ideas to improve the standard of living for those earning under $18,000 in the U.S.?

18,000 would be a liveable wage if not for many factors. Enough factors that everyone in that wage range is ensnared in at least a few. Lets start with the people who make less than 18k a year. 18k in California is not the same as 18k in Kansas which is not the same as 18k in Florida. The cost of living varies dramatically from state to state and also tends to be higher the more urban an area is. The big cities in the big taxation states tend to have the highest costs of living in the US. In those cities they get a double whammy. 18k a year is not a livable wage in most of the country. It is just a matter of degree in the hardship, not whether or not people experience hardship.

Retirees, people on disability and other fixed incomes rarely exceed 18k a year unless they have a job and or other retirement benefits besides Gov funding.

The working poor. Typically single income families working blue collar, entry level white collar, low rung trades, manual labor, retail and many other industries. Many factory workers make a pittance and unions would just remove the job rather than raise the pay.

The unemployed. In todays employer's market the unemployed are often able to find just enough work to stave off total catastrophe but rarely find work before unemployment benefits are exhausted. Unemployment benefits are in I believe all states far less than poverty level for the max benefit rate.

Young people fresh in the job market. Often they take any work that will give them experience. Without experience there is no hope of breaking into their chosen field. Students are in a worse boat. Often students make less than 18k and have to pay higher education costs on top of living expenses. Many H1 Visa employees also fall in this category. For them 18k is a fortune in the home country. Every penny they can save will be exponentially give them a better standard of living at home when they return.

Immigrants often find the first several years in this country to be difficult. Illegal immigrants even more so. Few make more than 18k a year.

The mentally ill. At least a majority of seriously mentally ill people in this country do not have the faculties nor the support to get help of any sort. What programs and charities exist are constantly swamped. A large portion of the homeless could not hold a job if they did everything in their power to do so. Some might be able to return to a mostly normal life if they were able to get and stay on appropriate medications. Many mental illness's by definition are non-compliant in taking medications. Many medications have severe side effects which cause non-compliance. When not on medication they slide or in some cases dive into states which prevent positive interactions with other people and in more severe cases these people become threats to property and others. An example the guy in New York City who pushed a woman to her death in the subway a few years back.

There are more groups but I think you get the idea. There is no one solution as there are so many people who live below poverty levels for so many reasons. Some of these groups have benefits which give a little compensation such as health care and food supplements. Some groups even get housing allowances/help.

To survive people who make sub-poverty level wages have to be resourcefull. Housing is one of the most expensive costs and by rooming the costs are slashed. Often large groups of people will live under the same roof to reduce expenses. Bicycles are the new mode of transportation for the poor in areas where public transportation is unavailable or too expensive. Some charities will help with utilities and food. A tiny percentage of medical clinics will work with uninsured people and reduce the costs for low income recipients. Some areas have blanket medical coverage for the poor. Still medical costs are an almost universal problem for people living below the poverty line. Whether it be a retiree with prescription costs that exceed or are not covered by Medicaid to the working poor who cannot afford insurance or work where insurance is not available. Even a simple $10 co-pay can be daunting when you make less than 18k a year.

The poor buy in bulk. They cook more, eat out rarely. Entertainment is a luxury many do without. The poor drive ancient cars which often carry crippling repair costs. The poor are exposed to toxic chemicals more often as they are more likely to live and work in dangerous areas. The hammer of crime falls heaviest on the poor, who are ironically the ones least able to afford losses. The poor often cut corners by not insuring vehicles, homes and deffinitely not property. When they have insurance it is the least they can legally get away with and often out of date as they are unable to pay the bill when it comes due. Mostly the poor do without things treated as normal or even essential by more affluent people. Some live without electricity or hot water during certain times of the year.

