Why do we have Poverty in America

SpaceNut · 2018-04-22 07:44:59

The means top make power even at low levels while being temporarily displaced needs some inventiveness and access to materials to build with. Much like the learning that I am doing for the Mars Cart for motors and generators the use of wood and metals for parts make for some interesting designs.

This is a windmill http://library.uniteddiversity.coop/Ene … manual.pdf

http://teachergeek.org/Alternator_Build_r1.pdf

Which means any level of power output to start is a big leg up on nothing....

SpaceNut · 2018-05-08 20:57:56

Another aspect of poverty is changing hands of property but not having the funds to register the deeds.

No deeds, no aid to rebuild homes: Puerto Rico's reconstruction challenge; The number of denied FEMA applications highlights the island's history of illegal construction and poor development. New grants may help change that.

20180416_135034_hdr_3857d3d15254c805b58129a011ddee33.fit-560w.jpg

Home, a roof over one's head even in this condition....

SpaceNut · 2018-05-17 20:39:40

43% of U.S. families can't afford basics of middle class life

Nearly 51 million households don't earn enough to afford a monthly budget that includes housing, food, child care, health care, transportation and a cell phone, according to a study released Thursday by the United Way ALICE Project. The figure includes the 16.1 million households living in poverty, as well as the 34.7 million families that the United Way has dubbed ALICE -- Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. This group makes less than what's needed "to survive in the modern economy."

https://www.unitedwayalice.org/

California, New Mexico and Hawaii have the largest share of struggling families, at 49% each. North Dakota has the lowest at 32%.
Many of these folks are the nation's child care workers, home health aides, office assistants and store clerks, who work low-paying jobs and have little savings, the study noted. Some 66% of jobs in the US pay less than $20 an hour.

Seattle's City Council just passed a controversial tax on big businesses to help alleviate the city's growing homelessness and affordable housing problems.
http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/14/news/ec … index.html

Terraformer · 2018-05-18 10:41:18

For instance, in Seattle's King County, the annual household survival budget for a family of four (including one infant and one preschooler) in 2016 was nearly $85,000.

What the hell are they spending it on?

kbd512 · 2018-05-18 13:46:55

Americans are buying things they don't need with money they don't have, as George Carlin would say.

There's literally thousands of dollars of useless crap in our house that my wife has purchased over the years because she saw something she wanted, bought it on a whim, and then a day, a month, or even years later it was never used or only used once or twice. I've seen the same thing in nearly every house in America that I've ever been invited to. It's nuts.

Americans also have subscription-based services that bleed funds. We have cable TV at home so my wife can watch various news channels, but we never have time to watch TV. She bought all the TV's in our house. We have 4 of them and I can't remember the last time the TV's in the living room or the game room were even plugged in. Our eldest son used to use his TV to watch the sports games, but now he watches the games on his laptop. I can't even recall how many thousands were spent on those stupid things and we've given 2 TV's away to friends and family, but I rarely see them watch TV. See where this is going? Things we don't need with money we don't have...

I never owned a new car or even a new-ish car until my wife decided she had to have them. I definitely never would've bought a Cadillac, but my wife decided she had to have them. It's a very nice car and I love how smooth and quiet they are, but not something I would choose to spend my money on. I've seen multiple welfare queens at Wally World driving Caddys, though. Their priorities seem to be mixed up.

I have shirts and pants that are older than our two youngest children are. I only throw things away once those things are no longer functional. When possible, I donate or sell things that can be repurposed. In a practical sense, the tools I have for working on our plumbing and electrical stuff are by far the most valuable things I own. Anyone who is barely getting by doesn't need a fancy television set, car, cell phone, laptop, or $5 coffee. They need their own tools and they need to know how to fix things.

Conservatively, 25% to 50% of the food the wife buys is never eaten or otherwise wasted by the kids, so now we have a rule about never buying more than a week's worth of food because it invariably spoils if we do. Whether you can save a few pennies or not by buying in bulk is irrelevant if you end up throwing most of it away. I still struggle to get her to buy just one kind of anything, but she's gradually understanding that money in your pocket is better than crap you don't need in your hand. One day, she may even debate about whether or not we need name brand cornflakes. A man can dream.

