Remember when our standard of living was the standard?

According to the U.S. government, "poor" means that a household's income falls below a "poverty line" that was defined back in the mid-1960s. At the time of its inception, the poverty baseline measure was set at approximately three times the annual cost of a nutritionally adequate diet. It was assumed that this amount would enable a family to meet basic needs. It may have then;  it certainly doesn't now. The 2007 poverty line for a family of four, as defined by the Department of Health and Human Services, is $20,650 per year. Would this annual income realistically cover a family's basic needs?

Just to afford "fair market rent" on a small one-bedroom apartment in the Twin Cities, a wage earner must make $13.56 per hour, or $28,205 per year. For a two-bedroom apartment, the income needed to afford the rent jumps to $34,195 (Habitat for Humanity statistics).  Add to this the rising cost of fuel, health care, dental care, and education; single parent families; and loss of jobs.

It is time to approach the problem from a position other than one that says a large segment of the population "behaves like spoiled, angry children who rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave".    Profiteers are the ones who perpetuate this position.  Corporate profit should not be the driving force of America.