To survive being poor you have to be carefull not to live/move through law enforcement hot zones. Being poor means trouble with the law. It is the poor who cannot afford insurance, who drive with expired tags, inspection stickers and bald tires. It is the poor who cannot afford to pay tickets. While it is possible to avoid some tickets such as speeding tickets, if you drive through the wrong areas driving with the flow of traffic makes you vulnerable to such a ticket. Not driving with the flow of traffic makes you a hazard to traffic and attracts the notice of law enforcement who will think you are driving so carefully because you have something to hide. Once you get a ticket and cannot pay a vicious cycle starts that often leads to losing everything. Poorer areas tend to be hotbeds of crime and drugs. They also are areas where people are less likely to be aware of their rights and have the means to redress any violations of those rights. So the poor are ideal targets for law enforcement agencies. Tickets do not get overturned by the poor. Arrests stick. Violations are easy to find. Ticket quotas are easily met.

The cycle of poverty is a truly vicious one in the US. Whole industries prey on them. Taxes and regulations hit them the hardest. Often they are ineligible for benefits of any sort from the Gov or any charitable help. Higher education is not even a wisp of a dream unless they can find a scholarship for which they qualify. So a person of the right ethnic background, sex and who lives in the right region with an interest in the correct discipline might find a scholarship but they rarely have the resources to even look much less scour the offerings. If they do find one typically they will be competing with dozens or hundreds of others for the same scarce offerings.

What we can do to open doors and ease the hardships associated with poverty is quite a bit. The first thing is to repeal repressive taxes. Gasoline taxes, cigarette taxes, employment taxes and such. These hit the poor disproportionately. Smoking rates have declined significantly among the affluent while staying roughly the same or increasing for lower income brackets. So cigarette taxes hit those least able to afford them. To make matters worse, attempting to quit smoking during financial crisis is to make a difficult task nearly impossible. The working poor is especially hard hit by gas taxes. They are the most likely to have to commute to work. Construction workers, janitors, food service workers and such need what work exists. This work is rarely in the neighborhoods in which the poor can afford to live. Even in areas with well developed mass transit. People need to drive to attend functions, schools, move and many other reasons. The spat of emissions requirements is killing the poor. The poor drive older and cast off vehicles. The same vehicles who cannot pass emissions tests. There are better ways to reduce emissions. What emissions testing does is prevents poor drivers from either driving or adds expenses to people who cannot afford them to start with. Tickets, increased vehicle inspection fees. Maintenance increases. For many poor it is the choice of eventually going to jail or not working at all. For most living in poverty it is a life of rotating bills and paying the least amount which will result in something getting shut off or repossessed.

Another repressive measure is late fees. There are affluent customers of utilities, credit cards and other bills who forget to pay bills, get fiscally tied up occasionally or are otherwise late. The chronically late are usually the poor who really cannot afford to pay the bills. They juggle them till eventually it comes apart. Apartments, utilities and other such entities make a fortune preying on the poor with late fees. It is a slap in the face to somebody who could not afford the original bill much less the new bill with a $30 or more late fee. Some apartment complexes have Gestapo like attitudes with compound late fees. Late a few days and the late fees can become a substantial portion of the costs of living. Same with utilities. Banning the use of late fees or at least significantly curbing them would do more to help the poor than a hundred health care plans. Late fees eat the poor alive. Think about this example. Somebody taking home say $1,000 a month. They have typically 4-6 bills which incur an average of $25 late fees a month. That is %10 or more of their income each month going to late fees.

Lending institutions, insurance scams, mortgage companies, check cashing agencies and a host of other entities have grown up to feed off the poor and desperate. Some mortgage companies love to use variable rate mortgages as a hook. Without one it is apartment living with it's own set of expenses. With a variable rate mortgage, one day the piper comes to visit and the results are not pretty. Basically the scam is lend money to somebody who is desperate. Charge late fees, inspection fees and a host of other costs. Closing costs already sucked the lender dry to start with. Once the lendee is unable to pay then repossess or forclosure ensues. The lendee's credit is further destroyed thus making them easier prey for other institutions like this. For example if your credit rating drops to a certain point you cannot even open a bank account. Without a bank account you are forced to use check cashing agencies in many cases. So your $1,000 take home is reduced further. Insurance costs, especially in large metro areas can be just plain unaffordable for the poor. Many of these areas legally require insurance. With the major companies priced out of reach scam insurance companies will give you a piece of paper that can get your car registered. They will also deluge you with a host of expenses. Late fees, up front costs for reinstatement, refusal to pay on claims if needed and so on. No region or area should ever legally mandate insurance without providing an affordable alternate.

