You can be above the poverty line and still be poor. Based on the document you posted, you qualify for reduced-priced meals if your family of four lives on $44,955 per year or $865 per week.
If I understand the article correctly, more than half of public school students come from families poorer than that. Wow.
You can live a very comfortable life in much of the US for $44,000 a year. We spent 30K last year for a family of six, not including taxes, giving, and health insurance. And that includes materials for homeschooling, and upgrading to a minivan.
Rent in boston for a family of six would be over 30k after taxes and that's with living in ghetto. I live in a 600 sq ft home and its 21600 a year. Your budget definitely doesn't apply across the country
While those houses in Vermont and New Hampshire are well-appreciated, most people living in and around Boston probably have fairly specific reasons (ie: job, family, life history) for not moving to Nebraska or West Virginia.
"Just abandon your livelihood to go find cheaper land" is not a solution unless your livelihood is in real-estate speculation.
...I sometimes wonder if some people on HN aren't able to visualize the option of lower-cost lifestyles because they aren't given that menu option. How many articles are there per week about real-estate prices and rent control in big cities, and angst about basic income, etc.. My gift to them, small as it may be, is a window into a separate, but not so far away world.
...You could also look at it as a chance to prove how entrepreneurial you are. Think of something to do with the excess labor that is available from the decline in coal mining.
I have looked at areas like those but student loan debt makes it worth living in areas with the highest wage even if the cost of living goes up. I can command a much higher salary here in boston so my student loan payments of 700/month are a small fraction of my take home pay. If I moved to an area like you listed I would certainly pay less rent but my student loan costs stay static and take up much more of my income. When you couple that with all the benefits of living in a city there's no financial reason for me to ever leave
Yeah. I'm not saying that's a comfortable income accross the county - it certainly is not - but there are plenty of places where $44,000 a year is all you need, and some extra.
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For a housing comparison with you in Boston, our 1,800 square foot house in a good neighborhood, 30 minutes from downtown Charlotte, NC is $8,100 per year, including insurance and taxes.
This may be why the whole northeast appears to be trying to move to Charlotte.
I don't agree that it applies to "most of the U.S." or even very widely. Also, you are talking after taxes; the document says income is measured before taxes.
Graduated income tax and child tax credit starts making a big difference in taxes for below median incomes. $48,000 before taxes with four kids is around $5,500 in taxes before any other deductions or credits. With things like EIC and a normal set of deductions and credits, I'd expect actual income tax to be between none and $2,500.
Families pay proportionally way less taxes than single people do.
You're only talking about income tax. Social Security, FICA, etc. are regressive taxes that make the working class pay higher rates overall than many people who are wealthier.
If I understand the article correctly, more than half of public school students come from families poorer than that. Wow.