Living On the Poverty Line

The government's official poverty line is around $22,113.  Is this too low?  Is it substantial?  This is what I am about to find out.  First, I am going to to figure out the monthly expenses for a typical four person family and then compare this to the poverty line and see what the results are.  Then, I will see what expenses could be eliminated.  Finally,  I will analyze my results.  Here we go!


Assume this family is renting a small house in the Midway area...

Food- $500
Car payment- $85
Gas for one car- $120
Insurance for car and renters insurance- $160
Rent- $1100
Water and heat- $90
Clothing- $200
Internet and cable- $120
Toiletries- $100
School supplies- $30
Misc. (spending money or to fix car)- $150

So I could add even more expenses if needed, but at this point I am already at $2,655.  Multiply that by 12 (monthly basis) and you get $31,860. That is a difference of $-9,747  And this is barely more than the NECESSITIES! Now, I want to trim out some items...  The ones that could be considered "extras" are: Internet and cable (not needed; use a public library if needed), a chunk of the spending money ($75 or so instead), and a decrease in clothing as well.  The negative side to decrease the money spent on clothes is the fact we live in Minnesota and require warm clothing which usually costs more.

Even after trying to eliminate some of the "extras" the total is roughly $26,000, which is still above the poverty line.  I cannot imagine how difficult if would be to live off of that amount of money and try to provide a healthy lifestyle for my family...

Even having $26,000 to spend this family wouldn't be living comfortably.  There would be no vacations,  limited extracurricular activities for kids or parents,  poor quality clothing, no second car, and the list could go on for days.  Factor in the possibility the car might need repairs, you might get a ticket, you may have to pay hospital bills if someone is sick and you can already see it would be near impossible to live an average life with this income.  Over time this would take a toll on the whole family.  Parents may get extremely stressed and use a drug to compensate the stress.  Kids might be made fun of at school for having trashy or cheap clothing and eventually lead to lack of success in academics.  Parents might be working so much that they won't be active in the children's lives, causing the children to experiment with drugs or hangout with the wrong kids.  The possibility of living a normal life would be extremely slim.

I know I couldn't live like this and part of what made me want to be successful was watching my parents succeed.  These kids would never see this and have a hard time reaching their potential in life.  The poverty line is a depressing statistic and changes NEED to be made.  Time to make a stand and help people out living in this situation...