Poverty in the US is a continuing problem. In 2013 45.3 million Americans were living in poverty, 14.5% of the total population.
It turns out that the scope of the problem is roughly $100 billion per year. The calculations follow below. This amount would end poverty in the US. This could be achieved. Some sort of social program would need to be devised to win the support of US taxpayers for this initiative. A really well-designed program might include some way for those in poverty to generate revenues so the program pays for its own way.
Let's use the above numbers as baseline. For 2015, the poverty line is $15,730 for a household of 2 and $19,790 for a household of 3. The average US household is 2.54 persons. If you interpolate, then an "average poverty line" could be taken as $15,730 plus 54% of $4,060 (the difference between the two household sizes) or $17,922.
In the mid-2000s the gap was about 33%. So the average unmet need to life a household above the poverty line would be 33% of the $17,922 or $5,914.
To calculate the number of households in poverty, divide 45.3 million by 2.54 members per household to get 17.83 million households.
So the unmet need to lift every American household out of poverty would be $6,000 times 18 million households or $108 billion per year.
By comparison, in 2014 the Social Security Administration paid $869 billion to 59 million Americans. And again, the proposed 2015 budget for the Pentagon is $495 billion.
It appears that the US could easily afford to end poverty.
Perhaps DailyKos readers could together devise a means to come up with $100 billion that would be consonant with both Democratic party and Republican party principles and priorities.
12:52 PM PT: The American Prospect ran an article in 2012 that arrives at a similar number and similar conclusion. http://prospect.org/...