Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome back to Michigan's Big Show starring Michael Patrick Shields.
We had a new report come out last week that
dealt with the amount of money that households are bringing
in and if they are able to pay for the
needs that they have, are they able to make ends meet?
(00:30):
This report is called ALICE Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed Households.
These are people who go to work and try and
make a living, but their expenses are more than what
they bring in the door. So that's a fancy wave
or an easy way to call what this is is
(00:51):
called the ALICE Report. So join us to talk about
this is the director of ALICE for Public Policy, Michigan
Association of United Ways, Bobby Derigo Jones. Good morning, Thank Kyle,
thanks for joining us on the program here. So your
latest report showed that of the state's four million households,
forty one percent live below the ALISH thresholds. Which threshold
(01:16):
which means that they are not making as much as
they need to get by. Is that kind of the thumbnail.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Here, That's right, So forty percent of our households across
the state below the ALICE threshold. And then when you
look at people who are earning above the official poverty line.
We find that one in every four over twenty five
percent of those of households in Michigan are just alice alone.
So it's a huge population of people who, by our
(01:46):
definition in America are not living in poverty, but are
struggling to afford all the costs to live and to
work in the state of Michigan, and are many different communities.
And that's how we created that term ellis to shine
a spotlight on these people who are falling through the cracks.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
So how do you determine the threshold?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, great question. So I would imagine a lot of
people listening. When you are budgeting what you can afford
what you can't for the month or for the year.
Like me, you add up your mortgage, your even your
cell phone bill, if your parent, your childcare, if you
need that. Many working parents do, and this is how
we figure out what we can't and can't afford. The
(02:33):
most important number in America for determining who gets access
to things like SNAP and Medicaid is not put together
using any sophisticated measure. Our official poverty metric in the
United States is created by using the minimum cost of
food from nineteen sixty three and updating that every year
(02:53):
for inflation and multiplying it by three. And Kyle, I
don't know anybody who budgets their expenses. I'm alsipplying their
myyer bill by three. So United Way realized that this
was just not going to cut it for our own
work to make a difference across the state of Michigan
and across America. And so we take data that are transparent,
(03:15):
from sources that are consistently collected over time, and from
sources that give us an idea of local differences and costs.
Like for housing, we know housing prices are different from
one community to the next, and so we add up
those costs including housing, food, transportation, childcare, healthcare expenses, technology,
(03:39):
and even the taxes that you have to pay on
the income you need to earn all the rest, and
then a little bit extract because there isn't data nationwide
say on how much people pay for clothes, and so
that's how we create this measure. And we find that
for a family with two young children needing childcare, two
adults and two kids, the poverty line would say that
(04:01):
that family should be making at least thirty two thousand
dollars when we add up data on all the costs,
and because we have some conservative standards, we have to
meet it for our data. This is a conservative measure.
The Alice threshold for a family of four is seventy
five thousand dollars, So that's more than double what the
(04:22):
poverty line says, and hopefully it starts to give people
a picture of a that's a thirty thousand dollars crack
that people can fall through. And we're talking about access
to something like medicaid.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Wow, that's something else. And so this number then that
you say forty percent are living below the Alice threshold,
has that number been going up or down?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So that number is a little bit persistent from last
year's report. But when we look up prior to the
pandemic twenty nineteen, in the state of Michigan, over one
hundred thousand households were added to below the Elis threshold
from twenty nineteen till now. And that jump happened when
(05:05):
everybody started feeling the effects of inflation a couple of
years into the pandemic, and it's stuck around. So we're
talking that's households, right, So not just single people living
in each of those places. But we're talking too or
three times that number of people who before the pandemic
were feeling a little bit less pressure on the cost
of daily life, but now have been dealing with a
(05:27):
much different reality for a number of years now. And
we know that placed a lot of stress on people.
And so that's why United Way brings together partners in
our community to make sure that everybody on that pathway
to financial stability is getting the help they need to
feel okay, and why we also advocate for public policies
to make sure that eli's households in totality wherever they are,
(05:50):
are getting some of the support that they need to Is.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
It too simplistic to say that these are households that
are living paycheck to paycheck?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Not at all?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Okay? All right, So the pandemic has really kind of
driven people. Because of the inflation from the pandemic, this
is really driven more people. They have to live paycheck
to paycheck.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
And this is not just the study of wages. It
is a study of the cost of living. You know,
we find that there are some things that have really
grown an expense over time, like food over the last
few years. There are other things that are very persistently expensive,
like childcare, And not only are some of the basics
(06:33):
really expensive, they're also very hard to find. Right. Childcare
is a very it's just people providing care. There's not
a lot of cost that you can cut when it
comes to childcare, and so you know, that's why we
need a sort of partner as the private and public
sector to make sure that things like childcare are more affordable.
