May 07th, 2018

Below we see two global banking media and think tank outlets pretending the US is back in ROBBER BARON massive frauds and Great Depression of early 1900s------selling the idea that US 99% WE THE PEOPLE having been looted of all our wealth assets, left unemployed in deliberately stagnant economies, having all our FEDERAL public trusts looted and sent to global 1% OLD WORLD KINGS AND QUEENS----we are going to listen to the same FAKE LABOR AND JUSTICE as our US 99% black, white, and brown citizens did a century ago.  HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.

The reason this article tells us MILLIONS of workers in US are struggling instead of hundreds of millions is to create that WINNER/LOSER dynamic.  The reason UNITED NATIONS and those 5% global banking pols and players are PRETENDING to be sending reparations for slavery at the same time installing SLAVERY IN US FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONES=====is the same as that promise to black slaves in ANTEBELLUM SOUTH-----

THE 40 ACRES AND A MULE.  SAME PEOPLE MAKING THIS POLICY UP MADE THAT SAME POLICY OVER A CENTURY AGO----GLOBAL BANKING 1% WITH THOSE 5% SELLING THIS AS REAL.

We do not like SMART PHONE MONTHLY RATE PLANS for obvious reasons we shout each day---we know the goal is killing all ability of US 99% of citizens to communicate as rates and selective access MOVES FORWARD.  When we buy that PREPAID PHONE CARD ---it is the payday banking fleecing of our low-income trying to stay in the cell phone crowd----we see these PREPAID CARD RATES getting higher with the number of minutes and texting data getting lower.  Soon, our 99% of US low-income will not be able to access cell phones as analog phones are being dismantled.

ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE EPI----a global banking 1% player think tank PRETENDING our US 99% can simply do what we did a century ago----not EDUCATING the goals of TODAY'S MOVING FORWARD.


So, these policies are NOT the solution for saving our US 99% of WE THE PEOPLE from being made third world poor. These low-wage numbers are NOT the real percentages of US low-income and poor. Our US 99% still able to bring in what we think is a US middle-income need to WAKE UP-----there are no wage winners in MOVING FORWARD.



Millions of low-wage workers in the US are struggling to survive
June 21, 2016 By Oxfam

A new project from Oxfam America and the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reveals shocking numbers of workers stuck in low-wage jobs with scant benefits.


Hard work should pay off. But for millions of workers, it hardly pays the bills. Over the past 40 years, the reality of low-wage work in America has shifted dramatically. Today, more people than ever are working in jobs that pay too little and offer too few benefits. In fact, our research reveals that nearly half the workforce is stuck in jobs that pay under $15 an hour; one in four low-wage workers has not a single day of earned sick time.


Once, people knew that hard work could pay off: they could support a family, save for retirement, educate their children, or even own a home. That is no longer true.


People doing low-wage jobs do vital work that keeps the economy humming: they care for the young and elderly, prepare food, clean offices, and help customers. These jobs are essential, but the economy has stopped adequately compensating the workers who do them.. Wages are stagnating and demands on workers are increasing. And this trend is only growing worse, as the jobs of the future are concentrated in sectors with low wages and threadbare benefits.


This situation is not right—nor is it inevitable. It is the consequence of our policy choices over many years. Oxfam and EPI are proposing a set of policy changes which will ensure that hard work is rewarded, and that the economy functions for everyone. Together, we have created an interactive web site with a series of maps of that illustrate concentrations of working poor in the states; and a new report that explores four essential policy shifts:

•  Raise the federal minimum wage.
•  Provide access to earned sick leave.
•  Protect overtime pay for millions of workers.
•  Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

The state of working America is hurting. What’s more, the people doing these low-wage jobs are disproportionately people of color and women. Again, this trend is increasing, as people find themselves trapped by low wages and threadbare benefits. Here are the facts:

• 41.7 million workers earn under $12 an hour and 58.3 million workers earn under $15 an hour—wages that are too low for families to thrive.
• Nearly half of all private sector workers lack a single paid sick day. Over 80 percent of low-wage private sector workers do not have earned sick time.
• Until recently, too few workers were protected by overtime pay rules; expanded protections are currently under attack.
• The Earned Income Tax Credit fails to reach many of our lowest paid workers, including young adults and workers without children.
  • While the majority of low-wage workers are white, black and Hispanic workers are far more likely to be in low-wage jobs. More than half (53 percent) of black workers and 60 percent of Hispanic workers earn under $15 an hour. For black and Hispanic women, the numbers are even more dramatic.
  • Many low-wage occupations— from restaurant servers to child care workers—are dominated by women. In every state, women make up the majority of workers earning under $12; the highest percentage is in Louisiana (59.4 percent), and the lowest is in California (50.9 percent).

Action to right these wrongs would make our economy and our society stronger, healthier, more equitable—and, perhaps most importantly, it would restore hope for the future.
_____________________________________________

As MOVING FORWARD brings the US to far-right wing, authoritarian, militaristic, dictatorship extreme wealth extreme poverty LIBERTARIAN MARXISM------here is global banking think tanks and media pretending today's global banking 5% pols in Congress, state assemblies, city councils have any intention of bringing back our last century's FDR REAL LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE NEW DEAL-----they are lying.

BASIC INCOME for US 99% of WE THE PEOPLE----black, white, and brown citizens is simply bringing US 99% down to Asian FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONE ENSLAVEMENT WAGES----for both our global factory workers AND our white collar professionals----if one thinks they are winning with sweat shop white collar wages-----then think how the costs of living soars to take any disposable income.

NONE OF THE POLICIES BELOW IS MOVING FORWARD-----

•  Raise the federal minimum wage.
•  Provide access to earned sick leave.
•  Protect overtime pay for millions of workers.
•  Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

As we discussed earlier------the goals of global banking 1% BASIC INCOME is to sell the idea that GETTING RID OF ALL US SOCIAL PROGRAMS AND SOCIAL BENEFITS ====getting rid of all labor benefits ====by COMBINING them into one BASIC INCOME payment -----will allow our low-income and poor to be winners------and protect our US 99% WE THE PEOPLE losing employment to more and more and more artificial intelligence and designer industry.

