“Why work?”
Here's a claim, with concrete numbers, that:
"a one-parent family of three making $14,500 a year (minimum wage) has more disposable income than a family making $60,000 a year."
That's after various government benefits and taxes, but the calculation seems incorrect to me. For instance, should the Medicaid and CHIP benefits of the poorer household actually be valued — to the user — at $16,500 a year? (Is that number coming from some kind of cost basis? If so, is it adjusted for the age of the Medicaid recipients to rule out nursing home expenditures?) Is the $60,000 per year family receiving employer-supplied health insurance? The assumption seems to be that they do not.
Still, even if you make adjustments this is a scary comparison. I'd like to see a more exact calculation of the implicit marginal tax rates of the poor, as they climb from say 15k a year through the 60k range. Does anyone know of such a table?
For the pointer I thank CC.
Addendum: Andrew Gelman comments.