![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
m_d_hMore than 4 billion people live on less than $5 per day. That's most of the human population.
For a moment I had the most right-wing of thoughts, "How can they be both poor and still alive?"
Then, "What even is poverty?"
Of course the definition of poverty is relative and arbitrary. The official US formula for the poverty line hasn't been updated since the 1960s, which is a pet peeve of mine that I bring up occasionally in my LJ. The Obama administration was experimenting with an updated measure, but Trump didn't care. So, my official stance is that we don't even know how many people live in poverty in the US.
Nearly 10 million households in the US are behind on their rent payments, I'd count that as poverty. 43 million people receive food stamps in the US, I'd count that as poverty.
I've never been dependent on federal aid for my breakfast, have never missed a rent or mortgage payment. Personally, I don't know what poverty is. I was a little short on money during college at one point, so my roommate lent me some cash for food, but he assumed I'd pay him back eventually, because my family was upper-middle class. I think my brother lent me some cash at one point also during my 20s, but I paid him back with interest. It's been a long time since I needed that kind of help. Nowadays I keep a cash cushion, one that was large enough to absorb our basement upgrade, and I've already rebuilt it, so I'm starting to spend more again.
Humans don't automatically take care of each other, this is clear. If I were King of the World I would enact a worldwide universal basic income at 50% of per capita global GDP -- this would be about $5,000 per person. Anybody whose family/household income was below $5,000/person would receive a monthly support payment to bring them up to that level. No matter where they lived. For some countries, this would boost their total spending power by 10x.
The policies I would advocate are so far from the median political attitude that I cannot even vote for them. I bet nobody running for Governor in Maryland next year will advocate a state-wide UBI of $5,000/person. Perhaps after I retire, when the Hatch Act no longer limits my political activity, I will run for office on my Impossible Dreams platform. That should be the name of my new political party! Impossible Dreams!
For a moment I had the most right-wing of thoughts, "How can they be both poor and still alive?"
Then, "What even is poverty?"
Of course the definition of poverty is relative and arbitrary. The official US formula for the poverty line hasn't been updated since the 1960s, which is a pet peeve of mine that I bring up occasionally in my LJ. The Obama administration was experimenting with an updated measure, but Trump didn't care. So, my official stance is that we don't even know how many people live in poverty in the US.
Nearly 10 million households in the US are behind on their rent payments, I'd count that as poverty. 43 million people receive food stamps in the US, I'd count that as poverty.
I've never been dependent on federal aid for my breakfast, have never missed a rent or mortgage payment. Personally, I don't know what poverty is. I was a little short on money during college at one point, so my roommate lent me some cash for food, but he assumed I'd pay him back eventually, because my family was upper-middle class. I think my brother lent me some cash at one point also during my 20s, but I paid him back with interest. It's been a long time since I needed that kind of help. Nowadays I keep a cash cushion, one that was large enough to absorb our basement upgrade, and I've already rebuilt it, so I'm starting to spend more again.
Humans don't automatically take care of each other, this is clear. If I were King of the World I would enact a worldwide universal basic income at 50% of per capita global GDP -- this would be about $5,000 per person. Anybody whose family/household income was below $5,000/person would receive a monthly support payment to bring them up to that level. No matter where they lived. For some countries, this would boost their total spending power by 10x.
The policies I would advocate are so far from the median political attitude that I cannot even vote for them. I bet nobody running for Governor in Maryland next year will advocate a state-wide UBI of $5,000/person. Perhaps after I retire, when the Hatch Act no longer limits my political activity, I will run for office on my Impossible Dreams platform. That should be the name of my new political party! Impossible Dreams!