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With recent wage growth, the median wage for a worker in the United States is ~ $41,000 a year.

That is ~$2,300 a month post-tax.

Let’s look at some costs.

• The average renter paid $1,300 a month.
• The average food costs are $300 a month. That’s $1,600 a month.
• The average utility charges are $320 a month. That’s $1,920 a month.
• The average car payment is $500 for a used car per month. That’s $2,420 a month.
• The average car insurance is $148 a month. That’s $2,568 a month.

$2,568 > $2,300

Based on personal experience, being $270 in the hole despite what I think is a pretty conservative list of costs is poor.

It does not include any money for cell phone plan. It does not include any money for new clothes or for household necessities like toilet paper. It does not account for co-pays for medical costs. It does not account for any childcare, educational, or work-related expenses. It does not account for a single penny for entertainment- not even a Netflix subscription. Nothing for car maintenance.

In addition, we’re not accounting for any possible reduction in income- if a person needs to take an unpaid sick day, if they’re injured, if their hours are cut, or, heaven forbid, they’re laid off…

To answer the OP’s question, what’s going on here is that our nation’s ‘liberals’ are center-right on an actual political spectrum. Things like universal healthcare and closing income inequality gaps are radical in the U.S. In this country, we’d rather a thousand people die than one person get over on us.

Jack, who advocates excluding the poor to juice the stats, either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that the life expectancy gap also exists along racial lines. He likely also doesn’t know or care that being ill can cause poverty- it is in fact a leading cause of people falling out of the middle class. Regardless of any of this, my message to Jack is pretty simple: Being poor is not a moral failing, nor is it a valid reason for losing upwards of 20% of one’s lifespan.