She recently purchased $1,000 dollars worth of new silverware and pots 'n pans from Germany on her trip to Europe with her friends. The only problem is that yesterday a little street thug broke into her brand new Cadillac XT5 and now I need $1,000 to pay the body shop for the damage done by that little turd. Our insurance deductible is $1,000, but the total bill is only $1,169. At 4:17AM Thursday morning, a SUV shat out this little turd at the gate to the apartment complex across the street from our gated community. Said turd jumped the fence near our neighbor's house, tried to smash the front passenger side window twice using a punch but it didn't shatter because it's laminated like the windshield, and then the turd successfully shattered the rear window because it was not laminated.

We now have $3,000 worth of surveillance cameras around the entire house that captured the entire event from start to finish after my $35,000 Silverado was stolen from in front of my house on December 29th, 2017, a few months before I had it completely paid off. Anyway, hoody boy dove into a seat covered with broken glass that I later cut myself on trying to clean up, rifled through my wife's car for a few minutes and quickly realized there was nothing to take because wifey finally started listening to her stupid husband and leaves nothing of value in her car after she had her purse stolen from her Tahoe (traded that in for the new XT5) after she had it stolen at LA Fitness.

This moron was on his cell phone almost the entire time and didn't even bother covering his face or wearing gloves. He stared directly into the security cameras, so if he didn't know his crime was being recorded, then he's even dumber than I thought. He probably just doesn't care. I spent 2 hours with the Police getting the turd's finger prints and video footage of his crime and then spent the rest of the day messing around with the insurance company, dealership, and body shop. The body shop was by far the most helpful of the three and temporarily covered the window while we wait to get the repair parts from San Antonio.

According to the Police, three other cars in our neighborhood were also broken into during that same night. If I had to guess, thievery has also taken its toll on the working poor.

Earlier this week, I had a plumber who wanted to charge me just shy of $500 to replace the drain shoe in the bathtub upstairs after it leaked a little bit of water into the ceiling. Their drywall contractors who would replace the drywall wanted even more money than that. The overriding reason seems to be insurance and licensing, but I'm not paying brain surgeon fees to a plumber. That's more money than a general practice doctor makes for something that took me 30 minutes and $30 worth of parts and tools ($10 of that was the special "dumbbell" tool for the drain shoe). I also replaced the overflow because, as expected, the seal on that was shot as well. I'm going to replace the ceiling drywall when time permits.

Apart from outright theft, outrageous prices for simple services (plumbing, electrical, and most health care services) that litigation-happy America has created via lawyers, insurance, and licensing is keeping poor and middle class people from living insanely comfortable lives compared to the rest of the world.

Everyone needs to be taught not to buy things they don't need, myself included. Teachers should ensure our kids graduate high school. Parents should ensure their children wait until they're married to have children. That alone all but guarantees a comfortable lifestyle by the time the kids are ready to have kids. Further, parents must teach their kids to fix their own cars, homes, and computers to save lots of money. Society must teach criminals that crime doesn't pay, not by killing them but by forcing them to work as slave laborers. If we do these things, the poor and middle class will be immeasurably better off. Welfare doesn't teach people anything and neither does bankrupting them with insanely priced services that civilized societies need from time to time (like health care, plumbers, construction, etc).

