Work for Rich and Poor

                Most people have heard the statement that if one repeats a lie often enough and for long enough, people will believe it.  Obviously, Barack Obama believes it.  He repeats lie after lie.  The latest repeated by Mr. Obama is that poor people work just as hard as rich people.

                Stephen Moore of The Heritage Foundation addressed this particular lie:  “… But he continues to repeat a falsehood over and over.  This is the claim that the poor work just as hard as the rich do.  Well, yes, many people in poor households heroically work very hard at low wages to take care of their families.  No doubt about that.  Yet the average poor family doesn’t work nearly as much as the rich families do.  And that’s a key reason why these households are poor.

                “The most recent Census Bureau data on household incomes document the importance of work.  Census sorts the households by income quintile, and we will label those in the highest quintile as `rich,’ and those in the lowest quintile as `poor.’  The average household in the top 20 percent of income have an average of almost exactly two full-time workers.  The average poor family (bottom 20 percent) has just 0.4 workers.  This means on average, roughly for every hour worked by those in a poor household, those in a rich household work five hours.  The idea that the rich are idle bondholders who play golf or go to the spa every day while the poor toil isn’t accurate.

                “The finding that six out of 10 poor households have no one working at all is disturbing.  Since they have no income from work, is it a surprise they are poor?

                “As for rich households, 75 percent have two or more workers.  For the poor households, that percent is less than 5 percent.”

                Moore continues his article by explaining that hours worked does not “account for all or even most of the gap between rich and poor” but does account for some of it.  Other things affecting the gap is marriage:  (1) getting married before having children and (2) staying married to assure there are both a father and a mother in the home.  He also states that America has too many working poor, a problem that should be addressed, but the bigger problem is too many non-working poor in America. 

                So, according to Moore – and I agree – there are several things we can do to help the poor in our nation:  (1) Stop telling lies about the poor, (2) encourage marriage before children as well as staying married, (3) encouraging poor people to work for what they get, (4) help the poor who are willing to work with tax credits, etc.