John, John, John, John.
I think our discussions are always more interesting when we do our best to avoid statistical battles but when you throw out a whopper like you did in your last posting I?ve got to respond. To claim that nearly half of the poor own their own homes is absolute hogwash. I don?t know where the Heritage Foundation gets their number (46%), but my source (those crazy left-wing ideologues at the U.S. Census Bureau) report that in North Carolina only 69.4% of all households own their on home. The number of households below the poverty level owning their home is 7.5%. In the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill MSA the number is only 4.4%. I?ve got the paper in front of me and will post the link ASAP. Now remember this is the same group that you assail for saying that the number living in poverty is too high.
Now as for the actual living conditions of the poor, your contention that the average poor North Carolinian lives like the average middle-income European is just not credible ? unless, I suppose, you mean to include a couple of hundred million Russians. If you really believe this, I suggest we take a joint two-part joint fact finding mission ? first to Hoke or Halifax County and then to suburban Copenhagen or Milan. (Come to think of it, why don?t we divide that task up ? I volunteer for the second part). But if we?re gonna? do that, why not go ahead and compare ourselves to the rest of the world? Heck, at least Iraq is formulating a plan for universal health care.
Now, as for the tired old Cadillac welfare queen aspersion (that is, that all those sneaky po? folks are hiding vast amounts of underground income in order to get on the dole from Uncle Sam) you may want to recall the following:
? The average Work First (i.e. TANF) benefit in North Carolina is less than $300 per month, per family. This is a benefit that lasts a maximum of two years and includes a very seriously enforced work requirement.
? Huge numbers of hurting and needy people are not receiving ?free health care, free childcare, and free housing.? In North Carolina, 1 in 6 people lacks health insurance ? not because of choice, but because they simply can?t afford it. The waiting list for childcare subsidies is over 25,000 long. Food stamps are badly underutilized because of burdensome and punitive rules. The waiting list for Section 8 housing is as long as your arm.
Finally, while I agree that our safety net should not be designed to snare people into poverty ? here I believe your colleague Mike Walden has discussed the intriguing idea of a ?negative income tax? (something akin, I think, to Nixon?s guaranteed minimum income), you really can rest assured that North Carolina?s pitiful public assistance system is not luring vast throngs into a life of carefree sloth. Moreover, when we do assure all working people of a decent income, we do an incredible service to their children by helping to give them a decent diet, health care and living conditions ? three badly, under-identified, but necessary, precursors to a sound basic education.