REMEMBER. these few decades of ROBBER BARON fleecing of America to send all our wealth to those same OLD WORLD GLOBAL 1% KINGS AND QUEENS----done by CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA had to corrupt our entire US government because CORPORATE PATRONAGE was needed as all local economies were killed.  So, those 5% freemason/Greeks working as global banking players received PATRONAGE to NOT WORK coming from what was our FEDERAL AGENCIES tied to social benefit. 

THAT OCCURRED SIMPLY BECAUSE GLOBAL BANKING 1% NEEDED PLAYERS DURING ROBBER BARON FEW DECADES----PEOPLE WILL NOT RECEIVE PATRONAGE WHEN ROBBER BARON FEW DECADES IS OVER.

Below we see NYT media pretending OBAMA tried to raise minimum wage when OBAMA was raging global banking MOVING FORWARD US FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONE bringing global slave trade distribution system to capture our US 99% of workers black, white, and brown citizens.

Global banking 1% making our US 99% low-income feel they are being left behind---not knowing the goals of global banking will take all our US WE THE PEOPLE with them.....please think how important it is to fix US elections to get rid of global banking 5% pols and players---they don't care where our US and global 99% end in future--they are living for today.


Low-Wage Workers Are Finding Poverty Harder to Escape

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
MARCH 16, 2014  NEW YORK TIMES


CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — At 7 in the morning, they are already lined up — poultry plant workers, housekeepers, discount store clerks — to ask for help paying their heating bills or feeding their families.


And once Metropolitan Ministries opens at 8 a.m., these workers fill the charity’s 40 chairs, with a bawling infant adding to the commotion. From pockets and handbags they pull out utility bills or rent statements and hand them over to caseworkers, who often write checks — $80, $110, $150 — to patch over gaps in meeting this month’s expenses or filling the gas tank to get to work.


Just off her 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift, Erika McCurdy needed help last month with her electricity and heating bill, which jumped to $280 in January from the usual $120 — a result of one of the coldest winters in memory. A nurse’s aide at an assisted living facility, Ms. McCurdy said there were many weeks when she couldn’t make ends meet raising her 19-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter.
“There’s just no way, making $9 an hour as a single parent with two children, that I can live without assistance,” said Ms. McCurdy, 40, a strong-voiced, solidly built Chattanooga native.


She was so financially stretched, she said, that she and her daughter often sneaked into her son’s high school football games free during halftime because she couldn’t afford the $6 tickets. (She proudly noted that her son, Charles, had made the All State football team.) As for her daughter Jer’Maya, who mimics Beyoncé’s every move on her mother’s iPhone, Ms. McCurdy said, “She’d love to take ballet and piano lessons, but there’s no way I can afford that.”



Having worked as a nurse’s aide for 15 years, Ms. McCurdy has been among the nearly 25 million workers in the United States who make less than $10.10 an hour — the amount to which President Obama supports increasing the minimum wage. Of those workers, 3.5 million make the $7.25 federal minimum wage or less.



And like many of them, Ms. McCurdy hasn’t been able to rely on steady full-time hours — she has often been assigned just 20 hours a week. Even if she worked full time year-round, her $9 hourly wage would put her below the poverty threshold of $19,530 for a family of three.


Climbing above the poverty line has become more daunting in recent years, as the composition of the nation’s low-wage work force has been transformed by the Great Recession, shifting demographics and other factors. More than half of those who make $9 or less an hour are 25 or older, while the proportion who are teenagers has declined to just 17 percent from 28 percent in 2000, after adjusting for inflation, according to Janelle Jones and John Schmitt of the Center for Economic Policy Research.


Today’s low-wage workers are also more educated, with 41 percent having at least some college, up from 29 percent in 2000. “Minimum-wage and low-wage workers are older and more educated than 10 or 20 years ago, yet they’re making wages below where they were 10 or 20 years ago after inflation,” said Mr. Schmitt, senior economist at the research center. “If you look back several decades, workers near the minimum wage were more likely to be teenagers — that’s the stereotype people had. It’s definitely not accurate anymore.”


In Chattanooga, the prevalence of low-wage jobs has contributed to the high poverty rate: 27 percent of the city’s residents live below the poverty line, compared with 15 percent nationwide. Women head about two-thirds of the city’s poor households, and 42 percent of its children are poor, nearly double the rate statewide.


“The face of poverty in this community is women, especially women of color,” said Valerie L. Radu, a professor of social work at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga.


This city was not always a magnet for low-wage jobs. For much of the last century, the city, which hugs the Tennessee River, was a manufacturing hub with dozens of apparel factories, textile mills and metal foundries.


During the last quarter of the 20th century, almost all the factories and foundries were shuttered, and with them disappeared thousands of manufacturing jobs that had once lifted workers, even ones without high school degrees, into the middle class or to the cusp of it. In their place have come thousands of service-sector jobs: at the aquarium and Imax theater built to lure tourists and at hotels, nursing homes, big-box stores, brew pubs, fast-food restaurants, beauty salons and hospitals.


The Changing Face of the Low-Wage Worker

Low-wage earners in 2013 tended to be older as a group than they were in 1979. They were also more likely to have high school or college educations, and more likely to be racial and ethnic minorities.

Discount stores dot the landscape, including a Family Dollar downtown near the upscale Bluewater Grille, reflecting how much American cities have experienced a hollowing-out of the middle class.


“Chattanooga has a twofold problem: the low level of educational attainment and the traditional jobs that these people move into have largely disappeared,” said Matthew N. Murray, an economist at the University of Tennessee. Just 23 percent of Tennessee adults have a bachelor’s degree.


JeraLee Kincaid, 23, is an $8.50-an-hour cashier who works at the checkout booth at a parking garage next to the Marriott Courtyard hotel downtown. A solid student in high school, Ms. Kincaid, who lives with her mother, planned to study computer programming in college, but instead her family decided that she needed to help pay the medical bills of a 5-year-old niece who has leukemia.