RobertDyck · 2018-05-18 14:10:00

In 2014 and 2015 here in Canada, I lived earned between $7,100 and $7,200 per year, total including all sources. Single guy, own my house, mortgage paid off. Could not afford vehicle insurance, so my vehicle is parked. My house was built in 1907, property 25-feet by 107-feet, single detached garage, part basement. Real estate documents said my house is 800 square feet, but when I measure outside the stucco it's 342 square feet per floor, 2 stories so 684 square feet. You're not supposed to include the basement in square feet. Property tax last year was $863.86, this year it went up by $83.32. That's after the $700 property tax credit the province gives to all home owners, but only for the home you live in so doesn't count for rental homes, investment properties, second home / cottage / cabin. I got groceries from the food bank every 2 weeks. Not enough to live on but really helped. Now that I have part-time work, I don't get that any more. One friend gave me his old bicycle from the late 1970s when he bought a new one, and another friend introduced me to a community bicycle shop that repairs bikes free. You fix your own bike, but there are bicycle mechanics to teach you, and it's a fully equipped bicycle shop. This province doesn't have a health insurance premium, the largest / most populous provinces in Canada do, but here provincial sales tax pays for healthcare. Government health insurance is considered basic minimum, it doesn't pay for drugs (pharmaceuticals) or any dental or vision care (optometrist / eye glasses), but I can see a doctor. Back when my income was that low, I was introduced to a shoe store that has a program for free shoes. Limited selection, but I got a new pair of runners that fit perfectly. Last fall when I got a part-time job, I bought a new pair of runners with my own money. Utility bills are land-line telephone, electricity, natural gas (heat), water, cable TV (was tier 3, now digital "basic" plus 1 option package, no premium channels or pay-per-view), high speed internet (not extreme speed), and burglar alarm monitoring. When I got work, I was required to get a cell phone. The phone company refused to service my old flip phone, so I got a brand-new smart phone. But when I earned that little, I had to cancel service on my cell phone. I'm a computer professional, so I can service my own personal computer. I volunteer as a computer repair technician at a charity, so got access to used computer parts to repair my own computer. The parts are from a computer recycler that supplies the charity.

That's not bad. Again, that's with an income of $7,100 to $7,200 per year, in Canadian dollars. Why would you need $85,000?

::Edit:: Property insurance last October was $753.84 including taxes. For the year. I have kept house insurance current.

Last edited by RobertDyck (2018-05-19 09:46:29)

Terraformer · 2018-05-18 14:53:59

Then again, it *is* around Seattle. Houses are very expensive there, though I suspect they're using some silly calculation where you are considered poor if you're spending more than 1/3 of your income on housing and working backwards, despite other costs (food, transport, clothing, utilities...) not scaling with housing. Someone earning $60k/year and spending half of it on housing is in a better financial shape than someone earning $30k and spending a third of it on their house.

kbd512 · 2018-05-18 16:52:46

Perhaps housing shouldn't require a lifetime financial commitment from the buyer. Few houses are intrinsically worth the asking prices.

SpaceNut · 2018-05-19 08:56:24

No to meantion that the rental costs are even high with there illusion of being cheaper for the poor to afford.

I have actually had to live on what RobertDyck earned without any assistance other than medicaid for kids and its not easy finding away through one's pride to go out to seek out the food pantries or soup kitchens to be able to meet the costs of "(food, transport, clothing, utilities...)". Of course during that time the insurance for the home, taxes, were either cancelled or went into the lien process after a 3 year period but I did manage to survive with our 5 school age kids. I just go my first half tax bill for 2018 on the homestead that is based on a value of 96,000 for the house and land of which it really is not if tried to be sold as it needs lots of repairs and cleaning up.

As for wages I am finally closing in on the stories wage before taxes and can see a crossover point from digging out to actually being able to save is near 50,000 a year take home pay.

kbd512 · 2018-05-19 18:33:03

SpaceNut,

If my wife was disabled or out of work for any considerable length of time, then we'd have to sell our house, get rid of one of our cars, and sell off or donate some of our other belongings and move into an apartment. At this point, my wife is no longer so enamored with the idea of owning our own home. We're already over 25% of the purchase price of the house in repairs (replaced both AC units, the garage door, the plumbing, etc) and required upgrades (the new windows prevent the new AC units from living shorter lives).

I hear what you're saying and I can sympathize with it. My wife lost her job in a 2009 layoff from the oil company she worked for, but was lucky in that she landed a new job in less than a month. If I had lost my job, then the even crappier 1950's house we lived in would've transformed back into the small apartment we moved from and eventually we'd be living on the street.

I don't believe our government will solve our poverty problems since our government helped create those problems through excessive spending and legislation that permitted banks to grant loans to people they knew or should have known could never pay them back. Our government is not even competent to spend our money in a judicious manner, let alone regulate banks, and every prior administration in living memory has involved us in a new military conflict. President Trump's term is only half over. If he can go 4 years without starting a new war, then he still has my vote.

