Air Conditioning, Cable TV, and an Xbox: What is Poverty in the United States Today?
 

Fascinating..


http://www.nationalreview.com/corner...k-ken-mcintyre



When Americans think of poverty, we tend to picture people who can’t adequately shelter, clothe, and feed themselves or their families.

When the Census Bureau defines “poverty,” though, it winds up painting more than 40 million Americans — one in seven — as “poor.”

Census officials continue to grossly exaggerate the numbers of the poor, creating a false picture in the public mind of widespread material deprivation, writes Heritage Foundation senior research fellow Robert Rector in a new paper.

“Most news stories on poverty feature homeless families, people living in crumbling shacks, or lines of the downtrodden eating in soup kitchens,” Rector says. “The actual living conditions of America’s poor are far different from these images.”

Congress is tying itself in knots figuring out how to cut spending and bring down a $14 trillion national debt. Lawmakers might well take a much closer look at the nearly a trillion dollars spent each year on welfare even though many recipients aren’t what the typical American would recognize as poor and in need of government assistance.

What is poverty? Americans might well be surprised to learn from other government data that the overwhelming majority of those defined as “poor” by the Census Bureau were well-housed and adequately fed even in the recession year 2009. About 4 percent of them did temporarily become homeless.

Data from the Department of Energy and other agencies show that the average poor family, as defined by Census officials:

● Lives in a home that is in good repair, not crowded, and equipped with air conditioning, clothes washer and dryer, and cable or satellite TV service.

● Prepares meals in a kitchen with a refrigerator, coffee maker and microwave as well as oven and stove.

● Enjoys two color TVs, a DVD player, VCR and — if children are there — an Xbox, PlayStation, or other video game system.

● Had enough money in the past year to meet essential needs, including adequate food and medical care.

So if you have about $300 worth of used crap, TV, xbox, microwave, coffemaker you arent poor?

And most rental homes have AC and a refrigerator and even a stove!

So basically, they have more than Bob Dole... (Who has a window unit for A/C and no video game system).

Not really at all surprising.

seen some ****in blurb yesterday about how people were goin to get help with utilities cause of the heat.
One ****in buck toothed white trash bitch said somethin to the effect that she needed help because they had run the Ac non stop for months. Looked to be in there 20s.
Im sure these are the same people who in winter crank the heat to 90 and when it gets to ****in hot they crack a window, all night.
**** your assistance bitch. real n***ers work hard so you can keep your dirty ass kids and no work old man cool...ya **** you.
that is all.

America is that dummy handing the **** with a sign a couple of bucks every time the stop light changes, a couple hundred times a day.

The poor in America still have creature comforts and a comfortable roof over their heads. That's the point Dave my obtuse and feckless friend.

The rest of the world’s poor wish they had it like our poor.

pretty much this

DC?

If you think that's bad, here in Wisconsin, we give low income families free cell phones with texting, call waiting, voicemail, and rollover minutes. :shake:

Anyone notice that a great majority of people in poverty have a cigarette hanging out of their mouth?

Have you calculated how much cigarettes cost a smoker anually?

You can say the same about drugs and alcohol. What a great investment these people make. Sorry but I don't feel sorry for your dumbasses.

Eventually, I'm sure.

I had some guy ask me for money this weekend. He said he was here from San Francisco for a tattoo convention, and he couldn't get back home.

I asked him why and he said he didn't have money, but he was only a few bucks short of getting his ticket.

I asked him why he didn't buy a round trip ticket, and he said he had a bike accident a few days ago that knocked out all of his lower teeth, and he showed me his gums. I'm not sure what that had to do with it, and didn't ask why he had brought his bike all the way from San Francisco to go to a convention.

I advised him to talk to his convention, because they could put him in touch with some sort of traveler's aid group, and he said he had no ID, and he needed ID to get help.

I asked him why he didn't have ID, and he said that he couldn't find his wallet. Then he said he either lost it or it was stolen. Then he said it disappeared when he had his bike wreck.

Then he offered to draw me some art and mentioned that he had his tattoo stuff with him. I'm not sure if he meant art for my refrigerator or if he wanted to give me a tattoo there on the street.

So I gave him ten bucks and went with the teardrop near my eye, because my clients will be afraid to question my market research if they think I've killed people.

It's all pretty much true but the last part.

But my point is that this guy couldn't even lie effectively. Why am I going to give money to a guy who can't even tell me a plausible lie?

