What it Takes for Two Types of Families to Live Modestly in Modesto, California

      For context to this post see, Uncle Sam's Poverty Guidelines.

     The Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank in Washington D.C., provides a regional calculator of what it would take to provide a modest standard of living anywhere in the country.  No other organization known at this time, liberal or conservative, provides a comparable regional calculator that offers an alternative viewpoint.

     Please use your own judgment and compare our budgets study of two types of families based on region. The first case profiles our same two families living instead in Modesto, California, According to the U.S. Commerce Department's United States Census the median income in Modesto is $49,205.

     Here is what the Economic Policy Institutes calculates for our two families. It would take a  family of four about 154 hours weekly to generate sufficient income at the minimum wage rate. It would take a family of two a little over 120 hours.

     The population of Modesto was 203,547 in 2012. 39,692 people lived at or below the federally defined poverty level.