The last thing I'll say too, is that the cost
of the basics generally rises faster than inflation. So even
(06:57):
when we talk about inflation, we're not really we're sort
of asking how hard people who are just paycheck to
paycheck take the brunt of that because the cost of
these basics like food rise faster. We don't need people
who are struggling paycheck to paycheck to be told that
they're doing it right, Kyle. But it's important for folks
(07:17):
to realize just how large the scope of financial need
might be in their community. And we hope that this
study helps people ask better questions wherever they are about
who's doing well or who's not. A lot there are
a lot of not only policy makers but businesses. If
you think about hospitals and utilities and employers, banks and
(07:39):
credit unions who all make decisions about payment assistance plans
and who might qualify for support with something. We just
want to raise the bar for what financial stability looks
like in the state of Michigan.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Bobby Dorigo Jones, Director of Alice and Public Policy Michigan
for the United Way, We appreciate you joining us on
the program this morning. Make you co you're listening to
Michigan's Big Show starring Michael, Patrick, Shields and Tony I
don't know if you knew this, but there's a new
study that warns that a nationwide ban on fluoride and
(08:11):
public drinking water could result in billions of dollars in
dental fees for families and rotten teeth. Oh yeah, It
shows that a fall fifty states drop community water flooration
programs kids in the United States could develop twenty five
million more cavities in the next five years. I don't
even know how you could figure that out.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Yeah, I mean, Florida's been in the news about this.
I believe Grand Rapids was in the news about this.
So this is an issue that we've covered a few
times on this program, and it's going to continue to
get uh prough coverage. Obviously, my goodness, that is a
shocking number.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
A lot of kids, or are they you know? Or
we could just cut down on candy.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
There is that you can brush your teeth, jump food.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, you're listening to Michigan's Big Show starring Michael Patrick Shields.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Have you ever wondered why health insurance costs seem to
keep going up? I was doing some research online and
I stumbled upon some surprising information on Blue Cross Blue
Shield of Michigan's websitemibluedaily dot com slash affordability. I was
surprised to learn that the cost Blue Cross pays for
prescription drugs rose by a staggering fifteen percent last year.
(09:21):
Fifteen percent. That's five times higher than inflation. It's no
wonder healthcare costs or a concern for so many of us.
That's why Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is working
hard to help all of us better understand the factors
driving up healthcare costs and sharing. What they are doing
is a business to address it. Because Blue Cross knows
that healthcare is personal and needs to work for everyone.
(09:42):
And affordability matters, So I encourage you to take a
minute and check outmi blue Daily dot com slash affordability
and get informed. You'll be glad you did. It's eye
opening information that can help everyone better understand the complexities
of the healthcare system and its impact on your health
insurance costs. Michael Patrick shields here looking around Dusty Cellar
(10:03):
and I want to talk to Matt Rhodes because I
want to have a private party event here at Dusty's.
What are my options?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Thanks Michael. Luckily you have many options depending on the
number of guests you plan on hosting.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
I'm not sure yet how many Where can we go?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Well, we have four rooms to choose from, range from
eight guests up to forty two depending on the occasion.
We can do both stand up cocktail parties, buffets, and
multi course dinners.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
So the NAPA and Tuscan rooms I see here are
for smaller parties, and then you have this Lelandois Patio
and the Bordeaux room. Those are for the bigger ones.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
That's right, Napa Tuscan for parties of eight to fourteen
and Leidon On Bordeaux for parties up to forty plus guests.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
I'm glad I'm here because i can get my six
for sixty six dollars wine club selections. And then I'm
stopping the wine bar, of course in the tap room
for a bite and a drink.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
That's like to offer the seller for retail wine bar
for casual fine dining in the tap room, our local
neighborhood pub.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
Cheers Matt. It's Dusties on Grand River and Okamis. And
you can go online too at Dustysellar dot com.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Cheers Michael,
Welcome back to Michigan's Big Show starring Michael Patrick Shields.