I've said for years that in the United States, being poor is "too easy".


Why go work in the heat like an idiot when you can stay home in the ac, play xbox in your govt funded home eating your taxpayer funded doritos...

Here's an idea: why don't they take better care to do better analysis of the recipients and track them and find out if they're ****ing lying or not? Almost everyone I've ever seen on Welfare or using Food Stamps doesn't look like they need it. Women crank out babies thinking, "Hey, more Welfare and Food Stamps." People who could otherwise work don't bother to, because it's easier to collect than bust your ass at a minimum-wage job. Instead, they throw money at the problem instead of FIXING the problem. Job programs? Education and training? Better monitoring? Nah, that's too hard; we'll just pour more money down the drain. It's getting to the point in this country where you're better off being "poor" than being middle-class.

While in SF this past January I walked by numerous panhandlers until I found three that were actually singing for their money. They were good too so I gave them 3 or 4 dollars, whatever singles I had anyway.

I at least wanted to wait until I found someone that wanted to put a little effort in being a bum.

Most of the hobos who panhandle for money around the Plaza in KC are smoking cigs while holding their little signs saying "Homeless and hungry, God bless." If you watch them long enough, they'll panhandle for a while, then go over and sit with their other hobo friends and drink beer through the day. Pretty rough...

Many of the people I worked in the office with complain about money. I used to wonder why they ate out for lunch every day and all had cable and Netflix, etc. I brought in my lunch every day, 2 PBJs and a ziploc of chips I divided from a big bag. It wasn't until recently that we bought cable. We went to the library and got shows and movies for free. And I know that our household combined income was higher that most of my coworkers.

I'm a charitable person, probably to a fault.

Here is an example of what happens when you help the poor.
I've been mowing a couple of yards since 07-08 for up to 3 elderly people.
One who lives across the street knocked on my door and asked me to do it "as a gift" because they couldn't afford it. I wanted it mowed, so I've been doing and have received a grand total of 1 thank you in 3 summers.

Last week my home phone started getting messages from the guy, and one from his wife whom I've never seen in 4 years(Gilbert Grape's mama). "Our daughter is moving home to help my sick wife and you, our dear friend, said you would help, so come and help move her stuff into the house saturday"....8 days in a row of messages, of which I've never agreed to do. Progressively more demanding..."so be here at 8am, because our daughter will be tired". The old man says, as the wife bellows 1000wpm in the background on the messages.....

I'm out in a poker game until 3am saturday morning, but get up at 7 because I've got a long list of things to do at my home and the family is gone. 8am, not there, 9am, not there......so I begin on my projects, new light fixtures, interior door, fixing the odds and ends stuff I can't do when the family is home.

It's hot...12:30 I look out, and it's not a pickup, but a Uhaul van truck backed up to their house. I go over and find one other sucker, sweating trying to unload this truck. Guilt kicks in, and I tear into a pile of boxes to pack up the stairs(everything goes to 2nd floor).

I get to the top of the stairs and have 3 choices of rooms. I hear conversation and step to the room to find 2 fat hogs who look like bullfrogs sunning themselves stretched out on their backs on a bed. One points to the other room without saying a word.

The other man and I unload the entire truck, while the old man attempts to help but physically can't....and the entire time, via a hallway, I can see Gilbert Grape's mama's Arm hanging off of a chair with a soda and her leg....and a 60" big screen. She's bitching about 500mph because the truck isn't unloaded fast enough, we're letting air out because I had to take the door off to get the F'ing sofa indoors and up the stairs.

Eventually we get everything unloaded in the sweltering heat......not 1 box..not a single box was carried by the 2 sows who now live across the street with the old people.

I'm pissed, have the truck unloaded and am putting the door back on, when one of the bullfrog twins trots to the door and starts in about how I need to put in the window AC in her room and switch headboards and on....and I finally have my fill and say "you know what, you are rested up enough to handle that shit yourself.

4 people in that home....not 1 thank you.

I've been mowing their yard for free for 3 years, they've got a bigger TV than I do. Ask for help, but bitch while I litterally do it all.


In short....This guy, is NOT feeling very sympathetic to the plight of people who don't take care of themselves.

And yes....Their AC was running to keep that house cooler than I can keep mine.

Cause doin it on your own makes you feel good about yourself and misery loves company.

