The hold up is that if Americans really knew how many other Americans were living in poverty, they JUST might vote for different people which means those "in power" now will lose their seats and some of their power.

You got it CC. It is our silence which causes workers, the disabled, and welfare mothers to groan the strain of being under paid. Worker are our backbone Welfare mothers and the disable gauge the level of our humanity. So why aren't we paid a decent wage?

I will provide two last paragraphs, of a piece found on our NH homeless serve site. Of course it serves nationally. The writer is Unknown to me, goes by just Ruben but his words reaches my soul.

I want to place the entire email on line. I have to locate and join a free host group. I am in the hopes that Change will allow a partial post here, as it does provide Word for thoughts, on poverty and racism.

I was against using the terms the disabled and welfare Moms in our efforts to gain the Human right to be fully paid according to the need.  But often these groups are paid in the same range as our migrant workers are paid. Americans should know about and  be ashamed, of both.

"...Thus so much homelessness in the world, its primary cause being  wars based on White racism, the common belief God or nature made White people superior to Non-Whites to the extent it is okay for Whites to take whatever they want from Non-Whites including their lives, lands and freedoms. The racist elite are even so selfish and greedy that they exploit and oppress poor Whites too; and these elitists are also smart, indoctrinating poor Whites to believe it is those "dirty Mexicans" who are taking their jobs and so forth, i.e., "divide and conquer."  

The working poor are the backbone of the global economy. The only reason there is any semblance of a middle class left in the U.S. is because the rich need the middle class to control and regulate the poor. It's all about exploitation and oppression, brother. The Nazis, Minutemen, KKK, etc. are just stooges or puppets of the racist elites who will do whatever it takes to protect their wealth and power. Smoke and mirrors for sure.   ruben"  

There are many discussion points :

1.  Are illegals working our crops just fine, because they provide a service few Americans provide. They provide "Working for less than 50 cents an hour".

2. Are the poor the back bone of capitalism?  Well after much fighting and getting a lawyer,  I attended a Canada New England Conference in 2008, where the leaders exhaulted the low wage worker's and said they need workers to work longer until the age of 70's. 

 I think that is the point governmental and industrial leader knew would be given a positive, spin by mid stream media. They did not know what ME. Independent News take, would be.

3. Protect our masters interest mentality, of the poor. 

 How invasive is this thought in the 140 Million Poor workers.

4. What is the middle class? 

I learned here the middle income is $50,303 at change. The lower middle classes are the uncounted poor.

 A TV Health advertisement puts the middle class who will benefit from health care at 129,000   But their are 1 million folks in Maine.  I Hope that is a low count.

5. What is the middle class? 

This has to do with an accurate measurement of poverty, we need a real measure of all groups.   

It comes down to chosen ignorance and oh, dang it I hate the stumbling for words that comes around my migraines but what's the word that means just not giving a damn...  If you can't accurately count a problem, you can't say if you have a problem much less how big it might be, therefore you don't have any real way to assess whether or not the problem needs to be dealt with nor can your opponents who insist that there IS a problem accurately say that you're wrong because you've made the "only official numbers" and those numbers by basis of how they count have chosen not to count many - like how homeless counts don't count "couch surfers" or (and I really don't get this chosen omission from their counts) "people who have cars or other vehicles in which to sleep" or how unemployment counts don't count people who've "looked too long", are "under-employed", "aren't looking hard enough", or who "might be too sick or disabled to work" (often largely on the basis of their presumption, rather than what we who are trying to work and want to work think about it or what our care providers think).  As far as unemployment alone goes, I know from living in NM that the "official rumor" was that unemployment in the Four Corners area (McKinley County, Navajo, Zuni, some of the Pueblo, and I believe it might also have counted the Hopi since they're surrounded by Navajo) actually ran closer to 50% or so unemployment and nobody even wanted to think about the levels of underemployment - since most who were employed and didn't have the luck of a government job often worked multiple part-time jobs at minimum wage just to "get by", yet the OFFICIAL rate of unemployment for those areas was MUCH lower.  Our government is HORRID about tweaking statistics, as if tweaking numbers really makes a problem go away - lying about the numbers only hides the truth.