Health insurance and Gov health programs like medicare crush the poor. The working poor cannot afford insurance. If they can it is typically a plan that cuts corners. Lots of them, sometimes to the point that having a given plan is occasionally fatal as standard care is not allowed by plan, nor are the Doctor's treating the patient allowed to even inform the patient of the standard treatment for a given condition. What is the biggest problem is insurance exponentially increases the cost of health care. A normal doctor's office will have insurance as much as a third or more of it's operation expenses. It is not unusual to have at least one dedicated clerk that does nothing but deal with insurance claims. Postage, phone/fax costs, paperwork, interest accrued on debts while waiting sometimes over a year before receiving payment from the Gov or an insurance company. Time spent by the owners dealing with insurance snarls. Then there are the claims which are never paid. Normal operating procedures with many insurance agencies and even the Gov is to not pay the full costs. It is also I have heard illegal to charge less for cash pay customers. Cash pay is more likely to be the poor. So if a medical facility wants to make it's expenses and profit everybody pays exaggerated fees. This is a problem that feeds itself. Insurance companies watching their own profit margins cut more corners, which cause medical facilities to react and so on. Those hit hardest are the poor in this inflationary spiral. It would cut most peoples health care costs by at least a third if health insurance for non-catastrophic illness was banned.

Law suits are another major problem. One the poor have brought upon themselves for the most part. Many poor looking to get quick money will sue at the drop of a hat. This raises the costs for everybody, which of course hurts the poor the most. Who then become poorer and more susceptible to ambulance chasers and to quick money schemes. Reforms in this area have done little to help. They have actually aggravated the problem. Caps are often less than the cost of care for a seriously injured person for example doomed to a life of exorbitant medical costs. Somebody has to pay those costs one way or another. If it was truly a case of negligence by an employer for example. Then why cap the costs with a monetary amount? Why not just make them responsible for the bills and possibly a capped punitive award for example? If not the employer then we all pay. Frivolous law suits on the other hand are still just as lucrative as ever. Deep pocketed corporations will settle rather than go to court as it is just plain less expensive. The profit margin is not going to go down, the costs are just passed on to the consumer. A third way this hurts is many potential benefits for the poor have been removed because of the fear of of a lawsuit. A fast food place for example worried that leftover food might get them sued will instead throw the food away. Food that could have gone to a homeless shelter or people living under the poverty line. Medical providers, grocery stores and a host of other businesses which might have helped in the past have been forced to not do so for fear of a spurious law suit.

Jobs and education are of course the best ways to fight poverty. Immigration legal or illegal has become a serious problem in this country. A more serious problem is outsourcing. Plain and simple a service based economy is another way of spelling third world nation. If you do not produce a goods of some sort then you will be at the whims of other countries citzens who do produce goods. Industry after industry has fallen prey to this as factories and facilities are moved overseas. Greedy CEOs and short sighted unions have been the main factor in driving US jobs overseas. The IT industry is being shredded in the US by outsourcing. The ripple effect is coming soon as service and trades who depended on IT worker as a significant portion of their clientele will no longer have that revenue. This of course will mean fewer jobs in other service industries, which spreads like a chain reaction. So the penny saved this quarter will cost a company tens of thousands five years down the road or even might doom the company. Shareholders and the board see only the bottom line from quarter to quarter and this short sightedness has been crippling our economy for years.

