Here are some interesting statistics about poverty in the United States.
Forty-three percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
Almost half of the poor in the United State actually own their own homes? WTF? They don't live under bridges?
Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
That's more than France. Maybe if they had more A/C in France all those old people wouldn't have died a few years back. This leads to a conundrum. If more French households had A/C, yannow to cope with that Manmade Global Warming thing, that would require more energy use which could lead to more greenhouse gases which could put them over their Kyoto accords. Ah screw it! Let the old folks die of heat exhaustion. Save the planet! Kill the old folks!
Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
That 6 percent are prolly Mexican households. They have four to a room and six cars parked in the front yard.
The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
So our poor have more living space than average folks in large European cities. It's beginning to sound like being poor in America is not as bad as the Dimocrats make out. Maybe we need a different definition of poor.
Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.
See Prosper. Our poor people own cars. Your poor people torch them.
Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
And some of them are bigscreen TVs.
Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.
Geez! I grew up poor and we didn't have it that good! Maybe they're starving themselves to pay for all those amenities.
As a group, America's poor are far from being chronically undernourished. The average consumption of protein, vitamins, and minerals is virtually the same for poor and middle-class children and, in most cases, is well above recommended norms. Poor children actually consume more meat than do higher-income children and have average protein intakes 100 percent above recommended levels. Most poor children today are, in fact, supernourished and grow up to be, on average, one inch taller and 10 pounds heavier than the GIs who stormed the beaches of Normandy in World War II.
But the Dimocrats rant and rave about "starving chirren"!
While the poor are generally well nourished, some poor families do experience temporary food shortages. But even this condition is relatively rare; 89 percent of the poor report their families have "enough" food to eat, while only 2 percent say they "often" do not have enough to eat.
Hardly starving.
Overall, the typical American defined as poor by the government has a car, air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave. He has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV reception, a VCR or DVD player, and a stereo. He is able to obtain medical care. His home is in good repair and is not overcrowded. By his own report, his family is not hungry and he had sufficient funds in the past year to meet his family's essential needs. While this individual's life is not opulent, it is equally far from the popular images of dire poverty conveyed by the press, liberal activists, and politicians.
It sounds like our "poor" would be considered wealthy in Third World countries and middle class in countries like France.
I have stated many times that the only excuses for poverty in this country are catastrophic health problems, catastrophic accidents, poor choices (dropping out of school, having children you cannot afford), or laziness. Even at that, our poor live better than most of the people on this planet.
And in this country, even someone who grew up poor, like I did, can still become a SRF©.
Or you can stay poor and still own a home, a car, a color TV, microwave, dishwasher, refrigerator, stereo, DVD or VCR, and enough food to eat.
No wonder people want to come here.
Posted by denny at August 31, 2007 02:23 PMI've been saying the same thing for 25 years. We'uns got it good in the ole USofA.
Posted by: Hobie on August 31, 2007 03:08 PMI always read and hear about how bad we have it here but I never read or hear what percentage of Americans emigrate to other countries. Humh. Example; how many Americans left to go to Cuba,Russia, China or even France. Then compare the emigrants to immigrants and see who is poor.
Posted by: gene Hall on August 31, 2007 04:38 PM"Maybe they're starving themselves to pay for all those amenities" I worked for almost five years in a Food Stamp/Welfare office. Trust me they are not starving!
JDP
The thing is they might not be poor if they were not trying to keep up with the Jones and dumping all that cash for unneed things...WTF am I thinking spend spend then collect welfare...I love the good ol USA
Posted by: Bill on August 31, 2007 05:25 PMGeorgia has a terrific editorial cartoonist, Rick McKee, who works for the Augusta Chronicle. Check this 'toon on teh very subject:
Fixed it for ya - GOC
Posted by: donsurber on August 31, 2007 05:50 PMHTML didn't work. Here's the addy
http://spotted.augusta.com/chronicle/display.html?collection=14378&gallery=28124&photo=328705&imgsize=zoom
Posted by: donsurber on August 31, 2007 05:51 PMOur so-called "poor" are dropping dead in the streets from obesity-related diseases.
A country that is so bad that the poor are fat and a poor black boy (Michael Jackson) can grow up to be a rich white woman.
Posted by: gene Hall on August 31, 2007 06:37 PMI was reared poor. One of 13 children in a coal miners family. I graduated from high school, served 22 years in the military, retired, live in a 2800 sq foot home built with my own two hands. Also managed to get enough college credits to get a degree if I was interested enough to listen to a few hours of some BS about art. That is about some nut that cut off his own ear (must have been a democrat), not art. Art is the picture of dogs playing poker. LMAO
Posted by: Scrapiron on August 31, 2007 09:02 PMScrap:
NOW I'm starting to truly understand you.
