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

[Deberg_1990]

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.

[Ultra Peanut]

How about access to employment or basic medical oversight (much less procedures), you ****in' dilznick?

I would be really, really ****ing curious to know how the National ****ing Review describes "adequate medical care." Prediction: access to an ER, which only treats immediately life-threatening issues and doesn't really cut it when you need, I dunno, CHEMOTHERAPY or a LUNG TRANSPLANT any other procedure that requires up-front payment.

but oh man, CELL PHONES. COLOR TVs. A REFRIGERATOR. In a consumer-based society that's been awash in those things for decades. What a glorious life those not-really-so-poor folks like my mother (at least she has her healt--oh) lead.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

Update:

I ran home at lunch for a minute, 3 missed calls, 1 message on machine.
"hi, this is your neighbor, Husbandofgilbertgrape'smama, and we thought our daughters were going to be able to mow the yard and they can't, so you've been doing it a lot of times over the past few years and it's getting a little tall and we're still going to need you to do that, mow our yard. Thanks"




How in the hell does one respond to that without being the biggest prick on earth?

Honestly, I think you just say no. "I've been glad to help you out, but in the long term you need to figure out how to get this stuff done on your own."

[Saulbadguy]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

Update:

I ran home at lunch for a minute, 3 missed calls, 1 message on machine.
"hi, this is your neighbor, Husbandofgilbertgrape'smama, and we thought our daughters were going to be able to mow the yard and they can't, so you've been doing it a lot of times over the past few years and it's getting a little tall and we're still going to need you to do that, mow our yard. Thanks"




How in the hell does one respond to that without being the biggest prick on earth?

Iowanian,

I've created a ticket for your request. Your ticket # is CZ508214, and will be responded to by a technician within 24 hours.

Thank you for using Saulbadguy's Sales Genious Helpdesk.

[Brock]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

Update:

I ran home at lunch for a minute, 3 missed calls, 1 message on machine.
"hi, this is your neighbor, Husbandofgilbertgrape'smama, and we thought our daughters were going to be able to mow the yard and they can't, so you've been doing it a lot of times over the past few years and it's getting a little tall and we're still going to need you to do that, mow our yard. Thanks"




How in the hell does one respond to that without being the biggest prick on earth?

It doesn't deserve a response. This isn't your problem.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

Update:

I ran home at lunch for a minute, 3 missed calls, 1 message on machine.
"hi, this is your neighbor, Husbandofgilbertgrape'smama, and we thought our daughters were going to be able to mow the yard and they can't, so you've been doing it a lot of times over the past few years and it's getting a little tall and we're still going to need you to do that, mow our yard. Thanks"




How in the hell does one respond to that without being the biggest prick on earth?

Tell him you won't be mowing anymore, instead you need him to set his wife to grazing.

[Ultra Peanut]

I just adore the logic that says the costs of minor luxuries like TVs or phones or video game systems compare in any way to the constant sucking hole that is food and housing and medical care, not to mention how tiny a percentage of a poor person's budget buying an Xbox would be compared to the insane expenses people in the middle class rack up when buying a home or going on a trip or going out to eat nightly or, in a lot of cases, commuting to work.

But it's easier to blame those lazy, good-for-nothing poors for your own ever-increasing problems as the world turns more and more to shit, I guess, instead of acknowledging the system is slanted against and squeezing the poors and yourself and, if you're reading ChiefsPlanet, most likely everyone else you know. Keep on truckin'.

[Saulbadguy]

Originally Posted by Ultra Peanut

I just adore the logic that says minor luxuries like TVs or phones or video game systems compare in any way to the constant sucking hole that is food and housing and medical care, not to mention how tiny a percentage of a poor person's budget an buying an Xbox would be compared to the expenses the middle class rack up when buying a home or going on a trip or commuting to work.

But it's easier to blame those lazy, good-for-nothing poors for your own ever-increasing problems as the world turns more and more to shit, I guess, instead of acknowledging the system is slanted against the poors and yourself and, if you're reading ChiefsPlanet, most likely everyone else you know. Keep on truckin'.

I think it's due to the fact that our poverty has nothing on 3rd world poverty. Hell our poverty doesn't compare to the "haves" of some 3rd world countries.

