The (Almost) Crackpot Theory House

by MormonStereotype

This is for theories that SEEM like crackpots at first glance, but upon closer inspection, actually make a lot of sense. From small loans of a million dollars to staged sitcoms, we're gonna cover them all. Send yours through PM or review! Please read and review! (Also, apparently removing a joke chapter counts as updating the story on FFN.)

1. Small Loan of a Million Dollars

Hi, guys! Welcome to the (almost) crackpot theory house! This first theory is my own, so here goes:

THEORY: The Poverty House

Alright, so let's address the elephant in the room here. The Loud family has 13 people. THIRTEEN PEOPLE. According to ASPE 2017 poverty guidelines, poverty line for a family of 13 is $62,220 annually. So let's assume Rita and Lynn Sr. both work 40-hour weeks and work 48 weeks per year. Their combined hourly wage would need to be $32.41. Now, let's assume Rita, as an assistant dentist, makes the average wage of her profession. In 2010, that was $16/hour. It's actually decreased to $15.45 since then, but we're using the higher number for the sake of argument. Lynn Sr. needs to earn at least $16.41/hour in order for the family to be BARELY above the poverty line (by literally $7.20 annually). Now, in Job Insecurity, he works as a dishwasher. Assuming he makes minimum wage, which is $8.15/hour in Michigan, the annual earnings of this family come to $46,368. THAT'S $15,852 SHORT OF THE POVERTY LINE. The difference alone is almost as much as the poverty line for a family of 2, and the amount they DO earn barely surpasses the poverty line for a family of 9. That's 4 people they can't afford to provide for! So that begs the question: how are the Louds doing as well as they are if they clearly aren't? Well, I have an idea. The source of this idea is Lisa. Specifically, her Nobel prize.

Now, when someone earns a Nobel Prize, it's not just a piece of metal decorated with the face of the inventor of dynamite that they receive; they also get a large amount of money. In 2009, that amount was the equivalent of $1,400,000. Assuming this is how much Lisa got, living at double poverty standards annually would still let that last for just more than 11 years. This may be another reason Lisa pays the bills; it's HER money keeping the family ALIVE. If I had to guess, the family WAS impoverished until Lisa, refusing to be content with the situation, invested herself into accomplishing something worthy of enough cash for her family to survive, and she did it.

Anyway, that's just an (almost) crackpot theory. Remember to send yours through PM or review!