“She can’t eat, talk or walk by herself,” said Ms. Kincaid. She says she feels stuck, but also grateful that her boss is trying to help find her a scholarship to attend college.


When Volkswagen opened a $1 billion assembly plant in 2011, 80,000 people applied for 2,000 jobs paying an average of $19.50 an hour. Many low-wage workers, like Ms. McCurdy — a high school dropout who later obtained her high school equivalency diploma — would have loved to work there, but they faced difficulty mastering the math tests given for jobs that involve advanced machinery.


“We understand that more individuals have to get some kind of higher education degree or certificate to have a chance in this world,” said Chattanooga’s mayor, Andy Berke. “We don’t want the South to be a place where businesses go to find low-wage, low-education jobs. That’s a long-term problem that midsized cities in the South face.”


Here as well as elsewhere, a college degree cannot guarantee a good job.


Landon Howard graduated from the University of Tennessee campus here four years ago with a bachelor’s degree in social work, but has been unable to find a job in that field. Instead he is a prep cook at the trendy Tupelo Honey Cafe. Often scheduled for just 15 to 20 hours a week at $9.50 an hour, he usually takes home less than $200 a week.


“I’ve had to move back in with my parents,” Mr. Howard said. His most urgent concern is his lack of dental insurance. “One of my teeth is cracked,” he said. “There’s a big gaping hole. I don’t know if I’m going to lose it.”

Ms. McCurdy, as a parent in a modest income bracket, would not usually be eligible for the state’s Medicaid program, although her children would, but she was accepted because of a heart condition requiring costly medications.


Her family has had to make many sacrifices since she was laid off in 2012 from her job as a full-time nurse’s assistant in the emergency room of Memorial Hospital.
Her fall to $9 an hour at the assisted living facility from $13.75 at the hospital forced her to give up a 2,000-square-foot home in Harrison, a local suburb, “which is beautiful, and you have better schools,” she said.


“It was a good life,” she added. “You didn’t have to worry about violence or anyone breaking in.”


After being laid off, “I realized I couldn’t afford to stay in a house where the rent was $625 a month,” she said. So she found a $400-a-month, 1,100-square foot house in Brainerd, known for its gangs and violence. “I stay in at night,” she said. “I put bars on the windows.”

The new house has two modest bedrooms, a largely unfurnished living room, a bathroom and a small shotgun kitchen “where I got to move the table when my son gets up from dinner,” she said. “Imagine being in a two-bedroom place with a 6-2, 280-pound boy and a little girl. Me and my little girl share a room.”



They also share a bed, but Jer’Maya keeps her dolls, books and clothes in Charles’s room, among his footballs and athletic gear. Ms. McCurdy receives $400 a month in food stamps. Without it, she said, “we wouldn’t be eating.”


Still, Ms. McCurdy worries about her children’s future.
“I have a son that’s graduating in May,” she said. “He’s looking at college. My heart is pounding 99 miles per hour. If he goes on full scholarship, I’ll still need to support him — how to pay his cellphone bill, how to pay for transportation and food during vacations.”


Her February utility bill just arrived and it stunned her: $320. She may again turn to Metropolitan Ministries for help, although she says she hopes the $3,000 or so she expects to receive from the earned-income taxcredit will help her pay that bill — and also buy a new living room couch.


Rebecca Whelchel says she has seen big changes in the clientele since she became the executive director of Metropolitan Ministries eight years ago.


“It used to be that folks came in with a single issue — it was like, ‘I have to buy a new tire because my tire blew out,’ or, ‘I’m short on my electrical bill,’ ” Ms. Whelchel said. “Now they come in with a rubber band around a bunch of bills and problems. Everything is wrong. Everything is tangled with everything else.”


At age 34, Nick Mason earns $9 an hour as an assistant manager for a Domino’s, overseeing a crew of six. “I don’t think $9 is fair — I’ve been working in the pizza business for 19 years, since I was 15,” he said.


He attended the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, studying to become a registered nurse, but he dropped out as a sophomore when his marriage fell apart. He returned to work full time, and he and his children moved in with his parents in the suburb of Hixson.



“I just wish we could have our home, but I can’t afford to,” said Mr. Mason, father of 7-year-old Halle and 5-year-old Eli. “That’s what the kids keep asking for.”


“We’ve had to sacrifice a lot of things,” he continued. “I’d love nothing more than to give them what they deserve. As a single father, it’s impossible. I put my kids in karate about a year ago. They loved it, but I got to the point where it was a choice between paying for a cellphone or karate, and as a manager, I need a cellphone for people to keep in touch with me.”


Mr. Mason has heard the criticisms: Stop complaining about your pay; just go back to school and that way you’ll find a better-paying job.


“I would love to go back to school,” he said. “It’s easy for people to say that because they haven’t been in my shoes. I’m already busy every minute of the day. I already don’t get to see my kids enough. I doubt I’ll be able to afford school, and I don’t know where I would find the time.”


His big hope is to be promoted to run a Domino’s, which might mean earning $15 an hour.


Ms. McCurdy, who applied for two dozen jobs this winter, delivered good news with a big smile. She was offered a job as a full-time nurse’s aide on the transition medical floor at Erlanger Health System, a hospital.


“They’re paying me $10.64,” she said, an improvement over the $9 an hour she had been earning. “That gives me a little room to breathe.”

_______________________________________________

The goal of global banking 1% in MOVING FORWARD is creating the media propaganda that makes our low-income feel hopelessly left behind -----anger at those US and global labor pool white collar made to look as winners. Creating population tensions-----when our US and global white collar workers are going under the bus WITH today's LOW-INCOME WORKERS. Getting angry at what appear to be US middle-wage citizens and not working to STOP MOVING FORWARD GLOBAL BANKING 1% POLICIES OF US FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONE policies will not end well for any of our US 99% and global citizens black, white, or brown citizens.

PLEASE STOP LOOKING AT THESE FAKE DATA ON EMPLOYMENT AND WAGE----IT IS THE SAME FAKE DATA BEING GIVEN AS OVERSEAS FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONE WAGE AND WORK CONDITION DATA.