All rough estimates but:

$5(pack of cigs) a day x 365days = $1825

$20(case of beer) a week x 52weeks = $1040

$35(bag of weed) a week x 52weeks = $1820

That comes to a total of $4685 annually, all bad habits that do nothing but harm. And for what? To be cool, hip, social?

Not worth it to me.

I would agree with most of that, but believe your beer estimate is low. I no longer drink like I used to, but when I was "poor" in America I would go through at least 3 or 4 cases of beer a week, so, I would say the $4685 annually is a very conservative estimate.

I know some poor people that always drive a decent car because family/friends get alot more joy giving their stuff away than doing it for themselves. Damn enablers.

+1

You can go places like this and get rewarded for being poor.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8VHEoevEN8...ebt%2Bcard.jpg
You get a FREE PEPSI HAT for using your EBT card!

While you're there, and still poor, you can buy a few small items to take home and try and feed your family.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-la6cLNCFQx...arereceipt.jpg

Oh, and living poor in the U.S. is living like a king here. In my house I have a window A.C. unit in my bedroom that never gets used (even though the highs here are almost always above 90), 1 color T.V. (once again, never gets used), and a water heater (most people only have cold water here). I only have Internet at work, because I run an internet cafe. To top this all off, with my house, my internet, I am said to be living like a king with all my creature comforts, and I am very happy with how little I have.

Good on you.

Give them a break, that's work.

It's not quantity, it's quality. :thumb:

[QUOTE=4th and Long;7756915]You can go places like this and get rewarded for being poor.QUOTE]

What makes them poor in the first pic? That tractor costs more than some people's houses so I know that isn't it.

Have. You ever tried to feed a family porterhouses and lobster while being poor? Its not easy. You have to buy whatever soda is on sale.

I knew people in college that would get food stamps and then only buy steaks with them. Since there were several of them they had steak dinners at least once a week.

The tractor is incidental. Could belong to anyone.

See the hanging banner? They obviously cator to the poor. *nod nod nod*

Now see that is BS. People abusing the system. Food Stamps should be more like WIC. Meaning instead an amount to spend as you see fit you get vouchers. No steaks and sodas stuff like that.

Pepsi hat?
EBT accepted? (or is it DEBT and the D isn't showing?)
White Eagle?

Am I dense today?

The solution: quit being an enabler.

i have a fat family member who cant put his own shoes on because him and his old lady have figured out that single moms with kids get shit loads of assistance....and fat lazy assholes can ride fer free.

750 a month in EBT. A ****in month.

they aint had gas in months but **** it they have fried coconut shrimp every night.

when the war comes, i will eat them first.

I've had a gal working for me for a while. She wanted a raise so I told her that would be no problem... Then I asked her how much she spent on cigs a week. $40 she says, which is a conservative estimate. I tell her that she takes a lot of smoke breaks - that she could easily earn a raise by quitting smoking. She'd be more efficient and effective on the job. I told her that if she quit smoking that I'd match the $40 she was saving a week for a net $4000 a year raise. Guess how long that lasted.... not one moment. Didn't even try. So, I figure she doesn't really need a raise very bad at all.

An Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card is the identification card for the SNAP/Food Stamp Program.

Stop ****ing subsizing kids, problem solved

**** this government.

As a semi-related discussion, cost of living studies have a difficult time dealing with technology change. Imagine a cost of living study in 1975 where one of the items priced was a television. You're talking probably a 19-inch set that cost a few hundred dollars. Now fast-forward to 2011 where you're pricing a television. Now it's a 40-inch high-definition TV for about the same price. The "cost of living" may not be different, but it now provides a much better lifestyle by default.

Same thing with phones. A phone in 1980 probably cost $20 a month to get your dialing phone that's hooked to the wall. Now a phone in 2011 may cost $80 a month or something, but you get internet, e-mail, texting, voice mail, a bunch of games, and Microsoft Word or whatever. Did the cost of living really go up, or are you paying more for a lot more stuff and the phone is just a little part of the mix? But if you can't get the phone without buying the other stuff, your cost of living really did go up, but you're forced to simultaneously improve your standard of living.

It's a tough problem to figure out if you're doing these types of studies.

Thank you, I didn't catch that. So that store was advertising for food stamp business. I can't blame the store. Our government is putting the money out there, they are just trying to capture their share by (irony) working for it.

Yea, thats very interesting point.