I know most of it is TIC, but I wouldn't want to trade a job, education and 40 hours a week for staying at home watching The Price is Right every day and living off the government, even if I do get creature comforts like an X-Box. It's still not living and I agree, it is a tough hole to climb out of, especially when many of them were raised to think that is the normal way of living. It as cut and dry as "GIT A JOB", but the system certainly has room for improvement.

[Ultra Peanut]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

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

Dying of cancer because you don't have money is a really ****ing easy life. Welcome to libertopia.

[Ultra Peanut]

Originally Posted by Saulbadguy

I think it's due to the fact that our poverty has nothing on 3rd world poverty.

But that's the thing. On one hand we're saying "hoorah, best in the world at everything ever," and on the other, when it comes to the most vulnerable portion of our citizenry living in squalor and being denied basic human rights, it's, "We're not as bad as THE WORST places."

And even then it's this hilariously skewed view that ignores our crumbling infrastructure and a completely gutted safety net that leaves huge swaths of this country disconnected and helpless with zero chance to advance or even have the hope of holding a job anymore. Economic mobility in America is worse than any other "developed" nation except the UK, which -- hello, underclass being ignored and mistreated for a long time. How's that working out?

Corporations are happy to starve us as other countries pick up the purchasing slack. It's cheaper for them, really. But that's REALLY DEPRESSING, and you might be labeled a socialist loon for admitting it, so? **** those poors and their GRIPIN'. You don't see me complaining!

[Iowanian]

Someone is taking too many estrogen pills.



Get back to me with the survival rates in other countries....and why so many people from nations with free healthcare, come here for treatment.


Cancer is a muther****er and it kills rich and poor, tall and short, young and old.

[Ultra Peanut]

My mom's dying of cancer and is unable to afford treatment which would be covered for anyone, regardless of ability to pay, in any other developed nation and a number of developing ones. Sorry if your (and others') scorn and disregard for the poor in the United States of America, by people whose interests align very closely with the poor yet have been fooled into believing the myth that they're bootstrappin' frontier heroes, has made me a mite hysterical.

This is a place where medical bankruptcies and people choosing to die in lieu of saddling their families with debt are an everyday thing, but nothing is seriously amiss here? Being poor is easy? **** you.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

Update:

I ran home at lunch for a minute, 3 missed calls, 1 message on machine.
"hi, this is your neighbor, Husbandofgilbertgrape'smama, and we thought our daughters were going to be able to mow the yard and they can't, so you've been doing it a lot of times over the past few years and it's getting a little tall and we're still going to need you to do that, mow our yard. Thanks"




How in the hell does one respond to that without being the biggest prick on earth?

I would say no. In fact, I would say HELL NO...mainly because of the entitled way in which they are asking you to do it.

You should probably just tell them the absolute truth of why you don't want to do it anymore.

[Iowanian]

I'm sorry your mother ill.

That said, I put my money and my time where my mouth is when it comes to helping poor people and have for decades, so pardon me if I disregard your misdirected jibjab.

[Saulbadguy]

Originally Posted by Ultra Peanut

But that's the thing. On one hand we're saying "hoorah, best in the world at everything ever," and on the other, when it comes to the most vulnerable portion of our citizenry living in squalor and being denied basic human rights, it's, "We're not as bad as THE WORST places."

And even then it's this hilariously skewed view that ignores our crumbling infrastructure and a completely gutted safety net that leaves huge swaths of this country disconnected and helpless with zero chance to advance or even have the hope of holding a job anymore. Economic mobility in America is worse than any other "developed" nation except the UK, which -- hello, underclass being ignored and mistreated for a long time. How's that working out?

Corporations are happy to starve us as other countries pick up the purchasing slack. It's cheaper for them, really. But that's REALLY DEPRESSING, and you might be labeled a socialist loon for admitting it, so? **** those poors and their GRIPIN'. You don't see me complaining!

I'm with ya, i'm just more in the middle. I feel we have a much broader social and economic spectrum to deal with than the countries you previously mentioned in your table. I know for a fact our economy is much, much larger than those countries you listed. That makes it that much more of a difficult problem.

[vailpass]

Somebody needs to seek an alternate method of grief counseling.