I approach most of life through a dollars and cents standpoint. I want to know what something costs, why we're paying for it, and what it does for us. I read through the parts of the budgets and appropriations that I actually understand and then try to determine if there's any point to the spending or if it's just throwing more good money after bad. The only positive economic note is that we're nearing full employment, to the extent that jobs are available if anyone wants them. I still want to see how the rest of this year goes. If we're still in the black, jobs-wise, at the end of the year, then there's a hint of optimism about things to come. I also see a lot of red in every other aspect of the economy (both our economy and the world economy). Those last two wars we engaged in and the financial games the world's banks played before governments put an end to that pretty much wrecked the world economy.

I wish I could paint a rosier picture of the future, but the available evidence doesn't support that. Mostly, I foresee that there's a lot of work to be done to right the ship in order that we leave to our children a better future than the one we were given.

SpaceNut · 2018-05-20 12:32:27

America's Third World: Border Colonias in Texas Struggle to Attain Services

With agricultural jobs plentiful in South Texas, thousands of mostly low-income Hispanics began settling on cheap, rural plots of land, parceled off by developers who assured them basic infrastructure and services such as electricity and sewage systems soon would follow.
Decades later, many are still waiting.
Half a million people live in Texas' colonias – largely impoverished neighborhoods that fall outside of city limits and can lack basic public services. These orphaned communities are peppered around the Southwest, though most lie along the roughly 1,200-mile Texas-Mexico border. About 900 of the state's 2,300 or so colonias are concentrated in the Rio Grande Valley's Hidalgo County – one of the fastest-growing counties in Texas – and while many colonia residents are living in the country legally, some are not. With millions of Mexicans for decades flocked north across the U.S. border.

Sounds like regulatory laws are lacking....

National Guard Has Eyes on the Border. But They’re Not Watching Mexico.

The hundreds of National Guard troops deployed by President Trump in April are now busy securing the southern border. But when it comes to surveillance, they are forbidden from looking across it.
The troops operating and monitoring high-tech surveillance equipment along the border have been told they are prohibited from using it to look into Mexico. The little-known caveat is part of the legal ground rules for the new National Guard deployment along the southwest border, which calls for troops to operate “up to” the United States-Mexico border, state and federal officials said.
The roughly 800 troops already working in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona have so far helped Border Patrol agents apprehend more than 1,600 people making illegal border crossings and seize more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana, officials said.

Thats a joke....

Some one must be over stating just how many are crossing....

SpaceNut · 2018-05-21 21:22:38

The real economy is not rosy.... Where Americans are going hungry

If adults who are able-bodied and don't have dependents aren't working at least 20 hours a week, they wouldn't be able to receive food stamps.

Even at $10 for 20 equals just $200 before taxes....with no help

10 states where food insecurity is the highest, according to data from Feeding America. The percentages of residents who are classified as food insecure are in parentheses.
1. Mississippi (20.1%)
2. Arkansas (17.2%)
3. Louisiana (16.7%)
4. Alabama (16.5%)
5. Oklahoma (16.2%)
6. New Mexico (15.8%)
7. Kentucky (15.5%)
8. North Carolina (15.4%)
9. Texas (15.4%)
10. Georgia (15.1%)

Food insecurity -- or not having enough food because of a lack of money or other resources -- is a way of life for almost 1 in 8 Americans. And that rate remains higher than before the recession, when the numbers were slightly more than 1 in 10, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Residents of some counties are suffering more than others, according to Feeding America's research. Rural counties are among the worst-hit, comprising 79 percent of the counties with the highest food insecurity rates, even though they make up only 63 percent of all U.S. counties.
Food insecure households spend about 45 percent more on medical care a year than people in food-secure homes, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank.

If the economy is getting better its not reaching down to the bottom....and no amount of healthcare will make you healthy as the premiums are out of this world for what they will pay....

SpaceNut · 2018-05-22 20:35:13

Where there is poverty this is a close second Why hunger is still a problem in America

The realities of low-wage work, including fluctuating work hours, means that many families are making tough choices about paying for groceries or other bills.
"The minimum wage, adjusted for inflation, is now set about ... 20 percent below the level it was in 1968, so we have many more people who work full time but earn a wage that leaves them in or at the poverty line," Greenstein said. Food stamps are "a fundamental support of people who work hard for low wages."