I think mainly the thing to take away from this story is that even in poverty people have it pretty good in America compared to alot of other countries poor. We also have the ability to get ourselves out of poverty. Living in poverty is often times a temporary situation until a person can create a better life for themselves. At least, thats how these social programs are designed to work?

I don't have an Xbox. Maybe I should go down to the Salvation Army.

Me neither.

Hey, if they'll let you, grab one for me too! :D

man, maybe I should see if I can get me some foodstamps. I could just save the money that otherwise would have been used on food.

I'm not even telling the entire story again about the family who lived in a rental we managed, for over 17 years, on full ride welfare, HUD paying rent, utility assistance, food stamps.....and the grown ass man who watched me build a deck on that house in mist,sleet and snow while he sat inside for 3 days......and my friends we somewhere warm getting drunk.......and then came out and had the nerve to bitch about the way I was building the railings, because he wanted the uprights closer together "In case him n the lady wanted to romance out there he he he he".....

...and then after I finish college, get a career, start paying my loans and working up the ladder.....

A farm adjacent to my parents, That I'd had sights on owning since I was a boy, and the nice old man who lived there had said wanted one of us to have it......dies. His son gets greedy, raises the price and I can't afford it.

Guess who owns it now? Thats' right.....Mr On welfare for 20 years, deck construction watching Futhermucker. That's who.


ooops...guess I did.

This is an excellent point. 99.9% of people in the US have no clue what being poor really is.

he got the gold mine and you got the....;)

shut up noob.

I'm not sure I would have been able to restrain myself fron shoving one of those rails up his ass he he he he .... http://www.runemasterstudios.com/gra...shakingmad.gif

Where'd he get the money? Or was he participating in some Federal "convert the poor to farmers" program?

LMAO

Keep it up and people will soon start calling you SKIP. :p

The hell you say.

;)

I wouldn't have lasted that long. You must be a better man than I.

I've been helping my sister with odds and ends stuff (including moving) for many years. I finally got tired of her not appreciating my efforts and decided I wouldn't help her any longer. The only reason I helped my brother roof her garage last Fall is because my mom guilted us both into it. She called the other day and asked if i was busy that weekend. I said "yes". She asked "all weekend?" I replied "yes, all weekend". And then she said I didn't have to sound so happy about it. :D Of course, I wasn't busy all weekend and I'm pretty sure she knew it.

I'm single with no kids and I work 40 plus hours a week just to pay my bills and if I don't show to work i'm fired and then shortly after out on the street. I work around people with 3-5 kids who get FMLA for minor back problems, depression, and being over weight, who can call in or go home early anytime they want cause they "don't feel well". They're guaranteed to keep their jobs, get to keep all their Vacation Time and buy their kids any and everything they want.

I don't want to be a deadbeat, but damn am I jealous. Doing things the honest way just doesn't seem to be working when I compare myself to people proud of playing the sytem. And as the years go by it just seems like more and more "safety nets" for the "poor families" pop up, and the total numbers on my paychecks go down to help fund these safety nets. If it gets to the point where I'm better off living off the system, when is it OK to say "can't beat 'em, join em"?

You can do so much better for yourself by getting better jobs/higher income than you ever could by living off the system. Plus you can have pride and not hate yourself and be embarassed by who and what you are.

Why would you ever consider becoming what you now dislike and disrespect?

Next thing you know, you'll be a hobo in the park, forcing people to find private parks to take their kids to....

lol, Awesome!

That's a damn good question.....he wasn't and isn't a farmer. The land was sold and he has the acreage now. I'm pretty sure he'd been "doing something for cash" along and bought it on a contract is my guess.



This thread is making me angry and I probably shouldn't be, or I might find myself throwing a paper airplane tomahawk at the fat hobo chic who is about due to walk by the office with her backpack and pull behind luggage.


I do have genuine empathy for people who have no options....who are destitute and they exist. I donate plenty of time, effort and funding on their behalf, because I know what it's like to have a duct taped shoe as a kid. I'm just lucky my folks worked their asses off and taught us pride and hard work instead of the easy road.

But the "I can't afford to mow our yard, could you do it as a gift" card, when you're sitting in your 65degree house watching a 60" flatscreen..............F that.

That's very true, but I'd still be harnessed to a desk 40 hours a week watching all the deadbeats leave early or just not show up like I do now. Granted, I'd have a higher salary, but I'd still get shafted when it comes to Free Time. I have pride now, but sometimes I wonder if it's worth it!

