That Inscrutable Mr. Kaus
Mickey Kaus has an item posted yesterday criticizing an article by Barbara Ehrenreich. An illustrative point Ehrenreich makes is a sitting duck for criticism, but Kaus could have done a lot better disputing her claims. Instead he spouts out mostly drivel and chastises her for leaving out details while his counter points lack sufficient facts themselves.
The crux of the dispute is that Ms. Ehrenreich calculates "approximately" 2.3 blue-collar husbands would be required to lift a TANF (welfare) recipient out of poverty. Mr. Kaus isn't sure whether she is "joking" or up to her "old tricks". (Here he blasts an article she wrote nearly twenty years ago. Even without reading her article it is obvious that Mr. Kaus has most likely taken a claim she made with a basis in fact and disputed it with a seemingly contradictory fact based on an entirely different population.)
I have confidence that Mr. Kaus is an intelligent person and could easily figure how she came up with the figure of 2.3. I believe he did and didn't like the fact that it wasn't too far off. (Incidentally I came up with 2.1 if the household includes two kids and 2.5 if there are three -- assuming the mother stays home with the kids and the husband(s) work minimum wage jobs full time.) So what does Kaus use to decide that the figure is a "joke"? He adds in government assistance! Does he seriously think that lifting one's self out of poverty includes the earned income tax credit and food stamps? Note to Mickey: If the value of your food stamps is what pushes your income over the poverty line you haven't lifted yourself out of poverty -- the government has.
From there Mr. Kaus actually does make some valid points. Most blue-collar workers make more than minimum wage. OK, I'll buy that. But what percentage do make minimum wage? What is the median wage for a blue-collar worker? No answer. He provides a link, which will give you an average wage -- but that really doesn't help us. One of Ms. Ehrenreich's points is that just like everyone, TANF mothers tend to marry someone in the same socio-economic class as their own. In the case of TANF mothers this would be a blue-collar worker. I would actually go a step further here than Ms. Ehrenreich here. We're probably not talking about unionized laborers working at automobile plants for reasonable wages. We're talking about non-union service sector jobs which if not at the minimum wage are pretty darn close.
There is also the claim most wives work too. And again, he supplies no substantiation. This may be true as well, however, dual incomes product their own set of additional expenses. In fact a minimum wage job could cost the family about as much as it brings in. In other words that second income may technically move the family above the poverty line but functionally leave them in poverty. Daycare expenses alone for an infant can completely wipe out the earnings of a full time minimum wage worker.
The crux of the dispute is that Ms. Ehrenreich calculates "approximately" 2.3 blue-collar husbands would be required to lift a TANF (welfare) recipient out of poverty. Mr. Kaus isn't sure whether she is "joking" or up to her "old tricks". (Here he blasts an article she wrote nearly twenty years ago. Even without reading her article it is obvious that Mr. Kaus has most likely taken a claim she made with a basis in fact and disputed it with a seemingly contradictory fact based on an entirely different population.)
I have confidence that Mr. Kaus is an intelligent person and could easily figure how she came up with the figure of 2.3. I believe he did and didn't like the fact that it wasn't too far off. (Incidentally I came up with 2.1 if the household includes two kids and 2.5 if there are three -- assuming the mother stays home with the kids and the husband(s) work minimum wage jobs full time.) So what does Kaus use to decide that the figure is a "joke"? He adds in government assistance! Does he seriously think that lifting one's self out of poverty includes the earned income tax credit and food stamps? Note to Mickey: If the value of your food stamps is what pushes your income over the poverty line you haven't lifted yourself out of poverty -- the government has.
From there Mr. Kaus actually does make some valid points. Most blue-collar workers make more than minimum wage. OK, I'll buy that. But what percentage do make minimum wage? What is the median wage for a blue-collar worker? No answer. He provides a link, which will give you an average wage -- but that really doesn't help us. One of Ms. Ehrenreich's points is that just like everyone, TANF mothers tend to marry someone in the same socio-economic class as their own. In the case of TANF mothers this would be a blue-collar worker. I would actually go a step further here than Ms. Ehrenreich here. We're probably not talking about unionized laborers working at automobile plants for reasonable wages. We're talking about non-union service sector jobs which if not at the minimum wage are pretty darn close.
There is also the claim most wives work too. And again, he supplies no substantiation. This may be true as well, however, dual incomes product their own set of additional expenses. In fact a minimum wage job could cost the family about as much as it brings in. In other words that second income may technically move the family above the poverty line but functionally leave them in poverty. Daycare expenses alone for an infant can completely wipe out the earnings of a full time minimum wage worker.
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