Raising the minim wage is worthless in trying to help the poor. It costs jobs at best and causes inflation. Workers that once made decent livable wages are eventually swallowed by the minim wage increases as their wages increase slower than the increases in the minim wage. This creates yet another group of poor making minium wage. That is why paramedics, soldiers and many other proffessions are now living below the poverty level. Taxation is brutal to the poor. Even if they are exempt from income tax other taxes affect them greatly. Employer taxes for example discourage jobs. Jobs that are desperately needed. They also reduce the wages an employer can pay. The best way to increase wages is to create an employee's market. Where instead of a glut of job seekers you have a glut of jobs. This makes it good business sense to increase wages, benefits and improve job conditions and employers will do so willingly.

Ending ticket quotas would be something which helped the poor greatly. Tickets for non-compliance should be handled differently. A means of working off debts rather than jailing offenders should be created. A means of avoiding the offense such as insurance and inspection stickers likewise would go a long ways. Employment taxes should be banned.

It is impossible to significantly raise the standard of living of someone making under $18,000.

First assumption: $18,000 will remain the REAL wage.

If you DOUBLE or TRIPLE the minimum wage (as has been suggested), the only direct result would be rampant inflation.

Wages are based on productivity.

No matter how much you numerically increase the wage, someone working an $18,000 a year job will not be able to afford more or improve their standard of living (through increased consumption)- as someone else mentioned, costs would rise through inflation, leaving the person back at square one.

Assumption 2: US is a high-technology (and as such, capital and technology intensive) economy.

This means that education is of primary importance in the US economy in order to succeed. Education reforms COULD be enacted, but in the end, the person making $18,000 a year still will be.

Why? Because even in a high-technology economy, it is necessary for low-skill (and thus low pay) positions such as those required in the service or labor industries.

Only possible solution?

If raising the standard of living for the poorest (what, 20%?) of the population, it would be necessary for the Government to implement social programs (such as free healthcare, training, free child care, meal subsidies, etc.). Of course, to implement these programs it would be necessary to raise the funds by increasing the taxation of the wealthier segment of the population. While at first this may seem like a reasonable solution, the fact is that if they are taxed too high, they will leave the country, taking their capital (and investment) with them. Since the richest 2% of the population is responsible for an outrageous (I think 20% if not more) amount of the economic activity in a country (direct and indirect), if these people were to leave, the resulting shock to the economy would make everyone worse off.

So here's the final answer for you: There is no way to improve the standard of living for those earning under $18,000 in the US.

Not popular answer I know, but (from an economics standpoint) true.

The ONLY possible way to ACROSS THE BOARD raise the standard of living is to INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY, which requires government investment in R&D etc. But even this requires lots of time and money, and probably would take a while to trickle down to the poorest segments of the population.

I think raising min wage wont help, it will just drive costs and expenses upward. A person would make more money, but everything will have higher costs, it does not change the conditions, just the numbers. Also Driving up minimum wage does nothing for workers in the work force with several years into a job that are around minimum wage, except effectively eliminate their previous raises for service and performance. For instance a CNA with 6 years experience, you raise the start wages of a less experienced new worker and it is an effective slap in the face for the current work force.

One thing that would help is to have insurance pools based on occupation that would allow every worker to provide family coverage.Every child enrolled in school should have full medical coverage, as should their household. Dental coeverage should be viewed as medical coverage and broken into medical need and cosmetic as medical coverage is. Public aid programs cut off a a set income level but it is below where may can manage to fill the needs of the family. Realize that families in poverty will still have back payments and such obligations to meet. It would be better to have these limits taper off as the family income approaches livable wages not poverty level. This rewards workers that improve their skills and their income. It also tends to produce an environment where the nuclear family or extended family can remain a whole. Unfortunately our support system benifits broken families. single parent households do need help, but should not have to choose between having 2 parents or working adults and the help they need to raise children.

You are right, I think many families are just one major event from devestation. Provide reasonable housing, health care and education for all our citizens and i think the $18, 000 level of concern is still too low.

