NYT: How Expensive It Is to Be Poor

&gt;According to the study, in 2015 the poorest fifth of Americans will pay on average 10.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes<p>This is purposely misleading. Yes, the poor do get hit with state&#x2F;local taxes (this may or may not include sales tax, gas tax, etc) but often will not pay federal tax. That&#x27;s on top of various aid programs like food stamps, section 8 rent assistance, etc. These articles are really disingenuous statistics, often used to push an agenda.<p>A less politicized article here on who does and doesn&#x27;t pay taxes:<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/09/18/who-doesnt-pay-taxes-in-charts/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.washingtonpost.com&#x2F;blogs&#x2F;wonkblog&#x2F;wp&#x2F;2012&#x2F;09&#x2F;18&#x2F;w...</a>

The referenced Pew study is even more interesting: <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2015/01/08/the-politics-of-financial-insecurity-a-democratic-tilt-undercut-by-low-participation" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.people-press.org&#x2F;2015&#x2F;01&#x2F;08&#x2F;the-politics-of-finan...</a>.<p>Some correlations I haven&#x27;t seen before. The most secure voters were 3x as likely to vote as the least secure. Preference for democrats was about the same for every category of security, but preference for republicans was 3x higher among the most secure (with the difference coming at the expense of other&#x2F;not sure).

What exactly is preventing poor people from getting basic checking accounts? They give those out to 12-year-olds with no assets and no credit history.