7 ms·

give $11,000 to each of the 62 million households in the u.s. making under $50,000. watch the ensuing chaos with glee.

potatolicious 18y ago
... Give $11,000 to each household making under $50,000, and you're in essence paying all of that towards households making over $50,000. Some people are poor because they're honestly down on their luck, and need a helping hand. The majority on the other hand are simply unemployable, or horrible with their finances. Give them a handout and the money will simply end up in richer people's hands. That's not helping them.
- nostrademons 18y ago
  However, if you gave $11K in seed capital to anyone making under $50k who has a viable plan for a business with the promise of a few hundred K more if they started showing traction, then you might shake things up a bit. ...wait, isn't that YCombinator?
  - steveplace 18y ago
    I don't think the yC model would scale up to 700B. I think it would be a great experiment, though.
    - MaysonL 18y ago
      Grameen bank?
- Retric 18y ago
  Hey, I was working with a college degree for 3 years before I broke 50k. At the time I was investing 8% of my income and I was still eating out all the time etc. I think the bar for poor needs to be a little lower than 50k/year.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 18y ago
    How many kids were you trying to support?
    - gambling8nt 18y ago
      Family size for $50k to qualify under the federally mandated definition of poverty is 12. In fact, $50k is approximately the median household income (for 2007), with mean household sizes in that income bracket at about 2.6.
  - sfamiliar 18y ago
    Is a collage degree made up of other degrees that are cut apart and then pasted back together to form pretty pictures? (couldn't resist). I wasn't shooting for the poor. I was shooting for a bunch of people. It's roughly half of the households in the country. That's a lot of liquid capital to inject into the economy at once -- around 5% of our GNP.
biohacker42 18y ago
$50K is a lot of money! Can any household still be considered poor with $49K a year?
- pwoods 18y ago
  Yeah it's a lot of money if your still living at home and paying no expenses. I make 120K a year and barely get by. It's all about the debt I'm afraid and the fact that prior to 2 years ago I was making on average 20-30k. My life sucks.
  - run4yourlives 18y ago
    I make 120K a year and barely get by American, meet the reason for your economic crisis.
    - nazgulnarsil 18y ago
      actually, people like him are good for the economy. all that money immediately returning to circulation is better than it being saved. the fact that he is mentally unfit for survival is another issue.
- potatolicious 18y ago
  Not that much. $50K after tax is what, $40K? Just a tad over? Rent? Food? That's all assuming you're young and single. Have kids? Good friggin' luck. You can't even afford a mortgage on $50K a year. I've got a $100K job offer pending my graduation, and even with that I still have to be aware of my budget to even save something.
  - run4yourlives 18y ago
    Stop buying so much shit.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
  - 18y ago

... Give $11,000 to each household making under $50,000, and you're in essence paying all of that towards households making over $50,000. Some people are poor because they're honestly down on their luck, and need a helping hand. The majority on the other hand are simply unemployable, or horrible with their finances. Give them a handout and the money will simply end up in richer people's hands. That's not helping them.

nostrademons 18y ago
However, if you gave $11K in seed capital to anyone making under $50k who has a viable plan for a business with the promise of a few hundred K more if they started showing traction, then you might shake things up a bit. ...wait, isn't that YCombinator?
- steveplace 18y ago
  I don't think the yC model would scale up to 700B. I think it would be a great experiment, though.
  - MaysonL 18y ago
    Grameen bank?
Retric 18y ago
Hey, I was working with a college degree for 3 years before I broke 50k. At the time I was investing 8% of my income and I was still eating out all the time etc. I think the bar for poor needs to be a little lower than 50k/year.
- HeyLaughingBoy 18y ago
  How many kids were you trying to support?
  - gambling8nt 18y ago
    Family size for $50k to qualify under the federally mandated definition of poverty is 12. In fact, $50k is approximately the median household income (for 2007), with mean household sizes in that income bracket at about 2.6.
- sfamiliar 18y ago
  Is a collage degree made up of other degrees that are cut apart and then pasted back together to form pretty pictures? (couldn't resist). I wasn't shooting for the poor. I was shooting for a bunch of people. It's roughly half of the households in the country. That's a lot of liquid capital to inject into the economy at once -- around 5% of our GNP.

biohacker42 18y ago

$50K is a lot of money! Can any household still be considered poor with $49K a year?

pwoods 18y ago
Yeah it's a lot of money if your still living at home and paying no expenses. I make 120K a year and barely get by. It's all about the debt I'm afraid and the fact that prior to 2 years ago I was making on average 20-30k. My life sucks.
- run4yourlives 18y ago
  I make 120K a year and barely get by American, meet the reason for your economic crisis.
  - nazgulnarsil 18y ago
    actually, people like him are good for the economy. all that money immediately returning to circulation is better than it being saved. the fact that he is mentally unfit for survival is another issue.
potatolicious 18y ago
Not that much. $50K after tax is what, $40K? Just a tad over? Rent? Food? That's all assuming you're young and single. Have kids? Good friggin' luck. You can't even afford a mortgage on $50K a year. I've got a $100K job offer pending my graduation, and even with that I still have to be aware of my budget to even save something.
- run4yourlives 18y ago
  Stop buying so much shit.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- 18y ago