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The real American household poverty line isn’t $31,200, it’s around $140,000.
(www.yesigiveafig.com)
this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
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When my youngest son was born we were barely making it and looked into getting benefits.
We were told we were disqualified for around $500 a month of various benefits (housing, food, etc) because I made $50/month too much.
The eligibility cliffs are a rough place to be yeah. Even when you don't immediately lose the entire benefit you get screwed but my Gods do you get screwed when it's just "Nope, you make too much money. You get nothing."
Having to be very careful about pay ranges for jobs you pick up because there's a big glaring red zone where you lose a bunch of benefits without making enough money to replace them. That raise you just got? That was actually a pay cut nerd. Have fun.
Yeah it really needs to be an offramp so no dollar gainrd ever costs you a full dollar.
Also medicaid for all would just completely eliminate one of the rougher cliffs and replace it with an ordinary progressive tax