I'd consider it for the Free Time alone, but I'd be piss poor. Not many safety nets for single people 18-60. Believe me I've looked!

Smoker's entitlement pisses me the **** off. It was always like that in the restaurant industry. Smoker's were constantly going out back to take a smoke break or some shit while all the non-smokers had to keep on working.

As I've gotten older, this has shifted over into the parenting realm. We have a large group of friends, most with kids. Some of the parents still smoke when we get together socially (though they don't want their kids to know). So this group of smokers are constantly sneaking off outside to smoke cigarettes, leaving the rest of us inside to watch their ****ing kids and run cover for them when they kids come asking where their parents are. They'll disappear for 20 minutes at a time.

I flipped the hell out on them the other night. Everyone was at my house. There were about 20 kids running around inside. I'm trying to get dinner ready, and all the other ****ing adults scrammed outside to smoke. On top of that, some dumb twunt (a smoker) started preheating the oven for some shitty casserole she wanted to throw in, not realizing that my pork loin was resting in there, wrapped in foil.

I came barreling out of the house and unloaded with both barrels. "Alright, folks. I'm coooking you dinner already. I'm not babysitting your kids, too. Plus, you almost ****ed up my pork loin, and that's a crime I won't forgive."

For some reason, people were walking on eggshells around me the rest of the night.

Nah, I'm not outdoorsy enough for the Full Time Hobo Life, I can ride bikes and take walks and occasionally camp, but fuck living outside permanantly.

So true. WTF?

[QUOTE=NewChief;7757177]Smoker's entitlement pisses me the **** off. It was always like that in the restaurant industry. Smoker's were constantly going out back to take a smoke break or some shit while all the non-smokers had to keep on working.
(QUOTE]

I've heard people claim watching others take smoke breaks when they couldn't motivated them to smoke and kept them that way for life.

im convinced some of these folks dont have souls much less pride.

I had a lady who makes 35k a year and a husband making 65k a year (he works there too) bragging a year ago about she's getting WIC to help pay for grocery bills. Two people making 100k a year getting help paying for their groceries? it used to be the people accepting this stuff were the pathetic dumbasses, now it's the people NOT accepting this stuff that are the dumbasses.

It's called keeping it real. I have that same problem. When you don't take other people's shit and you stand up for yourself it makes you an asshole.

I am an asshole because I told my SIL (who I rent a room out too) that when she uses our kitchen she needs to clean up her mess.

Or when it's 2 am and I want everyone outa my house...apparently telling everyone its time to go makes me an asshole. Or when some low life friend wants to invite her low life boyfriend over to my place, saying "no" makes me an asshole.

I don't wanna air too much of my personal life, but yeah, I am an asshole for many reasons just like that. I'm pretty much known as an asshole though.

As a smoker I have to say something here. I work at a call center where I am tied to the phone all day. I have an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon where I am covering the inbound e-mail portion of the job and am not on the phone. This is when I take my smoke breaks (2 15 minute breaks, 1 60 minute lunch). This way I am not negatively impacting call coverage and if e-mails get backed up, I can complete them between calls during the rest of the day.

BTW, I learned to smoke when the opportunity arose while working fast food. I agree with many, people who smoke all the time and thus do less work suck. My point is that, as with most things, there are exceptions to the rule that are missed when the big brush is used to paint a segment of society.

My tolerance for people's bullshit has decreased with age. At one time, I think most of our circle of friends were like, "NewChief is such a nice guy. He's like a saint or something. Always kind and sweet to people." Over the years, I think it's become, "NewChief is kind of a dick."

We've all been saying that here anyway.

You are also the one they respect and whose house they will respect. Continue to handle business where you are in the right. the more they whine at you the more you know you are right.

When I was a kid, we lived next to a Brazilian family that bragged to my mom that they got a divorce so they could get on all those gov assist programs. My mom was a mid-20's single mother with 3 kids and no car working minimum wage at the time and she had too much pride to accept "government charity". She still holds a grudge against that family because she worked extremely hard to provide for her kids on her own.

Your house your rules. Those that don't like it won't come back meaning the only people who still come over are the people you want there anyway.
I know that's how I like it.

back when them smokes mellowed everyone, includin the kids.

Then no one gave a shit.:thumb:

:thumb:

My homesteading role model.

Being an asshole dick or whatever shouldn't mean shit to yourself. I do what I got to do to be happy and serve God.