Gov't should offer taxation reprieve for those individuals earning less than $25,000 per year. Assistance programs should be offered to those persons, especially with medical costs, transportation and childcare costs. The rich should definitely be taxed more to cover the difference. Those earning $10mil and more per year could definitely stand to pay a bit extra. It is a shame that in this country the people who are the frontline of defense and help (Paramedics, Police Officers) are those who get the least money and the least recognition. I think Police Officers and Paramedics should be paid way more than what they are now. If I am having a heart attack at home, no doctor is going to come and save me. The first to arrive will be a Paramedic. Yet they do not receive the same respect. Sad.

Raising the minimum wage will not help. The effect will be inflation. Small businesses and larger ones, too, will raise prices to cover the pay increase. Housing and medical subsidies will be a good start to a long-term solution.

Colosalis: You should not have even answered this question. Your solution is not only unrealistic, but ridiculous. If a person is making <$18,000 per year, they are bringing home a pay of about $1000 per month after taxes, Social Security, Etc. If $500 is going on rent, $100 on electricity and water, $20 on phone, $150 on heating costs, 300 on transportation (modest car note and insurance), that leaves them with $230 per month. If they have children, they have to purchase food, clothes, toiletries and if one of the children happens to get sick, then it's all over. Let's look outside the box, shall we?

Move from the urban to the rural areas of the country. There has been a population boom in major cities and certain regions of the country, most notably the southwest. The boom was partly caused by those going to big cities to find work, while the migration to the southwest is caused in part by retirees. Unfortunately moing to a rural area is tough. Many folks who live there have had families living there for generations. For intransigence to move into an area without knowing anyone could be a lonely experience. Yet rent, food, and taxes are cheaper. The salaries, however, are lower. Corporate america have opened up industries in these areas because of the cheaper production costs and that has helped the local economy. Also a lot of immigrants from third world counties, Mexico, and central America have entered. They except low wages and work hard. They survive because they don't feel uncomfortable about a lot of folks living in the same dwelling. Their standard of living is abominable compared to middle class surbanites, but compared to their homeland living below the standard of living in the USA is still better.

The simple fact is some people think that if you earn under a certian amount... your lazy... period... these people are the children of the rich... and have no idea what real work is.. or what being poor is...

and other countries have much lower standards of living... come on people... those stats mean nothing...

The other simple fact is... NOBODY works 1,000 times harder than anyone else... NOBODY... yet many in the top one percent get paid 1,000 times more than others... it's a simple manipulation by the upper class that is getting overpaid and cuts wages to the lower workers to make up for it...

and if you know those who make 1,000 times more than others, like I do, you know that they take off early on Fridays to go golfing, get a month of vactaion a year, and they work, but no harder than anyone else, and in most cases, not as hard... it's more about being the son of the bosses frat buddy in college... not your GPA or how smart you are..

so... we have a situation where the poor and underpaid are becoming a larger and larger majority... and not only are they becoming a majority, but they own guns....

couple that with MAJORLY RISING health care costs and overall inflation (gas, food, education)... and a government that clearly doesn't support them and cuts funds to the poor and cuts education funding, so only the top one percent smartest of the poor can get a scholarship and can afford college...

and coulpe that with the birth rate of the poor being higher than that of the rich....

It's not looking pretty... and about 60 percent of the population knows this... soon it's going to be 70 percent, then 80 percent... then what... I don't know...

The basic problem is that with women in the workforce we have become dependent on two person income. This causes increased demand for goods and causes inflation. The breakup of the traditional 2 parent home due in large part to unreasonable and unconstitutional decisions by the Supreme Court and by woman's lib which is really woman's slavery has resulted in many single parent homes. There is no easy answer to this. Here we have a food bank run by a local church with help by other churches and organizations. Child care is a problem as it's illegal to leave a child under 13 alone in this state. Ironically some 12yr olds do babysitting. Also another church does have a preschool with lower cost then a commercial day care. As for health care this state has a Basic Health plan. (Most Wallmart employees are on it). It is income based. Also there are clinics providing low cost or free care also on a sliding scale. The same with hospitals. They wrote of an ER bill for my dad. But the doctors are now contracted so the person does have to pay them. Health care cost is really overrated with people going to ER for minor scraps and scratches that really don't need a doctor.

