What Makes Being Poor in The United States Suck?

[johnsobas]

sc94597 said:

AlfredoTurkey said:
Why does it suck? Because it's a country which says basically "float to the top or sink bitch". You're on your own. Either you are lucky and born into wealth or you are lucky and are born with the genetic makeup to go from rags to riches. If you don't belong to either of those two groups, you're fucked because the social services are GARBAGE. No health insurance, no funded education without debt... it's all non existent.

I've said this for the last 10 years. If you're rich, the US is heaven on earth. If you're poor? Pure hell. You might as well move away to some European country where the government actually takes CARE of you.

I think the bolded is insulting. People who come from poor families in the U.S who later are successful aren't solely successful because of their genetics. It is also how they learned to succeed from their environment. 

Also I already explained  that you do get health-insurance, funded education, housing and food  if you are poor enough. In Pennsylvania if you make less than $1,300/month (if single, more if you have children) you get medicaid. If you make less than $1,500/month you get food stamps, more if you have children. The federal and state government give just as many grants as they do loans, and if you go to a private school you are likely to get financial aid, because these schools want to compete with the cost of community colleges. 

I can tell you, I did not grow up in hell, nor did any of the other successful poor kids in my apartment building. Both are graduating from college this year, and the one almost failed a grade in high school, now he is graduating college with A's and B's. So he wasn't genetically special either. 

i just qualified for medicaid this year, i never thought i'd be on it but with the expansion of medicaid it's easy to qualify, honestly too easy.  I will say i'm surprised i qualify because i really don't consider myself poor.  If you make less than 39,500 you can qualify with 1 child.  The thing about that 39,500 number is you can deduct so many things to reach that number.  Do you know how much money i save by having to only pay $88 a month total premium for the 3 of us and $2 deductible?  It's insane, then i realized that i would also qualify for the earned income tax credit because they are about the same level.  Tax rate is generally lower and there are other deductions i can get because of it.  It saves me probably 10k+ in after tax money.  If you get near there just drop 10k into your retirement to qualify because it's better to pay the 10k to your future than the 10k to medical bills. I didn't realize how good it was to be in this income range until i happened to drop into it because my wife stopped working because of pregnancy, it's tempting to stay there but I don't want to be one of those guys that milks the system.