SpaceNut · 2018-05-25 18:13:53

Relate articles to follow:

Homeless woman pleads with mayor to save her camp from removal and Manchester homeless camps along river removed despite appeal to mayor

Last week, state Department of Transportation officials posted notices along the riverbank warning anyone who lives there that they have until today to move out. Any property left behind will be thrown away, and future campers will be subject to a fine if caught, the notice said.
Kai Chambers, 47, has said she has lived on the sliver of land between Interstate 293 and the Merrimack River for 15 years. She visited Craig at City Hall after making an appointment.
The riverbank is littered with used camping gear, food containers, clothes, and other material that transients use and then abandon. “Our number one priority is the safety and well-being of Manchester residents,” Craig said. “When a camp is identified due to a public health or safety risk, the City works to connect individuals with services they may need.”
“This is not about squatters’ rights. It’s about doing the right thing,” Chambers said in a brief interview outside City Hall.
She left behind clothes, food, chairs and a family-sized tent secured by ropes. The campsite where she said she has lived for years included numerous decorations: a bouquet of artificial black roses, a hand-sized American flag, Christmas ornaments on a bush, and an infant-sized Teddy bear secured in a baby stroller.
Chambers said Craig promised to do what she can to restore her Medicaid and keep her on the West Side. Chambers said she will speak to Families in Transition, which has taken over operation of the New Horizons shelter and provides support for the New Hampshire Coalition to End Homelessness.
A self-described alcoholic, Chambers said she cannot work because of borderline split personality and receives about $750 a month in disability payments. “I’ve been outside most of my life,” she said. “When I get ready to go in, I’ll go in.”

With what she is getting she would need all kinds of assistance as the recieved amount will not even pay for a boarding room let alone a rental....

Terraformer · 2018-05-26 05:14:52

And whose fault is that?

Are boarding rooms even still legal in most of Manchester?

RobertDyck · 2018-05-27 11:20:13

A self-described alcoholic, Chambers ... receives about $750 a month in disability payments.

That's a lot of money for social assistance. I now have a part-time job, but last week I earned $65. I also have a home business, I'm currently performing a data recovery for a small business; their hard drive failed. And I accept casual employment where I can get it. But I'm still enrolled on "Employment and Income Assistance", which is the current buzz-word for provincial welfare. They cut me off and closed my case end of last October because I earned too much. Don't know if they'll cut me off end of this month; probably not, but expect they will deduct something. My monthly welfare budget last October was:
Basic Needs: $195
Property tax (prorated for the month): $62.73
House insurance (also prorated): $60.21
Electricity: $80.23
Water: $45.00
Natural gas (heat): $75.17
Job seekers allowance: $25.00 (I only get this if I actively look for work)
Total: $543.34 (Canadian dollars)
For May I got $613.43 (house insurance was renewed/increased after October, and another winter of utility bills)

I own my house, so there's no mortgage. If I had a mortgage, they would pay it, but they would place a lien on my land title. That means I would have to repay that. But no mortgage means no lien. Welfare normally pays $285/month rent including heat and utilities. What they pay me works out about the same. I thought it was lower, but my utilities are significant. But everything other than basic needs is calculated by looking at my bills for 12 months, averaging them. Apartment rent in this city for a bachelor apartment (studio apartment, no bedroom) is $826 average, $449 minimum, $1,370 maximum. So apartments available to welfare recipients are not great. There are some government owned apartment buildings, deliberately designed to keep rent down to welfare rates. The waiting list to get in there is a couple years.

My point is she should be able to get a welfare apartment. Why is this person still homeless?

Last edited by RobertDyck (2018-05-27 16:11:36)

SpaceNut · 2018-05-27 15:38:42

The disability payment is given but if you work you are prorated as the income goes up the payment goes down and so will the medical care. Most business also do not want to have the worker controlling when they can work based off from one recieving the diability status.

As far as housing assistance there are waiting lists to which it takes time to wait others out that are on that list.

Other help is based on a mailing address and not a Post Office Box as a proof of residency to get the help.

Being an alcoholic also would mean no drivers license to be able to get to those that might be able to help.