I'll be listening now & forward .... as long as you don't maim your ear(s).
Posted by: Dan S. on September 1, 2007 03:25 AMThe problem with the US poverty statistics is they're based entirely on taxable income. Accumulated wealth or fluctuations in income are not taken into account. If a commissioned salesman or small business owner has a bad year they're lumped into the "Poverty" group.
Of course the gov't bureaucracy is going to inflate the poverty numbers as much as possible. In the immortal words of Governor William J. Le Petomane, "We've gotta protect our phoney-baloney jobs, gentlemen."
Posted by: Ralph Gizzip on September 1, 2007 07:43 AMSore point for me. WAY to many people in this country own homes that shouldn't. They are essentially house poor and no more than one paycheck from foreclosure. Stupid people, stupider (grammar?) lenders. Guess who will be bailing the lending agencies out when all these foreclosures hit the fan, you and me folks. Whether you're and SRF or just your average working grunt, you money will go to help cover the costs of some ass wipes decision to own a house then he or she knew damn well they couldn't afford it in their current economic status. What I remember about home ownership when I was a kid in New Jersey in the late 60's and early 70's. We rented an apartment until I was 5, and yup, I remember it well. Then my dad, a machinist, and my mom (a housewife/mom) had to bite their pride and ask my grandparents to loan them some money for a down payment on a house. They had saves some, but even with the VA loan my dad was eligible for, they needed more. My dads job was secure, but he said it would have taken another 5 years to save the amount it would have taken to get the new loan (read "it was tough to get money in those days as the lenders were more cautious, as they should be). So I didn't live in my first house until I was in kindergarten and most people I knew then were envious because I lived in a house and not rental. Nowadays it seems people think home ownership was listed in the bill of rights or something.
There will always be folks considered "Poor" if they do not have the latest in trendy itmes because the standard of living for everyone regardless of socio-economic status quite simply keeps rising every 5-7 years (Or the trendy brands of such items. Example: As a high school kid in the 80's, I could only have an Emerson Walkman instead of the then-trendy "Sony Walkman". With the money saved I was able to buy a few more tapes than the classmates who had the Sony).
Posted by: Darrell on September 1, 2007 11:35 AMThe reason the dems think that the country is knee deep in poor people is because in the citys and states they run there are a larger percentage of poor people. They produce poor people by converting wealthy people to poor people. If the dipshits vote a dem into the white house and give them control of congress for 4 years they will produce lots more poor people. Remember Jimmah Carturd he made lots of poor people thats why he has to go out build those quicky cheap houses because he made sure they would never own one otherwise . At least if Hillary gets in the poor people can stay warm all huddled up in line at the doctors office
Posted by: Darrell G on September 1, 2007 06:37 PMKinda ironic that the number one health issue of the "poor" in America is obesity.
Posted by: Dixie on September 1, 2007 11:19 PMJesus Fucking Christ on a Crutch!
Figure it OUT!!
There ARE no 'poor' in America!
All that's under assault these days is the Middle Class of Americans.
And any independant thought.
Good Lord, it seems as if you are just now figuring out that the poorest of the poor have A/C, color TV, cell phone, cable and unlimited calling.
Do you recall when we traded Dylan for dollars?
Don't you understand even now that consumerism is a dead-end GAME??
OF COURSE our 'poor' have all these 'things' that lead them into the abyss. NEVER are they called to 'produce' of be anything other than 'consumers'.
You seem to forget the 'commune-ism' of the Sixties. You seem to forget why that failed. Then again, there are a LOT of single-Mother's come from that era.
Lest you forget, we are raised-up to be rugged individualist's and simultaneously slapped for being such. Figure it out for yourself why so many run to guns or drugs or guru's to get some sort of sanity.
FREEDOM ain't Free, my Friend! One doesn't have to fight oversea's to understand that. One DOES have to understand that there is a fundamental FIGHT demanded of each & every ONE of us.
THAT's WHAT MAKES AMERICA America!
I remember growing up in the 60's, dad was in the Air Force, mom was a homemaker. We had a house and all the essentials for life.
My cousins had the same essentials (both parents worked)but somehow they received Gov't assistance. I was lucky to get one pair of sneakers a year, they had a new pair every 2-3 months and new clothes at the same rate. Heck they would give me their 3 month old hand me downs when we visited.
We lived in N.Va they lived in S.W.Va.
I never have figured out why they were receiving that extra assistance.
One poverty indicator I've seen used is people are below the poverty line when they earn less than 60% of the average wage.
Of course people are going to be below the average wage, it's an average numnuts.
Posted by: darkbhudda on September 2, 2007 10:52 PM