The Naked Truth/Jamala Rogers
Know the Difference Between “Po” and Poor
In the Black community, we jokingly talk about being po, not poor. That’s our colloquial term for worse than being poor, as in “I’m too po to pay attention.” Now, we might have some clarity on the economic levels of society’s classes.
Michael Green recently published a thought-provoking article on Substack that sent the internet into a frenzy. Green proposed that $140,000 should be considered the new poverty line. He is a financial executive and blogger. He argues that the current formula for determining the poverty line is long outdated. Welfare rights activists and social justice advocates have asserted this exact claim for decades.
Green believes that the poverty level has not kept pace with the rising costs of food, housing, and healthcare. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the government agency responsible for determining the federal poverty level. However, I'm unclear about the specific methods they use, other than knowing that the HHS utilizes census data in this process. Despite this, I find it troubling that the current poverty level for a family of four is only $31,200.
We found out during the historic and destructive government shutdown that forty-two million Americans are SNAP recipients. That troubling fact really stuck with me. This means that one out of eight Americans depends on the government to eat.
The majority of the 42 million people receiving food stamps are not lazy. According to the USDA, about 44 percent of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) recipients live in households with at least one employed member. While employment status among recipients can vary, estimates suggest that approximately 30 percent work full-time and another 30 percent work part-time or occasionally. These individuals are working hard, yet they still struggle to afford food without government assistance. This situation is unacceptable.
Of course, the same thing can be said of those who are unhoused. About 40 percent of those without housing have some form of employment. The policies and actions of this government have accelerated the number of people being thrown into economic free fall with no safety nets in place to catch them.
The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is set to expire at the end of this year unless legislators take action. This seems unlikely, as the main reason Democrats prolonged the government shutdown was to pressure the MAGA supporters to address healthcare benefits. This situation is not just a policy issue; it is a matter of life and death that can have severe consequences for working people. Those facing serious medical issues may accumulate mounting debt, potentially leading to the loss of their assets. The inability to pay rent or a mortgage could result in them being evicted and left homeless.
The MAGA plan is to create extreme financial chaos for working-class people so that they can only focus on survival. While we are fighting for our very lives, we won’t have the energy, time, or resources to fight against the MAGA regime. A world where food, shelter, and other necessities of life are guaranteed is becoming elusive.
I intend to gain a deeper understanding of how Green developed the formula for determining income. It seems to serve as a baseline, but I suspect it does not account for the stagnant nature of wages, rising childcare costs, and increasing expenses related to higher education.
As we witness the disappearance of legal protections that are subject to the political whims of the day, po folks and the working class remain on a hamster wheel — peddling fast and hard to get ahead, only to stay in the same place regardless of their efforts.
Let us lean into a serious discussion of a new formulation of what constitutes poverty and include all of the factors that inform the reality. No one chooses to be po or poor.