I can tell anyone who wants to list from my years of working with people in poverty and now from my years as a person in poverty that the figures used are off by EASILY a few thousand per year.  Why?  It underestimates the cost of food, then the guidelines created using the Federal Poverty Line even more severely underestimate what it costs to rent a home and pay for heat, water and trash/sewer.  I have yet to find a place where I could have a home for the allowed amount without it being a homesite leased on a reservation with a Certificate of Indian Blood where they have deals like $1/year for 100 years so I'd only be paying the utilities or to have my home elsewhere already paid so I'd only pay taxes and utilities (and with taxes, that'd be pushing the allowance).  Add in having to pay ANYTHING AT ALL for medical care (even pittances of copays like for low income subsidies with Medicare Part D) or (heaven forbid) living in a higher cost of living like a state on the east or west coast - and if you're actually qualified as below poverty or even NEAR poverty mere survival is a constant struggle where each month is a string of choices like "which bill(s) should I pretend not to see or choose to pay late" and "can I or can't I afford appropriate clothing for myself/family for this season" or even "can we all (or even any of us) eat tonight".  Some of these questions often even have to be asked despite the "help" of things like food banks and so forth because in some areas they pick and choose who they'll help or they simply can't help nearly enough.  Or because assistance programs haven't caught up with the times and recognized that cell phones in many cases are more functional - and cheaper - than landlines.  So is VOIP.  But the assistance programs will ONLY help if you have a traditional landline.

Ultimately though, Congress is going to have to do SOMETHING.  Or as one of my friends on another forum has said, they may see the poor gather in the streets with torches and pitchforks or whatever the modern equivalent of such might be - that is if any of the poor have enough money left to buy it, we may come just as a huddled and angry mass.  This country isn't just made up of the rich and as many wise people have said over the years a great way to measure a society is how it treats people like the poor and sick.  Besides, ultimately, treating the poor better would be in everyone's best interest - it would make health care cheaper, it would make us have a chance to be healthier, it would give us a chance to work longer and be more productive and such things as these would be better for the nation and those who invest in it and its corporations. So the only reasons I can see for not is apathy (that's the word I wanted at the beginning of this) and the "you can't spend MY money on those lazy poor people" crowds like the teabaggers who think any and all social programs are a waste of money that "enable" people and fraud.

I AM A WORKING WOMAN WITH 1 JOB THAT PAYS LOUSY I BARELY MAKE THE RENT AND NEVER HAVE ENOUGH $$ FOR FOOD OR ANYTHING ELSE INCLUDING UTILITIES AND ETC THANKS FOR LISTENING

Kim

You are the point. there are 70% of all workers who are paid less then the amount needed to live. LS No it is not worth being insulted and called name's when by HUDs Own figures only 25% of those who qualify for housing gets it.

The wait period for housing, in most states are 2 years to a decade. How you you be sure which person to call lazy? How can you be sure sure they are getting aid? 75% and up do not get housing.

LS are you lazy because you take time to post here? I do not think you want to be called that.  So don't others. 

Now I am using Change as therapy.  I got a speakers engagement in Chicago, and thought the  Maine Economic Human Rights, might help me gather the money required to fly there, pay fees and ground travel, to present a powerpoint to 500 people students. 

But I did not ask for that. I tried to brooch the topic by asking the top dog, if he knew of anyone I could hit up for part of $500. He has many funding contacts.  He could contact them or give the name to me and I would speak with them.

I have a group which thinks the trip is worth while, can lead to great contacts. Except Hospitality House Inc. Is broke. We wanted names to reach people who could afford to contribute. 

I am NOT asking for money here, nor there. I am venting.     

After all this group is fighting for the human rights of everyone the means and the dignity for capable people to accomplice their goals is humans rights. Respecting the poor and their wishes is human rights.

He told me his group would rather spend 500 on printing costs rather then travel. The group meets this Oct. 31, and I will ask them to personally contribute. This guy does not speak for the entire group, but he has a powerful lead.

Writing here aided me in coming up with phrases, as respecting the wishes of the poor, I will use to try and see if either individuals of the group or the group its self will help, as I explore newspapers and other avenues. I will go to the mall over the weekend with  a can, and see how many kind people offer a dollar or ten.

It did not bother me that the top dog, said NO. But his suggestion that I hand it off to someone in Chicago, seems undo able The person I contacted has yet to get back to me, and the Presentation is on the 7th of November.  

So when someone goes we can call anyone who takes our tax money names, I am upset.  I am upset with a guy whose fighting for Economic human rights for all, and he tells a fellow fighter No-before he is asked. In doing so he is denying my right to present my power-point. Which is half done. This Maine group has more work to do. 

How can they effectively fight for something they do not provide their own members?

I fill a dash better, with this poor persons therapy.

When you count the people at poverty level the best place to start is the people on non service connecked pensionfrom the VA. The top payment per month is around 900 dollars a month. and yet the government pays COLA in most states to the people that work for them. In Alaska it is 25% of base pay.

A penison from the government, has nothing to do with the real level of poverty. Are apartments over $900 a month in Alaska?  Then if they are then that penison does not Cover the need

Sorry Jan, the peison from the VA is knewn to below the poverty level in most states.

Yes the rents in Alaska is high, so high that the government pays its worker 25% COLA just to work in the state.

More vets then you will ever know are under the level, and when this pointed out to the government the answer is then move away from your home and family and go some where it is cheaper to live.

The only apartments I could rent on that penison would be about 10 by 10. Then I could not efford the power bills that go with it.