Change Your World Week Winter 2021 (Archived)

Poverty has been an everlasting issue within America. Being considered "poor" in America is when people or families lack to the proper resources economically to experience the minimum basic standard of living. Living below the standard is already difficult but take into consideration the influence a pandemic may have. Since the pandemic that really hit the U.S. in March of 2020 there has been a greater increase. Per data provide by Forbes, from July 2020 to November 2020 the poverty rate in America increased 2.5%. 

Lets take a look at why many people in our nation are faced with this pressing issue. An individual can work full time at a minimum wage job, not qualify for benefits, but lose half of their income to taxes. It is an endless cycle. Working families are running dry on pay day due to income tax and paying into the governing system and the benefits like food stamps, underemployment, or other family assistance options. Meanwhile these families or individuals are not able to receive from a system they pour into. 

The question all of us should be asking is: "How can we make this better".

Poverty in Michigan

Current estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau put Michigan’s Poverty Level at around 13% of the population, as of 2019. This means out of the 9.7 million residents in Michigan, nearly 1.3 million live in poverty.

Poverty by the Numbers

• 371,000 – under 18 years of age
• 753,000 – between 18-64 years of age
• 144,000 – over 65 years of age

Poverty is a problem growing in complexity, if not size. While Michigan has made strides in reducing poverty, having lowered poverty by a quarter between 2011-2019, there remains a gap. Michigan’s poverty rate remains marginally higher overall, and in key areas, such as 18-34 years old and under 5 years old.

Current estimates also do not include the continuing economic impact of the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic and subsequent economic shutdowns.

Policy Solutions

While solving poverty can require ever growing solutions and ideas, the infrastructure needed to successfully target poverty already exists: the tax system. Tax deductions and tax credits are proven, effective and economically sound methods of targeting poverty.

Various tax programs have been utilized inside the United States, on federal and state levels, and some have already been implemented within Michigan.

Programs such as a Child Tax Credit have been used at the federal level, and a Home Heating Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit have been used to target those in poverty.

Unfortunately, the credits have lagged the growing cost of living and increases in wages. As wages have steadily increased, as well as the Michigan minimum wage, workers have been slowly leaving the eligibility range of these programs. Low Income earners (100%-200% of the federal poverty level) now largely do not fall within the income limits to qualify for these credits.

Currently, a Single full-time worker making the state minimum wage of $9.65/hour nets roughly $20,000 a year. At current levels, would not qualify for any tax relief.

Our Proposals:

• Increasing the Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit federal match (currently 6%) and expanding income limits to include workers making 150% the federal poverty level.
• Expand the Home Heating Credit to include workers making 150% of the federal poverty level

For some people in America, poverty is not a personal choice, but it’s a reflection on society. In some people’s opinion, the poor and minorities need to make better choices like working hard, staying in school, get married, do not have children before they can afford them. If they did all of this, they wouldn’t be poor and in poverty. Housing Secretary Ben Caron called poverty “a state of mind.” If poverty was “a state of mind” we wouldn’t have people in poverty.

Many Americans view as poverty as an individual phenomenon and say that it’s primarily they own fault that people are poor. The alternative view is that poverty is a structural phenomenon. From this viewpoint, people are in poverty because they find themselves in holes in the economic system that delivers them not enough income. People move in and out of poverty. Research has shown for a 50 years longitudinal study of 18,000 Americans, has shown that around four and ten adults experience an entire year of poverty from the ages of 25 to 60.

Criticism of the poor is a belief that there are “plenty of jobs available for poor people,” that government programs breed dependency and that most poor people would “prefer to stay on welfare” is especially common among the blue-collar, white Americans who have given the strongest support to Donald Trump. Roughly a third of self-described conservatives say that the poor do not work very hard, a view at odds with big majorities of moderates and liberals. Roughly a third of self-described conservatives say that the poor do not work very hard, a view at odds with big majorities of moderates and liberals.  

About one-third of Americans said that government programs had made poverty worse, a view that was particularly common among conservatives, 47% and blue-collar whites, 42%. A majority of whites see government antipoverty efforts contributing to poverty’s permanence, saying that benefit programs “make poor people dependent and encourage them to stay poor.” Minorities disagreed, saying that the government help mostly allows poor people to “stand on their own two feet and get started again.” The poor themselves divided evenly on the question. The government programs are created to help people in poverty not to encourage them to want to stay poor.

We have included a letter you can send to your State House Representatives and State Senators to inform them of the problem, and offer a policy solution to the issue. 

For this letter, you will need to determine who your State Representatives and Senators are. The links following will direct you to district maps of both the House and Senate. 

House District Map

Senate District Map

After finding your district, you can use the following links to find your Representative and Senator's contact information. 

House Representative Directory 

Senate Directory
 

The majority of you will be within a few districts close to Delta College. Those close districts are listed below. 

The attached letter is prewritten and addresses the concerned laid out in this webpage. If you would like to send it, fill in your lawmaker's information and your information.