits not the least of which will be the elimination of war as soon as the Plan is adopted throughout the world.


War is not waged by people who want to protect their property.


Of course “peace on earth” depends on America leading the way and exercising leadership and resolve not to change or weaken the


USA Plan.

Rise up, America!

Income of Blacks Dropped $6,048 PER YEAR Under President Hope and Change

by Dick McDonald

When Peggy Joseph famously intoned in the last presidential election that  “Obama’s going to pay my gas and my mortgage” little did she know her blind support of Obama’s ‘HOPE AND CHANGE” would result in a 4 year drop in the  income of the average black of $24,000.  Now you won’t hear a joke about that from Dave Letterman or John Stewart because they still believe their President is working to make the poor better off.  The facts say differently but you won’t hear that from the main stream Obamamedia either. They still foolishly hope this town crier and his redistributionist Marxist policies will make the tide rise for all.  Tell that to Peggy Joseph.

I believe when history is written it will paint Obama as a tragic figure that had good intentions but went into office with flawed ideas how on to solve the country’s problems.  Remember he is the man who rode into office saying that under Bush and the Republicans that the income of average Americans was “flat” whereas the income of rich Americans was soaring. Well folks he has managed to make that “income disparity” worse not better.

 

When all is said and done we have a shrinking rich and middle class and a bloated almost poor society - made poor by policies that favor a government and its politicians over its people. Rise Up America and throw the bums out.

UPDATE: WHY OBAMA DOESN’T CARE ABOUT POOR BLACKS

Glenn Beck fills Dallas Cowboy Stadium, helps poor, media ignores

Tens of thousands serve in Dallas for Restoring Love, media ignores

“CBS News is reporting 65,000 people show up at Dallas Cowboy stadium on Saturday. Now, I just want to give this some perspective. CBS News is the same organization that said 87,000 people showed up at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. So 65,000 according to CBS News, 65,000 were at the stadium and only 87,000 were on the ‑‑ in the mall, that’s ‑‑ well, here’s the difference, I should point out: All the people that showed up, the 87,000 people that showed up in the mall were enormously fat,” he joked.

GBTV: Glenn Beck: Mercury One Food Drive

6 charts that show the Welfare State run amok

The original purpose of Medicaid was to provide improved healthcare access for poor people, while not turning the safety net into a trap. Under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, Medicaid will be greatly exapnded beyond what Congress originally intended.

In fact, as these charts show, it has already expanded beyond what Congress surely originally envisioned and, in the process, has created a terrible fiscal problem for the United States. (These charts and graphics come from a briefing today here at AEI, conducted by Gary Alexander, secretary of public welfare for Pennsylvania.)

A few scary factoids:

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When the American church helped usher in Social Security, it abdicated its responsibility to care for the poor...

What is disturbing when reviewing the history of this time is how many Christian ministers defended the actions of government as fulfilling Holy Scripture's mandates to care for the poor, provide for parents in their old age and give to those who ask of you.

With this shift of thinking, the state began to function in roles once reserved for the church—to the detriment of any who would question the legitimacy of the legislation on theological grounds. The same reception awaits those in the modern day who seek to resist any "progressive" social policy in any way for fear that they will be branded as uncaring or un-Christian in their ideas.

Has government power expanded to such a degree that the church now has no voice at all in the public square? Perhaps, but the modern era of public policy reveals just how much the government has gained and how much the church has lost.

The Theology of Social Security

RyanCare would be far less injurious to seniors than ObamaCare or, for that matter, doing nothing.

Official calculations show that Medicare has $34 trillion less than it needs to keep all its promises to seniors. Yet ObamaCare will take $500 billion out of Medicare over 10 years to cover 30 million uninsured Americans.

Basic arithmetic suggests that this would hasten the demise of the program. Not so, according to President Obama. He says he’ll squeeze out savings by cutting reimbursement to providers. ObamaCare will create something called the Independent Payment Advisory Board, composed of 15 experts. Their job will be to hold down spending by identifying reimbursement cuts, and their recommendations will be binding on Congress. If this board recommends what many fear it will, Medicare’s reimbursement rates will drop below Medicaid’s, which will mean that doctors will turn away seniors like they do the poor. In effect, in addition to an early death option, ObamaCare offers seniors diminished access to quality care. If this is compassion, give me cruelty.

RyanCare is not perfect, but at least it won’t rob Grandma Millie to buy Cousin Joe coverage.

Medicare’s least bad fix

Free markets help the poor more

By Walter Williams

Listening to America's liberals, who now prefer to call themselves progressives, one would think that free markets benefit the rich and harm the poor, but little can be further from the truth.