RobertDyck · 2018-05-27 17:02:29

Here in Winnipeg there's something called Siloam Mission. It's a religious charity. They provide a bunk bed for homeless. It's not much, but it's indoors, heated (in winter), dry and safe. Every day they kick everyone out at noon, and no one can re-enter until 3:00pm. That means no one can claim a bed, every bed is first-come/first-serve. They also have soup kitchen. I know someone who stayed there a while, she invited me to join her for Christmas dinner there one year. She got on welfare, was given a room in a run-down downtown hotel, a building over a hundred years old. Then got an apartment in a building intended for individuals transitioning to normal housing. She's still waiting for an apartment in government subsidized social housing, one of the government owned apartment buildings for welfare that I mentioned. Government gives priority to welfare recipients who are married with children; she's single and over 55 years old.

SpaceNut · 2018-05-27 21:16:51

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare

In the United States, depending on the context, the term “welfare” can be used to refer to means-tested cash benefits, especially the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program and its successor, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Block Grant, or it can be used to refer to all means-tested programs that help individuals or families meet basic needs, including, for example, health care through Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits and food and nutrition programs (SNAP). It can also include Social Insurance programs such as Unemployment Insurance, Social Security, and Medicare.
AFDC (originally called Aid to Dependent Children) was created during the Great Depression to alleviate the burden of poverty for families with children and allow widowed mothers to maintain their households. The New Deal employment program such as the Works Progress Administration primarily served men. Prior to the New Deal, anti-poverty programs were primarily operated by private charities or state or local governments; however, these programs were overwhelmed by the depth of need during the Depression.
Some opponents of welfare argue that it affects work incentives. They also argue that the taxes levied can also affect work incentives. A good example of this would be the reform of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. Per AFDC, some amount per recipient is guaranteed. However, for every dollar the recipient earns the monthly stipend is decreased by an equivalent amount. For most persons, this reduces their incentive to work. This program was replaced by Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF). Under TANF, people were required to actively seek employment while receiving aid and they could only receive aid for a limited amount of time.

http://www.federalsafetynet.com/us-welf … grams.html

13 programs shown below, U.S. Welfare Programs also include the Medicaid Program which provides health care to low-income citizens and certain non-citizens.

Not all apply to the situation

Soup kitchens do exist but some only are done one day a week, extreme cold emergency shelters are created but go way just as quick as the cold. The are food pantries for a bag a month of mostly canned goods, some bags may contain a jar of peanut butter, rice, a box of cereal and seldom are there any meats...

elderflower · 2018-05-28 04:21:24

Terraformer might be talking about the original Manchester in England, rather than it's namesake in the USA.

SpaceNut · 2018-05-28 08:36:16

I know that in my area a single room in a home where a person will rent out will go for about $100 a week nothing included and efficency hotels are in the $300 a week range...but you could be right about referencing the UK in his post.

The real ID has already had an impact in that documents are something that can be tattered an worn to the non acceptance point or rejected as proof requiring new ones to be gotten as replacements. Which requires something more than costs as this is done in person. To which transportation is most likely an issue as the poor typically can not afford a vehicle. I have seen many with Bicycles hung with bags of there belongings going from place to place and sleeping even next to a business wall on concrete.

In this coming of the digital age with the expensive I-phones and such we will be seeing a new form of drivers ID. What new digital driver's licenses mean for motorists, police; Several states are making the switch from plastic cards to smartphone apps.

I can see it now, Gun being yelled and now your dead for reaching for the identification if you could afford it.....or being deported since the battery on the phone is dead.....or being rounded up since you do not have one.....

There's an app for almost everything these days, whether it's shopping, tracking your eating or exercise or finding your way. Now driver's licenses are making the transition from a card carried in a pocket or purse to a digital application on your mobile phone. Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Maryland, Wyoming and the District of Columbia are carrying out limited trials of digital driver's licenses. With Iowa and Louisiana are planning to issue digital licenses to every motorist who wants one beginning this year.

Terraformer · 2018-05-28 15:58:59

elderflower wrote:

Terraformer might be talking about the original Manchester in England, rather than it's namesake in the USA.

No, I'm talking about the Manchester of the article, in New Hampshire. Does their zoning allow boarding houses?

SpaceNut · 2018-05-28 19:17:58

Did a bit of searching and research to give better numbers and actual law for the question.

Rooming/Boarding Houses

A low-cost housing option, usually but not necessarily short-term, that offers individual or shared rooms for men or women and may include communal meals. Residents rent bedrooms (rather than self-contained units) and have the use of common facilities such as bathrooms, lounges, kitchens, dining areas and laundry facilities. Boarding houses generally provide at least one meal for tenants whereas rooming houses do not. Also included are hotels and motels that have very low weekly or monthly rates that are geared to meet the needs of homeless individuals who are not able to find emergency or transitional housing and have some money.

