Thus, wealth is something that can be used to fall back upon if, say, one loses his or her job. For example, savings can be used to pay the rent, and buy health insurance. Income Income is what one earns from employment, and also what maybe gotten through interest, or through government assistance. The importance of income is that it is used to pay for the resources of food, clothing, housing, and health-care. A higher income means that one will have more choices available.
Poor families are less likely to have nutritionally adequate diets than non poor families.
Children who have inadequate diets lag in growth and have more frequent, more severe, and longer-lasting infectious diseases. For children younger than 18 years old, the poverty rate in 1991 was 16.8 percent for white children, 40.4 percent for children of Hispanic origins, and 43.9 percent for black children. The assumptions behind the tax cuts, and wealth-transfers were that those with wealth would use the additional money to invest in the economy. This investment would, in turn, create jobs which would improve everyone's standard of living. In reality, the number of people in poverty has increased by 13.5 million to 38 million, from 24 million in 1978.