Global banking 5% pols and players CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA are working hard to make our REAL LEFT SOCIAL PROGRESSIVE POLICIES corrupted and to make our US 99% of citizens more and more and more falling into impoverishment feel that any BASIC INCOME is better then what they have.

TODAY'S US AND GLOBAL WHITE COLLAR MIDDLE-CLASS BETTER BE AWARE OF HOW LIFE IS BEING MADE UNBEARABLE FOR WHAT IS BECOMING 90% OF US FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONE WORKERS.

Sadly, what was indeed a strong, REAL left social progressive college system in CA-----was killed during REAGAN/BROWN taken to far-right wing global banking----nothing coming from CA university system is REAL POPULIST policy for our US 99% or global 99% immigrants


'Our Goals

The Center for Poverty Research facilitates research using a diverse set of approaches across academic disciplines to answer critical questions about poverty and its solutions. The Center engages faculty research affiliates in the departments of Economics, Sociology, Psychology, Political Science, Agricultural Economics, Human and Community Development, Chicano Studies, and the Schools of Education, Engineering and Law'.

When CA placed HOMELAND SECURITY NAPOLITANO as CA public university head---they shouted WE ARE OLD WORLD GLOBAL 1% KINGS AND QUEENS----NOT 99% PUBLIC.


What are the annual earnings for a full-time minimum wage worker?

Minimum wage basic calculations and its impact on poverty


Since it was first instituted in 1938, the federal minimum wage has established a floor for wages. While not every worker is eligible, it provides a minimum of earnings for the lowest-paid workers.
What are full-time annual earnings at the current minimum wage



The annual earnings for a full-time minimum-wage worker is $15,080 at the current federal minimum wage of $7.25. Full-time work means working 2,080 hours each year, which is 40 hours each week. However, many states have their own minimum wages, including 29 that are currently higher than the federal rate.



Minimum wages from state to state vary widely, from those with minimums that default to the federal rate to states with minimums that are higher. Washington and Massachusetts have the highest current state minimum wage at $11 per hour.



Some states with minimums higher than the federal wage—such as New Jersey, Arizona and Washington—have also chosen to adjust their minimum wage annually for inflation. Some municipalities, including Washington D.C., currently have a minimum wage for some employees that is even higher than minimums in any state.



How much is the federal minimum wage really worth?
Despite these recent increases in state minimum wages, minimum wages at the federal and most state levels are still below the peak of its real value in 1968. Adjusting the real value for inflation based on 2017 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage of $1.60 was worth $11.39 in 2017 dollars. Since then, the minimum wage’s real value has largely been in decline.


Will a minimum wage job keep workers out of poverty?



Whether full-time work at minimum wage keeps a worker out of poverty depends on their family size and whether others in the household work. Someone who works full time for minimum wage and lives alone will earn above their poverty threshold. For single parents who work minimum wage, however, staying above poverty can be particularly challenging, even with full-time work.


Poverty is determined by the U.S. Census Bureau’s poverty thresholds. These thresholds, updated annually, determine how much income a household requires to meet basic needs, such as food and shelter. In 2016 in a household of two adults, a single full-time worker at minimum wage will earn only 94 percent of their poverty threshold of $16,070. A single parent with one child will earn 91 percent of their poverty threshold.


This means that in order to have earnings above their poverty threshold, a single parent with one child, for example, would have to earn at least $7.95 per hour working full-time. At the current federal minimum wage of $7.25, this single parent would have to work at least 2,282 hours during the year, or an average of about 43.8 hours each week.


The larger the family, the more hours of work are required to stay above poverty with a single minimum-wage income. A single parent working at the current minimum wage with two children would have to work at least 2,668 hours annually—more than 50 hours each week—to keep the household above poverty.



Do workers at the minimum wage still need government assistance?


With a minimum wage income, even working full time, many workers will qualify for most federal safety net programs in the United States. Eligibility guidelines for government assistance are based on the Census Bureau thresholds, but are developed and updated annually by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Those with incomes below a certain percentage of their poverty guideline will qualify.



Federal assistance programs all have eligibility requirements that are in part based on the proportion of household income to the federal poverty guideline. For example, the SNAP nutritional assistance program is available to those with a gross household income of up to about 130 percent of their federal poverty guideline.


For a family of three, this means an annual income of $26,556 or less will qualify them for SNAP benefits. A full-time worker supporting this household alone will have to earn $12.78hourly working 40 hours each week—or about 70 hours each week at the current $7.25 minimum wage—before the household loses eligibility for benefits.
__________________________________________



We want to take today's discussion on wages and income to one example of how today's low-income are facing SEVERE QUALITY OF LIFE ISSUES----by looking at was back in REAGAN ERA----MASTER PLAN OF MOVING FORWARD ONE WORLD taking US 99% of citizens to overseas third world FOREIGN ECONOMIC conditions. When our US media highlights the FEDERAL FUNDING for low-income PHONE USE----under OBAMA these FEDERAL FUNDS soared as more and more and more and more US citizens fell into long-term unemployment. Know who received these FEDERAL PHONE FUNDS to give out as PATRONAGE? Often our global banking 1% freemason/Greeks. Connecting our US 99% of citizens to having to be a PLAYER in order to maintain ordinary quality of life.



So, this was the start of ROBBER BARON few decades-----this was created by far-right wing global banking 1% REAGAN----and the goal will be to END these subsidies for phones when ROBBER BARON few decades is over. That comes with the economic crash and collapse of US DOLLAR tied to massive SOVEREIGN US AND STATE TREASURY BOND DEBT fraud.



All our US low-income citizens we see riding the buses or on the sidewalks texting, watching streaming movies, using SMART CAMERAS----will of course lose all that funding and the ability to access even a phone call.

