Income inequality is not directly relevant to actual poverty. The left has sold that narrative to cloak the politics of envy in the more respectable guise of concern for actual well-being. If a poor family can still afford necessities and comforts, why would it matter that a rich family can afford much more?
100% right. If someone more honest than John were framing this, they'd note that wages have been stagnant since the 1970's, which is a core cause of unsustainable living standards.
I've got some free time, so let's dig a little deeper into how
completely unable Congressman John would be to actually fix it. Things the study said weren't affordable:
Housing - Every President since at least Clinton has made it cheaper to own a home, trying to kickstart "ownership" as a source of middle class wealth. The Federal Reserve kept rates abnormally low for 15 years as part of this program. It gave us
a 5% spike in home ownership to 69%... and then it gave us the 2007-8 housing bust and Great Recession. Ownership is back down to its 1970's level of 64%. Not a good candidate for successful government intervention.
Food - The
SNAP budget has blown up to 112x its 1970 levels. Government help isn't the issue, food costs are. How does "inequality" make food more expensive? Do you really think those evil 1% are buying up all the food and hoarding it?
Child Care - Granted this is legit expensive in the USA. But you know who the cheapest, most efficient, most effective, highest quality child care provider is? The child's mother, in a stay-at-home capacity. But I suppose Honest And True Womyn John Flynt wouldn't encourage such anti-feminist solutions.
Health Care - We got the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, 10 years ago. Care did not get affordable. Then we got endless screeching when the GOP tried to fix Obamacare. Congressman John wouldn't have the brains or power to make health care more affordable.
Transportation - This is more vague; arguably, Ubers and increased public transport have been making transportation
cheaper. New cars are more expensive, but there's a glut of used cars right now. The main federal programs messing with transportation costs are environmental subsidies for expensive electric cars, gas taxes increasing gas costs, and local regulations enforcing taxi/ride sharing monopolies. I highly doubt John has a coherent plan to tweak any of these programs.
Cell Phone - You can get a no-contract phone for as little as $10 a month. It won't be a smartphone with infinite data for tweeting dumb shit from your Porsche, but it'll do. You can
get a smartphone plan without data for $15/mo, and decent big carrier plans with data for $35. If you can't afford $10-$35 a month,
you are living your life wrong and electing John to Congress will be the least of your many grave mistakes.
TL;DR John has no plan to help middle class people afford their lifestyles if his "plan" involves going to Congress to tackle income inequality and throw government money at more programs.
