Mr. Johnston, who must Google his name hourly, to the contrary notwithstanding, IRS statistics really cannot say very much about the lives of the bottom tier of the income distribution in our society.
There is good reason for this. Numerous citizens who subsist in that stratum are simply not required to file tax returns nor are the ones, who do, required to report major sources of cash to them.
IRS Pub. 915:
“If the only income you received during 2007 was your social security …, your benefits generally are not taxable and you probably do not have to file a return.”
IRS Pub. 525:
“Do not include in your income governmental benefit payments from a public welfare fund based upon need, such as payments due to blindness.”
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Thus a retire living on Social Security payment and the interest on $50,000 of savings may appear to be living on less than $7/day.
An Amish subsitence farmer may report $2300 of taxable income from his truck patch and have plenty of cash for his needs.
The $7 a day number is typical liberal fog from the NYTimes. True but totally irrelevant.
*Former NYTimes “Public Editor” Daniel Okrent on the topic of Mr. Johnston:
Q:”The only person you really single out in the intro is business reporter David Cay Johnston, who started a campaign against you for being on a corporate board.”
A. “Yeah, he was very single-out-able. I didn’t mention this in the book, but when I had my troubles with Johnston, one of the senior editors said to me, ‘There are three things you must understand about Johnston: He’s a Pulitzer Prize winner, he’s a unique talent, and he’s an @$$h01e.’ I’m convinced that at least two of those are correct.”
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“They source the New York Times. Certainly, no one questions this as an official source.”
Reuters, AP, NYTimes, the rantings of the Inmates of the Asylum at Charenton, what difference does it make? If you read something in the newspaper, see it on TV or the internet, your reaction must be:
“That is very interesting, I wonder if it is true.”
Trusting your fellow man and believing what he says are social virtues, but you never want have someone say to you after the house of cards has collapsed:
“And you believed them?”