Our 5% freemason/Greeks have been using these phone subsidies are recruiting tools making people think they had to pledge for phone service-----but as our 5% players head under the bus---so too is this patronage. Today's US and global middle-class----soon to become those overseas SWEAT SHOP WHITE COLLAR PROFESSIONALS----


Lifeline Program for Low-Income Consumers


More Lifeline Information:


Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC)
FCC Consumer Guide: Lifeline Support for Affordable
Communications


Lifeline Across America Consumer Outreach
Lifeline Broadband Provider Petitions
Oklahoma Enhanced Lifeline Support Maps
Lifeline Provider Compliance Plans and ETC Petitions
Low-Income Broadband Pilot Program
Lifeline Fraud Tip Line: 1-855-4LL-TIPS (or 1-855-455-8477) or Lifeline@fcc.gov. Please provide as much detail as possible, including your name and contact information and the company you are using to receive Lifeline-supported phone service.


Since 1985, the Lifeline program has provided a discount on phone service for qualifying low-income consumers to ensure that all Americans have the opportunities and security that phone service brings, including being able to connect to jobs, family and emergency services. Lifeline is part of the Universal Service Fund. The Lifeline program is available to eligible low-income consumers in every state, territory, commonwealth, and on Tribal lands.



The Lifeline program is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). USAC is responsible for data collection and maintenance, support calculation, and disbursement for the low-income program. USAC’s website provides information regarding administrative aspects of the low-income program, as well as program requirements.


On March 31, 2016, the Commission adopted a comprehensive reform and modernization of the Lifeline program. In the 2016 Lifeline Modernization Order, the Commission included broadband as a support service in the Lifeline program. The Commission also set out minimum service standards for Lifeline-supported services to ensure maximum value for the universal service dollar, and established a National Eligibility Verifier to make independent subscriber eligibility determinations.



Below are highlights of the reforms made in the 2016 Lifeline Modernization Order:


Minimum Service Standards & Support Amounts
Lifeline Providers
National Verifier
Budget
Devices
Eligibility
Timeline
Date Mobile Voice Mobile Broadband Fixed Broadband Voice Support Amount (Per Month) Broadband Support Amount (Per Month)
December 1, 2016* 500 Minutes
Speed: 3G
Usage Allowance: 500 MB
Speed: 10/1***
Usage Allowance: 150 GB $9.25 $9.25
December 1, 2017 750 Minutes
Speed: 3G
Usage Allowance: 1 GB
Speed: 15/2***
Usage Allowance: 250GB $9.25 $9.25
December 1, 2018 1000 Minutes
Speed: 3G or Bureau Determination
Usage Allowance: 2 GB
Speed: Mechanism
Usage Allowance: CAF Standard or Bureau Determination $9.25 $9.25
December 1, 2019 1000 Minutes
Speed: 3G or Bureau Determination
Usage Allowance: Updating Mechanism
Speed: Mechanism
Usage Allowance: CAF Standard or Bureau Determination $7.25 $9.25
December 1, 2020 1000 Minutes
Speed: 3G or Bureau Determination
Usage Allowance: Updating Mechanism
Speed: Mechanism
Usage Allowance: CAF Standard or Bureau Determination $5.25 $9.25
December 1, 2021 1000 Minutes**
Speed: 3G or Bureau Determination
Usage Allowance: Updating Mechanism
Speed: Mechanism
Usage Allowance: CAF Standard or Bureau Determination $0** $9.25
* Minimum service standards and support amounts will be implemented on the later of December 1, 2016 or 60 days after PRA approval.
** Continued voice support of $5.25 per month in areas with only one Lifeline provider.
*** Fixed broadband providers that do not offer a product meeting the minimum service standards to a particular customer’s residence may receive the $9.25 benefit if that customer purchases a fixed broadband offering that meets or exceeds 4 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload.
Daily Releases
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006 and Earlier
3/28/2018
Oglala Sioux Tribe Petition for Reconsideration Public Notice: Wireline Competition Bureau Seeks Comment on Oglala Sioux Tribe Petition for Reconsideration of Partial Waiver Order
Word PDF
3/13/2018
Pine Ridge Waiver Order: WCB grants in part the request of the Oglala Sioux Tribe for a temporary waiver of the Lifeline recertification rules.
Word PDF
3/1/2018
Telrite Corporation Order: WCB grants, in part, the petition of Telrite Corporation to extend the Bureau’s temporary waiver of the Lifeline Program’s recertification and non-usage rules in Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands through May 31, 2018.
Word PDF
2/20/2018
Lifeline Universal Forms Public Notice: WCB provides guidance regarding the new universal forms for the Lifeline program that consumers and eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) must use to verify and recertify subscriber eligibility beginning on July 1, 2018.
Word PDF
2/9/2018
Sprint Reconsideration Order: Denied Sprint's Petitions for Reconsideration of the Bureau's Lifeline Waiver Extension Orders, which granted California, New York, and Michigan additional time to implement the revised Lifeline qualifying programs.
Word PDF
2/9/2018
California Public Utilities Commission Wildfire Order: WCB grants in part the California Public Utilities Commission’s two petitions requesting temporary waivers of the Lifeline program’s non-usage and recertification rules for subscribers in counties affected by the California wildfires.
Word PDF
2/8/2018
NaLa Petition for Declaratory Ruling Public Notice: WCB seeks comment on a Petition for Declaratory Ruling by National Lifeline Association (NaLA) regarding reimbursement for all Lifeline subscribers who are eligible as of the first of the month.
Word PDF
2/2/2018
Telrite Corporation Waiver Extension Order: WCB the petition of Telrite Corporation to extend the Bureau’s previously granted temporary waiver of the Lifeline Program’s recertification rules in Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands through April 30, 2018.
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1/23/2018
The National Hispanic Media Coalition Comment Extension Order: WCB grants in part the National Hispanic Media Coalition’s (NHMC) request for an extension of time to file comments and reply comments in response to the 2017 Lifeline Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) and Notice of Inquiry (NOI).
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1/11/2018
Alaska Telephone Association Petition for Clarification and Waiver of Lifeline Minimum Service Standards Public Notice: WCB seeks comment on Alaska Telephone Petition for Clarification and Waiver of certain Commission rules relating to the Lifeline minimum service standards for mobile broadband service and fixed broadband service in remote areas in Alaska.
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1/10/2018
Guidance on the Lifeline Reimbursement Payment Process Based on NLAD Data Public Notice: WCB provides guidance to carriers regarding the Lifeline reimbursement process using subscriber data contained in the National Lifeline Accountability Database (NLAD).
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Bureau/Office:
Wireline Competition
Tags:
Lifeline - Universal Service
Updated:
Thursday, March 29, 2018

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The FEDERAL funds that went into REAGAN-ERA free phones expanded as did US long-term unemployment.  This is a quality of life issue artificially maintained by subsidy that will disappear with BASIC INCOME.