We had a new report come out last week that
dealt with the amount of money that households are bringing
in and if they are able to pay for the
needs that they have, are they able to make ends meet?
(00:30):
This report is called ALICE Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed Households.
These are people who go to work and try and
make a living, but their expenses are more than what
they bring in the door. So that's a fancy wave
or an easy way to call what this is is
(00:51):
called the ALICE Report. So join us to talk about
this is the director of ALICE for Public Policy, Michigan
Association of United Ways, Bobby Derigo Jones. Good morning, Thank Kyle,
thanks for joining us on the program here. So your
latest report showed that of the state's four million households,
forty one percent live below the ALISH thresholds. Which threshold
(01:16):
which means that they are not making as much as
they need to get by. Is that kind of the thumbnail.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Here, That's right, So forty percent of our households across
the state below the ALICE threshold. And then when you
look at people who are earning above the official poverty line.
We find that one in every four over twenty five
percent of those of households in Michigan are just alice alone.
So it's a huge population of people who, by our
(01:46):
definition in America are not living in poverty, but are
struggling to afford all the costs to live and to
work in the state of Michigan, and are many different communities.
And that's how we created that term ellis to shine
a spotlight on these people who are falling through the cracks.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
So how do you determine the threshold?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, great question. So I would imagine a lot of
people listening. When you are budgeting what you can afford
what you can't for the month or for the year.
Like me, you add up your mortgage, your even your
cell phone bill, if your parent, your childcare, if you
need that. Many working parents do, and this is how
we figure out what we can't and can't afford. The
(02:33):
most important number in America for determining who gets access
to things like SNAP and Medicaid is not put together
using any sophisticated measure. Our official poverty metric in the
United States is created by using the minimum cost of
food from nineteen sixty three and updating that every year
(02:53):
for inflation and multiplying it by three. And Kyle, I
don't know anybody who budgets their expenses. I'm alsipplying their
myyer bill by three. So United Way realized that this
was just not going to cut it for our own
work to make a difference across the state of Michigan
and across America. And so we take data that are transparent,
(03:15):
from sources that are consistently collected over time, and from
sources that give us an idea of local differences and costs.
Like for housing, we know housing prices are different from
one community to the next, and so we add up
those costs including housing, food, transportation, childcare, healthcare expenses, technology,
(03:39):
and even the taxes that you have to pay on
the income you need to earn all the rest, and
then a little bit extract because there isn't data nationwide
say on how much people pay for clothes, and so
that's how we create this measure. And we find that
for a family with two young children needing childcare, two
adults and two kids, the poverty line would say that
(04:01):
that family should be making at least thirty two thousand
dollars when we add up data on all the costs,
and because we have some conservative standards, we have to
meet it for our data. This is a conservative measure.
The Alice threshold for a family of four is seventy
five thousand dollars, So that's more than double what the
(04:22):
poverty line says, and hopefully it starts to give people
a picture of a that's a thirty thousand dollars crack
that people can fall through. And we're talking about access
to something like medicaid.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Wow, that's something else. And so this number then that
you say forty percent are living below the Alice threshold,
has that number been going up or down?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So that number is a little bit persistent from last
year's report. But when we look up prior to the
pandemic twenty nineteen, in the state of Michigan, over one
hundred thousand households were added to below the Elis threshold
from twenty nineteen till now. And that jump happened when
(05:05):
everybody started feeling the effects of inflation a couple of
years into the pandemic, and it's stuck around. So we're
talking that's households, right, So not just single people living
in each of those places. But we're talking too or
three times that number of people who before the pandemic
were feeling a little bit less pressure on the cost
of daily life, but now have been dealing with a
(05:27):
much different reality for a number of years now. And
we know that placed a lot of stress on people.
And so that's why United Way brings together partners in
our community to make sure that everybody on that pathway
to financial stability is getting the help they need to
feel okay, and why we also advocate for public policies
to make sure that eli's households in totality wherever they are,
(05:50):
are getting some of the support that they need to Is.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
It too simplistic to say that these are households that
are living paycheck to paycheck?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Not at all?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Okay? All right, So the pandemic has really kind of
driven people. Because of the inflation from the pandemic, this
is really driven more people. They have to live paycheck
to paycheck.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
And this is not just the study of wages. It
is a study of the cost of living. You know,
we find that there are some things that have really
grown an expense over time, like food over the last
few years. There are other things that are very persistently expensive,
like childcare, And not only are some of the basics
(06:33):
really expensive, they're also very hard to find. Right. Childcare
is a very it's just people providing care. There's not
a lot of cost that you can cut when it
comes to childcare, and so you know, that's why we
need a sort of partner as the private and public
sector to make sure that things like childcare are more affordable.
