So this is a few days late, but I wanted to put a word in for Blog Action Day. This year’s topic is poverty. While the goal is to address poverty at a global scale, I can’t help but focus on poverty in the US. It’s an issue that has greatly affected my life and is largely misunderstood.

To start off, let me provide a little background. I grew up in a single parent household. My mom worked very hard to make ends meet as an accountant, but in the mid eighties she was diagnosed with a late stage cancer. During her treatment, she couldn’t work full-time and we had to live in Section 8 housing and relied on Welfare and Food Stamps to pay the bills. We lived this way for several years, but thanks to the system, my mom returned to work after her treatment and we were able to go back to normal.

Many people think that this is some amazing miracle. They believe that most people on welfare are just sitting back and enjoying the joy that is welfare. In reality there are a lot more people like my mom and I than people realize. In my building, every family relied on this assistance, every family had children, every family was in a desperate place and every family worked constantly to improve their situation.

The United States is one of the worst of the developing nations in regard to the poor.

• Of the 18 nations in OECD, the US is ranked 16th by poverty index.
• The United States has the most drastic income inequality of all OECD nations with 17% of American families making less than half of the median income.
• Over the past 50 years, the upper 95th percentile income has nearly doubled while the 20th percentile and below has remained mostly unchanged.
• If you make $50,000 a year, you probably pay less than $500 to these programs. According to the federal budget, this money pays for: food stamps, family support assistance (AFDC), supplemental security income (SSI), child nutrition programs, refundable portions of earned income tax credits (EITC and HITC) and child tax credit, welfare contingency fund, child care entitlement to States, temporary assistance to needy families, foster care and adoption assistance, State children’s health insurance and veterans pensions. Chances are, you spent more money on coffee than welfare last year.

Finally, if you think living on welfare is really a dream, give it a shot. You can even live in your current house, just make sure that every meal costs less than $3* per person. Do this for a month and enjoy the welfare dream.

*The poverty income for a family of 5 to qualify for housing assistance is about $24,000 in Manchester. The lowest priced 2 bedroom apartment in Manchester is about $650/month after housing assistance. Add about $300 for utilities, $250 for gas. Not including anything else, your already down to about $200 per week to feed 5 people. So as long as you have no other bills you can afford to spend about $1.95 per person for each meal. WAIT!! At that income and rent, you get $381 in food stamps. So you can afford the gourmet $3 meals, assuming you don’t have to pay for car insurance, repairs, doctor visits, clothing, or child care. Want toilet paper? Skip a meal. Want that nice $3 t-shirt at the Salvation army? Skip another.