BASIC INCOME simply states that instead of all that FEDERAL SUBSIDY for social benefit---which by the way ended as ECONOMY OF STEALING FROM THE POOR these few decades of ROBBER BARON FRAUDS.......we will give those US low-income citizens and unemployed a set amount each month in BULK-----NO SUBSIDIES for child care, education, social services, phones or heat, no health care or disability subsidies, no senior subsidies, no housing subsidies, no unemployment benefits, don't even think you will get that $700,000 MEDICARE HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNT---that was looted by ROBBER BARON CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA.

Our US 99% of WE THE PEOPLE must understand the term PUBLIC SUBSIDY vs TAXPAYERS REVENUE coming back to our communities in services and benefits.  What global banking 5% pols and players call SUBSIDY------was simply our first world, developed nation, WE THE PEOPLE --I AM MAN paying taxes that come back to benefit all our 99% citizens.  These few decades of CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA being those global banking pols said NO----ALL TAX REVENUE GOES TO OLD WORLD GLOBAL 1% KINGS AND QUEENS---you know, just like DARK AGES.

If our US citizens are mad over our low-income getting free phones and NOT getting mad at deliberate destruction of our once thriving, local, domestic, REAL free market economy that had almost full employment by CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA----then our US 99% WE THE PEOPLE will continue to be PLAYED.


And here is far-right wing global banking Clinton era TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT shifting from Federal subsidy to a phone user tax---------that left more Federal tax revenue for global banking to steal from our Federal agencies during CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA



'The federal program dates back to 1996; it was part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996'.


Feb 12, 2012 @ 01:18 PM 66,282 2 Free Issues of Forbes

Are Taxpayers Paying for Free Cell Phones?


Kelly Phillips Erb , Forbes Staff
Image via Wikipedia


This week, after a number of news programs ran stories about free cell phones being distributed to welfare recipients, I received a bunch of inquiries asking whether it was true. Specifically, I was asked whether there were free "Obama phones" being distributed on the taxpayers' nickel.


Here's the scoop:


Yes, there is a law in place to help low-income customers have access to basic telephone service. It's divided into two programs: Link-Up America and Lifeline.


Link-Up assists consumers with the installation costs of phone service. The program pays up to $30 of the cost of installation and up to $200 in the form of a one year, interest-free loan for additional installation costs.




Lifeline provides discounts on basic monthly service at a primary residence for qualified telephone customers. These discounts can be up to $10.00 per month, or more for certain Native Americans. Generally, to qualify, your income must be at or below 135% of the federal poverty guidelines (these vary by location and size of family but for comparison, rings in at $22,350 for a family of four in the lower 48).


In some instances, coverage may include discounts for cell phone service instead of land lines at primary residences because realistically, cell phone service is less expensive in some areas than traditional service. Eligibility and type of program may vary from state to state - and this is why there is a flurry of confusion about the program being a product of the Obama administration. In Florida, for example, cell phone service was added to the existing program - in 2008, the year that Obama was elected to office. The conclusion from many folks was that it was a new federal program. It was not. It was an expansion of the existing program and implemented on a state by state basis.



The federal program dates back to 1996; it was part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The Act did a number of things, including increasing internet access to doctors and patients in rural hospitals (for consults with specialists); subsidizing internet and phone coverage for schools and libraries and providing free or subsidized coverage for families who can't afford it so that they have links to emergency and government services. The Act was not taxpayer funded… exactly. Taxpayers do pay for coverage but not via federal income taxes. Instead, the Act "mandated the creation of the universal service fund (USF) into which all telecommunications providers are required to contribute a percentage of their interstate and international end-user telecommunications revenues." So that little fee on your phone bill labeled USF? That's what you're paying for.



As you can imagine, not every one supports this idea. And yes, there has been abuse - you can read about efforts to curb abuse here (downloads as a pdf).


As a result, there is a bill in place to put an end to the practice. Introduced in November 18, 2011, by Rep. Tim Griffin (R-AR), the Stop Taxpayer Funded Cell Phones Act of 2011, has three co-sponsors, Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA), Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL) and Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL). The text is as follows:


Prohibits a provider of commercial mobile communications service from receiving universal service support under specified provisions of the Communications Act of 1934 for the provision of such service through the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Lifeline program (a program that provides discounts on monthly telephone service to qualifying low-income consumers).



The bill now sits in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. I'm guessing it will sit awhile.
So there you have it. Yes, the program exists. No, it's not an Obama administration program. Yes, taxpayers support it but no, not through federal income taxes.
What's your take?

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Just as RACE TO TOP funding for laptop computers touted to help the poor was always a way to use FEDERAL education funds to buy tens of millions of BILL GATES/APPLE computers knowing it would KILL EDUCATION ACHIEVEMENT-----free phones was always that same use of FEDERAL AGENCY funds to help the poor both ending after ROBBER BARON few decades. Remember Clinton-era filling our public schools with calculators ending with our US students unable to do math---but IBM et al soared in profits.

What were last century FUNCTIONING FEDERAL AGENCIES actually providing social benefit to our US communities and helping the poor became FODDER during ROBBER BARON few decades ----with no intentions of restoring those FEDERAL SOCIAL BENEFIT AGENCIES-------that was a first world, developed nation, real left social progressive economic policy.  MOVING FORWARD our US 99% of WE THE PEOPLE will get to pay 1000 percent more taxes and get NO societal benefit from our tax revenue.

