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The other day I saw a bumper sticker that said: The American Dream Is Not A Handout.

I’m guessing the driver (or whoever put it on the truck) believes too many people want something for nothing. Seems like a lot of people believe that so I decided to see what the facts say.

The first thing to know are the income levels that qualify you for public assistance:
$12,119 for a single individual under age 65
$14,081 a household of two people with a householder 65 years or older
$23,624 for a family of four with two children under age 18
$31,128 for a family of six with four children under age 18

The second thing is that the majority of the people who qualify for help have jobs. Yep, the majority of poor people work.

Now, let’s put this in a larger context.
$18.8 billion – total federal budget for Fiscal Year 2014, of which:
22% goes to the military
26% goes to healthcare (Medicare/Medicaid)
23% is for pensions (SS & federal pensions)
10% is for welfare
3% goes for education
6% is for other discretionary spending
10% goes to interest for the deficit

If you add up everything the government spends on public assistance, it comes to about $2 billion, which breaks down as follows: $1.8 billion on welfare directly; approximately $333 million on Medicaid; $30 million on children’s entitlement programs.

So what’s up with people being mad at poor people on whom the government spends less than 20% of its budget, and most of which goes to help children and senior citizens?

I wonder who the guy in the truck was thinking about when he bought that sticker. I’m sure he could find some examples of people who don’t work but are getting a handout, but they wouldn’t represent the overwhelming majority of people in need.

No, my experience in working in the inner city for several years was that people wanted to work. In fact, they liked to work. Sitting around doing nothing all day drove them crazy. Early every morning they would go to the corner where contractors, movers, and other business owners would come by to hire day workers.

I wish I could have talked to the truck guy to find out why he put that sign on his bumper. If I could have shared all these facts with him maybe he would have taken it off.

Or maybe he wouldn’t have cared about the facts. He might have preferred to keep blaming poor people for having to pay taxes for the 80% plus of government spending that goes to things that make his own life better, such as:
– Ebola and other disease control/cure
– cancer research
– food inspections
– national security
– roads/bridges construction/maintenance/safety
– education of children and youth
– police and fire protection
– national park maintenance
– retirement security including healthcare and pensions
and so many other things that make life what it is today here in America.

Actually, poor people pay taxes, too, even though they are the lowest paid workers in the country, which is why they need public assistance even though they have jobs.

So, as I said, what’s up with all the anger and animosity toward poor people?