So, the question is, what percentage of able-bodied poor people between ages 18 and 64 do *not* work? I.e., are lazy bums that just hang around the outside of the store smoking cigarettes all day?
So my first stop was the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They helpfully tell me that 7.2% of the population between ages 18 and 64 was a) poor, and b) working, in 2010. Okay.
My next stop was the Census Bureau. The Census Bureau tells me that the poverty rate for people aged 18 to 64 was 13.7 percent.
My final stop was the Social Security Administration. They tell me that disabled beneficiaries aged 18–64 in current-payment status accounted for over 4.6 percent of the population aged 18–64 in the United States. I assume that all of these people are poor, because disability benefits are *not* generous.
So: 7.2% of the working-age population is poor and working, 4.6% of the working age population is poor and disabled, for a total of 11.8%. Which means that 1.9% of the working age population is a) poor, b), able to work, and c) neither working nor looking for work.
Which is 14% of the poor (1.9%/13.7%).
Which is pretty much the same for the population as a whole. Yet this very small percentage of the poor is what gets all the attention, rather than the vast majority of able-bodied poor who are either working or looking for work. Now why do you think that is? Hmm?
– Badtux the Numbers Penguin
“Now why do you think that is? Hmm?”
The Repubs have to have someone or something to demonize. Commies and other assorted pinkos, minorities, terrorists, etc, etc, etc. Whipping up anger and resentment against the ‘moochers’ is pretty easy for the right-wing knuckledraggers who have been doing this for very effectively for 60 years. Remember Ronnie Raygun speaking against the danger of Medicare?
And the Dems have no ideas, no fight and no longer stand for anything. Well, other than electing ‘more and better’ Dems.
Oh well.
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And they never want to hear about the real welfare queens: The Banksters.
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I like this page on my FB newsfeed https://www.facebook.com/usauncut?hc_location=stream
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… and every time the DJ drops, they cite “reduced consumption.” The folks that need stuff can’t afford it. Them what can don’t spend.
Why do they keep beating up the folks that are trying to grasp the “American Dream/” (don’t know if I know wtf that is any longer)>
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I’ll start stressing about the “undeserving poor” the moment that every single swinging Richard who is looking for a job can get one, and can get one that can actually pay the bills for more than a life in a refrigerator box under a bridge eating ramen noodles every meal. For thirty years our country has been obsessed with maximizing profit and unconcerned with maximizing employment, and every time anyone suggests this some teatard trots out the tired trope of the welfare queens and the bucks buying steaks with food stamps.
No wonder we’re headed full speed back to the Gilded Age…
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