So, this one social benefit of PHONE SUBSIDY will disappear----as will the freemason/Greek recruitment tool as those 5% players go under the bus---as more and more and more US citizens are made desperate for the basics of quality of life------the easier global banking 1% sells BASIC INCOME even if it is FAKE POLICY.....only lasting a few decades until MOVING FORWARD US FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONE global corporate campus SOCIALISM is installed.

AND HERE COMES THOSE SAME FAR-RIGHT WING GLOBAL BANKING 1% FAKE ALT RIGHT ALT LEFT 5% POLS AND PLAYERS OUT TO PRETEND THEY ARE HELPING OUR 99%  US AND GLOBAL LABOR POOL LOW-INCOME CITIZENS

Here we see PEOPLESPOLICYPROJECT just as the OUR REVOLUTION 5% global banking players with names sounding like all this is POPULIST.

There was no 40 ACRES AND A MULE----there will be no BASIC INCOME.

As we stated------UK CORBYN as US Bernie Sanders are global banking 1% FAKE labor and justice selling these policies with those GLOBAL GREEN CORPORATION PARTY far-right wing global banking players as well---------those global banking FAKE POPULIST leaders are killing US 99% WE THE PEOPLE black, white, and brown citizens


'While most people were focussed on the proposal to turn the RBA into a retail mortgage-lender, the Greens’ embrace of the Universal Basic Income (UBI) deserves scrutiny'.



Can you imagine where the US would be if these global banking 5% players took all this energy fighting for the global rich to get richer, and actually worked to be US CITIZENS and helping their communities?
Even A Modest Basic Income Could Improve Economic Security

James King October 19, 2017

The idea of a universal basic income (UBI) – a cash payment made to every person in the country with no strings attached – is becoming increasingly popular in experimental policy circles. Most proposals for a universal basic income are “complete” UBI proposals: payments large enough to guarantee a minimum standard of living to every person independent of work. In the US, that would be roughly $12,000 per person based on the poverty line.



However, it is more likely that any universal cash payment passed in the US would be more modest to begin with, e.g. a low UBI of a few hundred dollars a month. As UBI advocates continue to advance their policy objectives, it is imperative to make the case that any UBI, even a small one, has significant benefits.

OH, REALLY?????


In 2016, the Federal Reserve reported that nearly half of all Americans would not be able to cover a $400 emergency expense without either borrowing money or selling valuables. Although the financial status of Americans has been improving since the Great Recession, the majority of Americans earning less than $30,000 a year still worry about paying their bills every month and maintaining their standard of living.  Money may not buy happiness, but even a partial UBI could help buy Americans peace of mind and provide many Americans an avenue to save money for emergencies.

THE US FED SHOULD KNOW HOW IMPOVERISHED US CITIZENS ARE---THEY LED THE ATTACK BY MASSIVE ROBBER BARON FRAUDS AGAINST US CITIZEN WEALTH----BUT THEY SAY WE JUST DIDN'T SAVE ENOUGH.

Opponents of a UBI might claim that such a low UBI would just get absorbed into each family’s normal consumption level and thus not improve their overall financial security. But the experience of the Alaska Permanent Fund (APF) suggests otherwise. The APF is a state-owned wealth fund that pays an annual dividend to every Alaska resident, typically between $1000 and $2000. In addition to being overwhelmingly popular among Alaskans, survey data show that the vast majority of recipients either save their dividend money or use it to pay off debt. Just 1 in 4 Alaskans report spending most of the money they receive each year. Of those who spend the money, only 1 in 5 report spending it on things they otherwise couldn’t afford. So, it seems, a modest UBI really would help cushion families’ financial security.


ALASKA IS SARAH PALIN IS CRAZY FAR-RIGHT WING GLOBAL BANKING----WE WOULD NEVER BELIEVE THESE DATA OR EVEN IF 99% ALASKANS ARE GETTING THESE FUNDS.  WONDER WHY A FAR-RIGHT WING BUSH NEO-CONSERVATIVE STATE WOULD LEAD IN THESE POLICIES IF NOT TO JUKE THE STATS.


A low UBI would also have significant ramifications for America’s financial sector, for the better of many Americans. It is no secret that it is expensive to be poor in America. Financial institutions make a significant amount of money every year by taking advantage of people who are unable to make ends meet in the short term. A low UBI would substantially diminish many Americans’ reliance on exploitative financial products, saving billions in fees and interest payments on top of the cash payments themselves.



Two products that would be directly addressed by a partial UBI are overdraft fees and payday loans.


According to the CFPB, banks raised as much as $17B in revenue through overdraft fees alone in 2016, with nearly 30 percent of all people with checking accounts paying an overdraft fee. It isn’t cheap to overdraw your bank account: even though the average overdraft amount is only $25, the average bank overdraft fee is $34. Many banks will also charge an additional overdraft fee on accounts that remain overdrawn for 5 to 10 days. Besides being exorbitant, overdraft fees also heavily target a specific group of exploitable people: nearly 75 percent of all overdraft fees are paid by just 8 percent of consumers. These “routine overdrafters” overdraft at least ten times a year, and as a result, pay hundreds of dollars in fees. Giving Americans even $100 a month could save millions of Americans their overdraft fees, taking that fee revenue from the banks and giving it back to consumers.


Payday loans rely on the inability of Americans to make ends meet. Over ten million people take out payday loans every year, with 70 percent of borrowers needing the money for recurring expenses, like rent and utilities. They pay billions in interest to do so. The advertised cost of a payday loan is typically $15 per $100 borrowed for a two week loan, which is almost a 400 percent APR. Because most payday loans require full payment as a lump sum, many people end up borrowing again to pay off the original loan, creating a recurring debt trap. A modest UBI could substantially curb the demand for payday loans by giving Americans an extra stream of income to make their monthly expenses.



For these reasons, a universal cash payment program in the United States, of even a relatively small amount, would make millions of American lives better and put money from banks’ bottom lines back into consumers’ pockets. The income boost from a low UBI would give Americans more economic freedom and security.

