We can't give the poor tax breaks because, mostly, they don't pay taxes. The bottom 50% of tax payers account for 3% of income taxes[1]. Of course, there are

We can't give the poor tax breaks because, mostly, they don't pay taxes. The bottom 50% of tax payers account for 3% of income taxes[1]. Of course, there are other taxes like payroll, corporate income, and excise taxes - but I'd guess that the genuinely poor, say the bottom 5% or so, aren't paying much corporate income or payroll taxes either. This doesn't account for state or sales taxes, but according to this calculator[2] a single person making 12k a year would pay 72 dollars in state taxes in California. You can get free health insurance if you're poor. You can get free food. You can get free shelter. You can get free education, including higher education. Being poor is, of course, no picnic, I'm not trying to say it isn't bad, but I think your post minimizes the extent to which our society offers opportunities to the poor. I think it's much to worse to say "Okay poor people, you can steal, no consequences" and then step back and let a relatively small number of thieves destroy local businesses. Jobs, stores, wealthier law abiding citizens go away and now you've trapped the remaining poor in a much worse place to live - but hey, at least you didn't punish thieves for committing crimes, right? 1- https://taxfoundation.org/summary-of-the-latest-federal-income-tax-data-2020-update/ https://taxfoundation.org/summary-of-the-latest-federal-inco... 2- https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator https://smartasset.com/taxes/california-tax-calculator