The last thing I'll say too, is that the cost
of the basics generally rises faster than inflation. So even
(06:57):
when we talk about inflation, we're not really we're sort
of asking how hard people who are just paycheck to
paycheck take the brunt of that because the cost of
these basics like food rise faster. We don't need people
who are struggling paycheck to paycheck to be told that
they're doing it right, Kyle. But it's important for folks
(07:17):
to realize just how large the scope of financial need
might be in their community. And we hope that this
study helps people ask better questions wherever they are about
who's doing well or who's not. A lot there are
a lot of not only policy makers but businesses. If
you think about hospitals and utilities and employers, banks and
(07:39):
credit unions who all make decisions about payment assistance plans
and who might qualify for support with something. We just
want to raise the bar for what financial stability looks
like in the state of Michigan.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Bobby Dorigo Jones, Director of Alice and Public Policy Michigan
for the United Way, We appreciate you joining us on
the program this morning. Make you co you're listening to
Michigan's Big Show starring Michael, Patrick, Shields and Tony I
don't know if you knew this, but there's a new
study that warns that a nationwide ban on fluoride and
(08:11):
public drinking water could result in billions of dollars in
dental fees for families and rotten teeth. Oh yeah, It
shows that a fall fifty states drop community water flooration
programs kids in the United States could develop twenty five
million more cavities in the next five years. I don't
even know how you could figure that out.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Yeah, I mean, Florida's been in the news about this.
I believe Grand Rapids was in the news about this.
So this is an issue that we've covered a few
times on this program, and it's going to continue to
get uh prough coverage. Obviously, my goodness, that is a
shocking number.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
A lot of kids, or are they you know? Or
we could just cut down on candy.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
There is that you can brush your teeth, jump food.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, you're listening to Michigan's Big Show starring Michael Patrick Shields.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Have you ever wondered why health insurance costs seem to
keep going up? I was doing some research online and
I stumbled upon some surprising information on Blue Cross Blue
Shield of Michigan's websitemibluedaily dot com slash affordability. I was
surprised to learn that the cost Blue Cross pays for
prescription drugs rose by a staggering fifteen percent last year.
(09:21):
Fifteen percent. That's five times higher than inflation. It's no
wonder healthcare costs or a concern for so many of us.
That's why Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is working
hard to help all of us better understand the factors
driving up healthcare costs and sharing. What they are doing
is a business to address it. Because Blue Cross knows
that healthcare is personal and needs to work for everyone.
(09:42):
And affordability matters, So I encourage you to take a
minute and check outmi blue Daily dot com slash affordability
and get informed. You'll be glad you did. It's eye
opening information that can help everyone better understand the complexities
of the healthcare system and its impact on your health
insurance costs. Michael Patrick shields here looking around Dusty Cellar
(10:03):
and I want to talk to Matt Rhodes because I
want to have a private party event here at Dusty's.
What are my options?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Thanks Michael. Luckily you have many options depending on the
number of guests you plan on hosting.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
I'm not sure yet how many Where can we go?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Well, we have four rooms to choose from, range from
eight guests up to forty two depending on the occasion.
We can do both stand up cocktail parties, buffets, and
multi course dinners.
Speaker 5 (10:24):
So the NAPA and Tuscan rooms I see here are
for smaller parties, and then you have this Lelandois Patio
and the Bordeaux room. Those are for the bigger ones.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
That's right, Napa Tuscan for parties of eight to fourteen
and Leidon On Bordeaux for parties up to forty plus guests.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
I'm glad I'm here because i can get my six
for sixty six dollars wine club selections. And then I'm
stopping the wine bar, of course in the tap room
for a bite and a drink.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
That's like to offer the seller for retail wine bar
for casual fine dining in the tap room, our local
neighborhood pub.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
Cheers Matt. It's Dusties on Grand River and Okamis. And
you can go online too at Dustysellar dot com.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Cheers Michael,
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