Are there any official sources for that number? All I've ever been able to find are articles like this one: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Nearly-half-of-US-hou

Are there any official sources for that number? All I've ever been able to find are articles like this one: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Nearly-half-of-US-households-apf-1105567323.html?x=0 http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Nearly-half-of-US-households-a... where everything is "according to projections by the Tax Policy Center" or similar groups. And, the explanations given in that article are less than compelling to me. For example, they focus heavily on the "family of four making as much as $50,000 [with] two children younger than 17". I'm a little skeptical that such families actually make up 50% of US households. (Just consider that you'll pay taxes for 50 or 60 years, but if you have 2 children, you can only be in this category for 15 years or so.) They are also throwing in stuff like credits for "buying a new home and upgrading an existing home with energy-efficient doors, windows, furnaces and other appliances". But, again, there's not that many new houses bought, and the people buying them are mostly not families of 4 making under $50K. Nor are those families running out to spend thousands, or tens of thousands, of dollars on home upgrades. Finally, this argument also ignores the fact that most of the social safety net programs are paid for from payroll taxes, not income taxes.