Mon(k)eys for nothing and the Chimps for free...

After doing the random lives economic exercise in class, I have realized that making ends meet for a family isn’t as easy as I had originally thought. Before doing this project, I assumed that the average American salary for a family of four would have no problem balancing a monthly budget. Boy was I wrong. The mean US (married family of four) income is $68K. This should be enough to support four people, right? A monthly paycheck for this would be about $5,700 before taxes. According to http://www.paycheckcity.com/netpaycalc/netpaycalculator.asp, add up to be around $1,150, making each paycheck come out to be about $4,550. Now, with major expenses of a mortgage, food, utilities, car payments and daycare, there’s not much money left over for other expenses such as clothing, entertainment, college funds, retirement funds and any withstanding loans. In my case, I was able to give myself room to breathe by eliminating daycare costs because I know my family would be able to watch my kids when I need them to because there are so many members of my family and they are all incredibly helpful. I know, however, that everyone isn’t as lucky as me, so I can see how this can get tough. Mind you, we’re still dealing with an average salary. What if we went to the median salary, which is only $50K, or to someone working minimum wage for 40 hours a week? You can imagine how difficult it would be to live off of this.

How can the U.S. help in these situations? There can be anywhere from a socialist “equal shares” approach to a laissez-faire “hands-off” view. The U.S. currently uses “safety net” programs to give aid to those who need it, such as welfare, Medicaid and food stamps. “Overall, the typical American defined as poor by the government has a car, air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave.” (http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/bg2064.cfm) This shows that to be defined ‘poor’ you don’t have to be living as terrible a life as many presume. I think that this definition needs to be stricter so less money needs to be put into the welfare budget and therefore taxes can be lowered. The welfare system is over-used and corrupted by Americans who would be able to support themselves, but choose not to. Instead, welfare should be given to those who lose their jobs and are in situations where the person cannot recover without outside help.

Additional sources:
http://www.newstrategist.com/productdetails/Spend10pages.pdf