NEW! poverty calculator

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I just found this gizmo while searching for other things, a poverty calculator-
(clicky)calculate your chances of falling into poverty here!
the odds of striking it rich with some big lotto thing like powerball, are 1 in 292 million. that is worse than the odds of being struck by lightning. yet we still dream of buying a ticket and hitting it big, or at least some of us know that we are just buying a few days' worth of hope for a better life not otherwise available to us mere mortals. for that time we daydream and nightdream about all the grand things we'll be able to do with all that moolah. but the opposite doesn't seem to be happening, IOW none of us likes pondering for any length of time, oour odds of falling into poverty or what it would be like to be out on the streets bereft of food and shelter. it needs to be said that the odds of poverty are far FAR greater than the odds of prosperity.
the test doesn't bother with your income or savings levels, it just wants to know your age, marital status, race and how much schooling you had. it adjudges poverty to be income less than 50% above the federal gov't's official poverty level.
I took the test, it checks one's risk of poverty at 5, 10 and 15 year intervals- my five year risk was 16.1%, 10 years at 22.6% and 15 years at 25.1%. personally, I think the test is somewhat optimistic, considering that I am within that income range it adjudges to be poverty. what do y'all think?
Poverty Thresholds for 2015 for One person-
Under 65 years....................……… 12,331
65 years and over.................……… 11,367
Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

None of this matters. I believe that over 90% of the population will be dragged kicking and screaming (quite literally) into poverty at some point in time. The question is how and why. The financial crisis of 2008 was just a precursor of things to come. If we keep letting big business get control, there's no telling what they can really do and what will allow them to get away with it. Every dollar we make, it's not our money. They're afraid of the possibilities of a strong middle class so they built a box to contain the growth and as an added bonus, they're shrinking it. Their dream is a world where we don't have any money anymore and so desperate for cash, work, shelter, food, and water that we'll do anything they say. The biggest scam of all time has yet to come. It's up to those vigilant enough to blow the whistle in time to stop it even at the risk of facing law enforcement.

as GHW bush said to Helen Thomas, "if people knew all we had done, they'd be chasing us with pitchforks!"

What if you're already in "poverty"?

Which is completely moronic in the first world; if you have enough food to eat, a computer, a roof/bed, and some trinkets, like everyone that's in "poverty" in the first world, you aren't in poverty.

People should be focusing on the mentally ill that are homeless and can't ask for/get help due to their disability, not this mythical "poverty".

I have been homeless, so I know of it. the poll was designed to get people talking about poverty, which of course includes being flat busted broke and with no earthly goods or hope. people would rather whistle past the graveyard in terms of this possibility so it needs to be advertised more and talked about more.

Interesting--I scored over 50% and made out like a bandit with the GW Bush tax cuts.

please do tell more can you tell me why you believe it scored you so high?

Non-white and not married--over 15 year time frame.

I used the Bush tax cuts to take a nice profit and restructure my investments to significantly reduce what I pay in taxes each year. Most of the middle class couldn't do that. No sizable investments. And if if they did, they weren't lucky enough to be able to take a large capital gain to take advantage of the tax cuts.

at least you got some good out of 'em for nobody I knew did. our net taxes went UP [state and local].

5 years - 17.0%
10 years - 21.3%
15 years - 26.2%

I have no idea whether I qualify as "poor" but I have no job, no money, a car that's about to break down, and a house that's falling apart.

at least you have a house and car in whatever shape. beats the burlap out of homelessness. I am thinking of poor ASS-P [long time WP member] here.

Yes, you are correct. I would not be able to survive being homeless. I would go crazy with anxiety. And I would also be more at risk for being a victim of a crime.

I often wish that I would win the lottery (like 10 million, or something) so that I'd be able to help the people that I know, and so that I could make a lot of smart investments and have the power to help other people. I'd set up scholarships and various other programs to help people get to a better place in their lives. But, I don't play the lottery, and if I did I'd have little chance of winning.

one's chances of winning the lotto are substantially less than being struck by lightning multiple times in a row. it is a voluntary tax upon the inumerate to benefit governments and the wealthy. in amuurica, the land of limited social mobility, there are very few legal ways for an untalented person to escape poverty in their lifetime.