What about the poor?

In this Monday’s Daily Astorian, Paul Krugman’s op-ed article about class warfare and the social contract was very illuminating. He described the tax situation with rich folks, who make a good portion of their income via capital gains and dividends, and corporations, whose income is taxed at a much lower rate than the typical worker, as being much better than the average worker, whose payroll tax rate is a lot higher. A shift in taxes from wealth to work, Krugman writes.

What about the poor? I’m talking about the people (which include me) that either don’t make an income, or whose income is so small that they would be considered poor, or at least not “middle class”. Those who get no or little benefits. Those who are chained to their paying or non-paying job, even though it doesn’t make them enough to support their family, or themselves. I work with and know so many of these people. I’m guessing that we make up a significant part of the U.S. population.

I wish Krugman would talk about us.

Have you seen any articles anywhere about the poor lately? We hear statistics about unemployment all the time, but little about how government policy affects these folks, or whether these folks are really poor. The poor often work; it’s just that the work is so poorly paid that they don’t really contribute much to the tax rolls.

Or what about kids. Or the retired poor. Or parents that have decided to help raise their kids instead of working their asses off and letting someone else raise the kids. The list goes on.

The poor have traditionally been left out of the political discourse. Maybe we should rise up, as so many other poor people around the world through history have. Or at least raise our hands and ask someone to take notice of us. Listening, Paul?