These are temporary and not long term with taxation on making use of them as these fall under hotel rooms as well.

https://www.revenue.nh.gov/faq/meals-rooms.htm

https://www.doj.nh.gov/consumer/sourcebook/renting.htm

http://stayworkplay.org/stay/cost-living-calculators/

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Pretty much if you are earning just what pays the bills you are not saving for the future.

SpaceNut · 2018-06-02 18:22:56

Low cost rental , single bed with scenic lake view...
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U.N.'s poverty and human rights special rapporteur finds U.S. policies reward wealthy, punish poor

Philip Alston, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, published a damning report this week on poverty in the United States, condemning President Trump’s administration for exacerbating the problem of inequality by rewarding the rich and punishing the poor.
“The American dream is rapidly becoming the American illusion,” Alston states in the report. “The equality of opportunity, which is so prized in theory, is in practice a myth, especially for minorities and women, but also for many middle-class white workers.”
Alston, who toured the United States at the end of last year, condemned the “dramatic change of direction” in U.S. policies as the Trump administration pursues high tax breaks for the rich and slashes welfare benefits for the poor.

Trump policies 'punishing and imprisoning the poor' while rewarding the rich, says UN expert, Human rights investigator urges US authorities to provide healthcare and social protection to the poor human rights investigator has found.

Almost 41 million people live in poverty, 18.5 million of them in extreme poverty, and children account for one in three poor,“There is no magic recipe for eliminating extreme poverty and each level of government must make its own good-faith decisions. At the end of the day, however, particularly in a rich country like the United States, the persistence of extreme poverty is a political choice made by those in power,”

America's poor becoming more destitute under Trump: U.N. expert

"Its citizens live shorter and sicker lives compared to those living in all other rich democracies, eradicable tropical diseases are increasingly prevalent and it has the world's highest incarceration rate...and the highest obesity levels in the developed world,"
At least 550,000 people are homeless in America

The UN Just Published a Scathing Indictment of US Poverty, New report explicitly lays blame with the Trump administration for policies that actively increase poverty and inequality in the country

gettyimages-1802162571.jpg?itok=WJsjMcYT

http://undocs.org/A/HRC/38/33/ADD.1

Alston described meeting “people who had lost all of their teeth because adult dental care is not covered by the vast majority of programs available to the very poor,” and people in Puerto Rico “living next to a mountain of completely unprotected coal ash, which rains down upon them bringing illness, disability, and death.” In Lowndes County, Alabama, the U.N. found cesspools of sewage that flowed out of dysfunctional (or nonexistent) septic systems, which has led to a resurgence in diseases that officials believed were eradicated. A recent study found that more than one-third of people surveyed in Alabama tested positive for hookworm—a parasite that thrives in areas of poor sanitation, which has not been well-documented in the United States since the 1950s.

SpaceNut · 2018-06-09 09:22:04

repost:

RobertDyck wrote:

CNN - August 5, 2014: America's middle class: Poorer than you think
The numbers seem to back it up. Americans' average wealth tops $301,000 per adult, enough to rank us fourth on the latest Credit Suisse Global Wealth report.
But that figure doesn't tell you how the middle class American is doing.
Americans' median wealth is a mere $44,900 per adult -- half have more, half have less. That's only good enough for 19th place, below Japan, Canada, Australia and much of Western Europe.
Forget about "median" wealth, let's look at successful professionals.
Average number of people per family in the United States from 1960 to 2017
Quote from Google preview, not the article itself. That comes from the HTML header for this page.
As of 2016, the U.S. Census Bureau counted about 82.18 million families in the United States. The average family consists of 3.14 persons in 2017, down from 3.7 in the sixties.
So a family with 2 adults and 1 child can afford $100,000 per person.
kbd512 wrote:
100 = $500K / person
1,000 = $50K / person (requires a special type of seating arrangement, but everyone will fit)
1,000+ = $50K / person*

Sure is a lifetime to save when it costs so much to just survive here on earth.

Thanks for the links for this topic...

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