CHAPTER 1
Share of pretax income
hours). If all household heads and their spouses (if present) in low-income households worked
full-time, year-round, the percent of low-income households would fall from 26 percent to 11
percent.”6 The bottom line: the number of low-income families could be cut by more than
half if a full-time job were available for everyone who wanted one.
What does this mean for ending hunger in America? Well, it is simply not possible unless
there are more full-time jobs. Nutrition programs and other anti-poverty programs can
help compensate for a shortfall in
income, but they cannot replace it.
Figure 1.1 Share of Bottom-Fifth Household Income Accounted
There’s a lot of overheated rhetoric
for by Wages, Cash Transfers, and In-Kind Income,
about government assistance
1979-2007
causing dependency, but the truth
2007:
50%
is that low-income households rely
50.5%
1979:
Wages
on work for most of their liveli40.4%
40
hood. From 1979 to 2007, government assistance to low-income
Cash transfers
34.3%
30
families (cash transfers and in-kind
income such as food stamps, free
20.3%
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