You've got it all right. I do not know. This country is messed up and only is out for #1. Notice the people making these laws are not in the same income level as the majority. Personally, I am recovering from a terrible illness(3 years now) and have lived on disability without dental or medical benefits. They say the government helps you, but why do I still have so many medical bills and my prescription costs are way over what I get per month. It stinks. And to top it off, no Doctor will allow me to work or go back to school. I do not have the money to put myself through school. I do have a degree...but I have complete amnesia from the illness, coma, and whenever else happened.

I had a job where I made over 40K per year. My husband over 100K per year. I wake up and both the job and husband are gone....go figure.

When you find the answer...let the people of the U.S. know.

I think it is not the salary people make. I believe it is really how we treat people. People who are not monetarily powerful often receive very little respect. Their civil liberties are violated on a daily bases. I believe if our legal system regained the ability to respect people on their character and allowed people to be innocent until real proof of guilt, if discrimination was taken more serious and improper law suites by landlord tenant courts and small claims court was solved by federal law instead of state to state law... with exception to cases without legal or constitutional president then we would have a more healthier economy. Some experts are concerned that middle class is disappearing. The reason could be that our society have forgotten about Adam Smith, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. See, we are reported to live in a mix economy here in the United States. The question may only be a simple issue of politics. We as a society choose the political system we live in by the ethics and morals we accept. We can either stand together and make the American System work... or we can slowly slip back into the time of the middle ages, socialist system, or communism. The term mixed society can only mean that right now our country is in a political war. The amount of our poor, unemployed or our underpaid only tells what system is winning.

I KNOW This Answer Is In The Wrong Category But I Think It Applies Here

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS violate our laws and Poison our system of Economics by TAKING JOBS from American Workers, Keeping WAGES ARTIFICIALLY LOW, and Sucking MILLIONS of Dollars of TAXPAYERS MONEY out of our Welfare and Medical Systems.

Not To Mention The Fact That A Majority Of ILLEGAL ALIENS Live And Work In This Country And Then Send Their Money Back Home To Their Families (Whatever Nation Their Families Live In) Therefore DRAINING The Economy Even Further.

When The US Dollar Leaves The US... Its GONE From The American Economy

Several people told me they used to do the "jobs Americans won't do" until local employers figured out they could get ILLEGAL Aliens to work for less than half the same amount. As an example, a young landscaper who used to make $15 an hour 10 years ago, can't get a similar job now for more than $8 an hour. Same heat. Same difficult working conditions. But with the Depressed Wage, AMERICANS – who live in a country where the cost of living is miles above that of Mexico's – can't afford to take such jobs.It's not that he and other Americans don't want to do landscaping anymore; it's just that in heavily trafficked ILLEGAL Alien environments, IT DOESNT PAY WELL ENOUGH ANYMORE.

If Congress were to pass a law that said, quite simply, that the CEO(ANY EMPLOYER) of any business that was caught employing ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS went to jail for a year - NO EXCEPTIONS - then within a month there would be ten million (more or less) people lined up at the Mexican border trying to get out of the United States And Back To Whatever Country They Came From.

The US unemployment rate would drop close to zero, and wages would begin to rise. The American middle class would begin to return to viability, as would the union movement in this nation.

Do YOU Think This ^ Might Pose A Problem To The 30 Million People You Referred To In Your Question

It's a matter of offer and demand in the workforce. With multinationals taking advantage of low salaries in third world countries and selling the merchandise for big bucks in developed countries, and making big profits, the gap between rich and poor will only get wider. It's just not sustainable. In Canada, we have a some social measures to help low income earners, like public health care and subsidized education, but we still have a lot of people slaving away for little money, and a lot people not making much more paying high taxes to support them. The cost of living has nearly doubled in the last ten years, but salaries have stayed put. I think protectionist measures should be taken to limit the amount of merchandise manufactured in third world countries and sold in developed countries. Its just not right that people having a hard time surviving on 18,000 a year are competing for jobs with others making a decent living on a few hundred a year.