Poor people in America today, people who are officially in poverty, have a higher standard of living in terms of medical standards, in terms of the chances of going to college, in terms of the way people live, than middle-class people did 30 years ago

Myths About Capitalism

If you ask the average man on the street he will tell you that Republicans are rich and greedy. He will tell you that Republicans control all the corporations and wealth and Democrats are the struggling middle class. He will be totally wrong.

These days, the super-wealthy in this country are Democrats and the working middle class are mostly Republican. Roles have essentially been reversed, but the old perceptions persist. The public doesn’t realize that most major public company Presidents are Democrats. They probably don’t know that virtually all the Wall Street moguls are Democrats. Most investment bankers are Democrats. The 25 most wealthy on the Forbes 400 list are Democrats. The presidents of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are Democrats. The four wealthiest men on the planet, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, George Soros and Larry Ellison are all Democrats. Republicans are the shop owners, the engineer, the accountant, the small business owner. In other words, the middle class. Democrats are now the upper class and the lower class. The very wealthy and the very poor, for the most part. Republicans are in the middle...

And

...the press continues to paint Republicans as being rich, greedy and, yes, mean-spirited. The preponderance of newspaper reporters and newspaper owners are Democrats, or are independents who vote for and support Democrats. Republicans do not get fairly represented in the average newspaper or TV news station.

From an interview with Gary Aminoff

Obama advisor: Hey, let's give away all our money 'cause we caused global warming!

Cass Sunstein wants to spread America's wealth
Echoes Van Jones on using 'environmental justice' to redistribute money

Posted: September 16, 2009
8:25 pm Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

JERUSALEM – It is "desirable" to redistribute America's wealth to poorer nations, argued President Obama's newly confirmed regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein.

According to Sunstein, global climate change is primarily the fault of U.S. environmental behavior and can, therefore, be used as a mechanism to redistribute the country's wealth.

The argument bears striking resemblance to comments made by Obama's former environmental adviser, Van Jones. WND reported Jones used a major environmental convention to argue for spreading America's wealth.

Now WND has learned Sunstein made similar, more extensive arguments.

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Why Democrats want you to be poor

Del Beccaro: Democrats Want You Poor
Written by CA Political News on July 11, 2009, 12:31 PM

Just How Poor Do the Democrat Leaders Want You To Be?

by Thomas G. Del Beccaro, www.politicalvanguard.com, 7/9/09

Are you feeling better off today than you were six months ago? Perhaps more importantly, do you think you will be better off six months or six years from now?

Quite frankly, I dont see how you can possibly think you will be more prosperous in the years to come because it is rather apparent that the Democrats want us all to be poorer.

Why do I say that? Let me count the ways:

1. Obama and Pelosi are trying to share your wealth. Remember when Obama told Joe the Plumber that I think when you spread the wealth around, its good for everybody." Actually, its not good for everybody indeed it is worse for almost everybody. Spreading the wealth is the reverse of capitalism - capitalism requires that capital be aggregated so that entrepreneurs can invest it and start businesses which employ people. Without that capital formation, economies languish and people wind up poorer over time, i.e. check out the history of centralized economic systems like socialism, fascism and communism. Casting history aside, Obama is promising to raise taxes on the rich to pay for government all of which will result in a lower standard of living for us all.

2. Obama & Nancy are letting gas prices rise. Remember how the Media pounded President Bush relentlessly when oil and gas prices rose? Well, Crude Oil prices have doubled this year and the Media has nearly gone silent. Obama and Pelosi have too. Why? Because they want you to live in their alternative energy world at a price. The higher costs of that energy will weaken the economy long term which, in turn, reduces your standard of living.

3. Socialized Health Care Is Coming. Obama and Nancy want the government to make many of your health decisions just as they are deciding what type of cars GM can build and you can buy. The history of government run health care is a history of rationed care. All of which means that you will not have the choices you have now, i.e. your standard of living will be lower.

4. Capping your Future Wealth. Cap & trade is coming to a recession near you. Amidst what Obama says is the worst economy since the Great Depression, Obama is increasing the costs for employers around the country in the name of environmentalism. The problem, of course, is that the higher the cost of doing business the less jobs there are for people. Fewer jobs mean a prolonged recession which means a lower standard of living.

5. The Debt of Millenium. Obama is running up our debt like no one ever imagined from 48% of the overall GDP to over 80%. Someone has to pay for that someday. The combined effect of that debt and the taxes necessary to retire that debt mean a weaker economy over time and a lower standard of living.

Of course, there are many more tricks up Obamas sleeve that will reduce our future economic prospects. Those are just a few. All of them and more will reduce our economic prospects for years on end. Of course, we could just chalk that up to bad economics but we know better. There is little doubt that Obama and the Democrat leaders believe that Americans are too greedy. They want us to cut back in the name of the environment, social justice and equality. That is their motivation. We know Milton Friedman taught us that "A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither." We can add that they will get a lower standard of living as well.