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Looking just at phones for our low-income-----these SMART PHONE RATES were deliberately kept low to sell the policies of DIGTIZATION OF MAJOR infrastructure as TV, RADIO, PHONES. There is no intent of keeping rates low. NONE OF THESE PHONE POLICIES ARE FOR THE POOR----and all of US 99% and global 99% of labor pool will BE today's US poor.

Notice BUSINESS INSIDER is providing propaganda to our new 99% Asian immigrant workers---

A GOOD PROXY FOR HUMANITY????

'proxy
acting as substitute for another, or what h4x0rs use to be "invisible"'

Keep in mind, global banking 1% as BUSINESS INSIDER and UNITED NATIONS----think humans are HUMAN CAPITAL-----the proxy for human capital would be something that replaces HUMANITY.

Still Don't Believe Android Is For The Poor? This Chart Proves It


Jim Edwards
Aug. 15, 2014, 11:11 AM

We have recently been examining the case that Android phones are bought by poor people while Apple's iPhones serve the 1% (or at least the richest 11.7% of the market).

"Poor" is a relative term here, and some people don't like hearing it. See the comments under this story, for instance.


We're talking about "the poor" in a macroeconomic sense. Per capita income in the U.S. is about $47,000 annually. In India it's just $3,560, according to the World Bank. One of these groups is "poor" by comparison.


Yesterday, market research group IDC published some data that makes this case far more cogently than we've been able to so far.


Look at this chart (below) of smartphone market share broken down by price. Nearly 60% of Android phones sold cost less than $200. Android's core market barely bothers with the $200 to $400 midrange, and only about 20% of sales are in the premium $400-plus area:

Apple, with its iOS mobile operating system, by contrast, sells the vast majority of its devices — more than 80% — in the $400-plus range. The company barely bothers with the midrange, and it sells zero phones under $200.
Android phone makers could price their wares in the $200 to $400 range — but they don't. They sell most phones for $200 or less. That strongly suggests that Android makers know there is a huge chunk of the market that is price-sensitive on phones.
Price isn't an exact proxy for consumer income of course. Some people who buy a $200 phone can afford a $400 but choose the cheaper one anyway.
Nevertheless, it is also true that anyone who buys an Apple phone at $400-plus can also afford a $200 handset but chooses not to. Meanwhile, anyone who can afford only a $200 phone cannot, by definition, buy an Apple phone.
Those people are "Android people," whether they like it or not.
Don't assume this is just a few poor people skewing Android's numbers, by the way. Eighty-five percent of all smartphones sold are Android phones. Android is good proxy for all of humanity, in other words, and humanity mostly wants a smartphone for under $200.

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Indeed, BASIC INCOME will be the same FALSE FLAG policy as 40 acres and mule. What was a policy tied as a carrot for those being freed from slavery will become that same carrot taking our US 99% of WE THE PEOPLE back into slavery. We shout over and again for our US citizens black, white, and brown not to wax romantic over ANTEBELLUM SOUTHERN plantation slavery. That is NOT where MOVING FORWARD ONE WORLD takes our US FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONES. Where our colonial white indentured servants and what were sharecroppers not quite slaves but as good as slaves may think made them winners in these colonial economics will not exist in MOVING FORWARD US FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONES----SMART CITIES. Depopulation and extreme poverty has all US 99% of citizens in crosshairs black, white, and brown citizens as too our new 99% of immigrant workers.


The dangers for our US 99% whether black, white, or brown citizens is tying these terms of enslavement to our own US history----these few decades of CLINTON/BUSH/OBAMA rebuilding the global slave trading system tied to FOREIGN ECONOMIC ZONES have included our Eastern European nations soon to include Western European nations. STALINISM with gulags, forced labor, constant purging of people called PLAYERS is ENSLAVEMENT.

Is there anything to be learned from "40-Acres and a Mule" for the Basic Income Movement? (en.wikipedia.org)
Scott Santens



In included a section about this in one of my earlier articles.


Thomas Jefferson contemplated the answer to this question and wrote his solution into his version of the Virginia State Constitution:


“Every person of full age neither owning nor having owned 50 acres of land, shall be entitled to an appropriation of 50 acres or to so much as shall make up what he owns or has owned 50 acres in full and absolute dominion. And no other person shall be capable of taking an appropriation.”



Jefferson felt that to realize freedom more fully, everyone needed to have a minimum amount of land, and this ownership of land would release every individual from the coercive power of others, while also empowering them to actually do what they wish. With this universally guaranteed minimum amount of capital in the form of real property, people could choose to live on their own, off their own land with their own labor, bothered by no one. In addition they could also choose to use that land as a source of income, through their own labor, to actually afford the goods and services of others. In this way Jefferson saw a minimum of 50 acres as a guarantee of both forms of freedom.



Decades later, a freed slave and chosen spokesperson of other freed slaves named Garrison Frazier would express the same sentiment as his own answer, when asked about slavery and how to best preserve his and his community of freedmen’s newly proclaimed freedom from it.


“Slavery is, receiving by irresistible power the work of another man, and not by his consent. The freedom, as I understand it, promised by the proclamation, is taking us from under the yoke of bondage, and placing us where we could reap the fruit of our own labor, take care of ourselves and assist the Government in maintaining our freedom… The way we can best take care of ourselves is to have land, and turn it and till it by our own labor...”



The result of this response, is the now infamous Special Field Order No. 15 by General Sherman, which included a promise which came to be known as “40 acres and a mule”, where 400,000 acres of land owned by slave owners were to be redistributed to the now former slaves themselves, in 40 acre increments. It was the freed men themselves who knew that to be truly free required more than a lack of chains, but real opportunity and the power to say “No” to being forced to work for others, that land ownership could provide. Essentially, a minimum amount of capital was required for them to be entirely and forever free from slavery.



Unfortunately, this promise was broken only months later by President Andrew Johnson, and the land returned to its former owners. How would history be different, if this order had not been reversed? Where would we be now if this same order had been extended to all U.S. citizens? Without this bare minimum of real property, does everyone in America today somehow have the equivalent freedom from coercion plus freedom of opportunity such minimum land wealth ownership would allow?