My wife and I have opted to live downtown so that we would never have an excuse not to attend the myriad festivals and events that our city has to offer. This weekend we took advantage of a number of the free ones.
• We started off at 4pm on Friday by biking to UTA Rideshare’s 14th Annual Bike Bonanza at the Gallivan Center.
• After filling up on free food we headed to the Living Tradition’s Festival and took in some music.
• On Saturday we went to the Utah Museum of Fine Art’s Third Saturday event.
• Sunday found us back to the Festival.
What is the Living Traditions Festival without the money to pay for food? We have grown accustomed to filling our bellies with the tasty treats that vendors have to offer. This year, we needed to consciously keep focusing our senses away from our taste buds and toward the rest of the Festival. And there was still certainly a lot to distract us, topping off the event with some dancing to Venezuela Cantando.
This city has a lot of free events to offer. (And other freebies as well… I’m sending this post from the downtown library’s free wireless.) It seems to me that we are taking advantage of them at a greater rate since the poverty project began. We are fortunate enough to live near many of these events that we can walk or ride bicycle to with ease. Without being centrally located, I’m sure that this project would be a far greater challenge.
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I am enjoying your views on your project. You seem seriously interested in the experience.
ReplyDeleteHave you gotten any resentful feedback from people living in real poverty with no end in sight?
Thank you for your efforts.
Thank you very much.
ReplyDeleteAbout resentful feedback, we thought long and hard about this very question before deciding to take on the project. We were concerned that people living in long-term poverty would be offended if we were going into this to “find out what it is really like.” We are the first to admit that we are nowhere near approximating what poverty is like. We are only constraining ourselves to a budgetary poverty with no real life changes except for cutting back on spending, cooking all of our meals from scratch, and keeping our car parked in the driveway for three weeks.
However, this exercise has given us some perspective about where much of the stress originates from out of this type of monetary limitation. We hope that we will retain this perspective going forward in our professional and personal lives and hope to pass it along to our daughter.
This experiment doesn't take into account the numerous federal, state, and private charity resources available to low-income people. An actual family living at 100% of the poverty level has much more available to them than you have allowed yourselves over these 3 weeks. And there are some other factors which you haven't taken into account.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, your earned income of $1056 over 3 weeks is the equivalent of one person working 40 hours per week at $8.80 per hour. That means one spouse works, and the other spouse stays home with your child, i.e. no childcare costs. Even if you were only making federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour and your wife were also working to bring in additional money, you wouldn't need to incur $487 in childcare costs unless she worked full-time. If you and your wife both worked full time at minimum wage, your household would be bringing in $1572 over 3 weeks, instead of $1056. That extra $500 would make a huge difference. But more likely, you'd be working for $8.80 per hour and your wife would stay home with your daughter. So you won't receive $268 for childcare subsidy, but you won't pay $487 in childcare costs either. So that means an extra $219 spending money for your household.
Next, you are eligible to receive the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). At your income of $18,310 per year for a family of 3, you'll receive about $2388 per year. EITC is a federal refundable tax credit. Your employer can add EITC right into your paycheck, or you can receive a lump sum after you file your taxes each April. EITC doesn't count as income when calculating the "poverty level." If you're getting it added into your regular paychecks, that's an extra $138 over 3 weeks.
And don't forget your refundable child tax credit of $1000 per year, which (if you didn't spend it all at once) gives you an extra $57 over 3 weeks.
You are also eligible for Section 8 housing, federal subsidized housing for low income people. With Section 8, you pay one-third of your income to rent, and the government pays your landlord the difference, up to fair market rate. So during the experiment period, you won't pay $636 toward rent. You'll pay one-third of $1056, which is $352. So put an extra $284 in your pocket.
The healthcare is going to be a bit tricky for you and your wife. But it is for many middle-income people in the USA too. At least now you've found some extra funds for your contact lenses, allergy medicine, etc.
So instead of an extra $11, you now have about $700 to spend during 3 weeks. You'll want to spend some of that on food; the S in SNAP stands for "supplemental" and it says right on the government website that most people have to spend some cash on food in addition to their food stamps. But that will still leave you a very decent amount left for necessities and small luxuries. (Maybe even a car.)
Some other potential ways to save a few bucks: Many utility and phone companies offer a discount to low-income people, around 15% or 20%. And your daughter might be eligible for WIC which would provide some free milk and other staples, and stretch your food budget even further. (Low income children under 5 are eligible if they have "nutrition risk" but caseworkers may be lenient about interpreting this.)
The idea that you might get some "resentful feedback" from "real poor people" is a bit amusing. It shows that you are compassionate to a fault, but it also shows that you don't have much contact with "real poor people" or you would be aware of all the programs they use. Virtually no one goes hungry in the USA, and if they do, they just need someone to help them learn to work the system.
Your 3 weeks are almost over; I hope you and your family enjoy an indulgent meal, and rest easy knowing that the vast majority of "real poor people" are eating and living a lot better than you have been.
Victoria Campbell