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.

[Saul Good]

Originally Posted by 4th and Long

You can go places like this and get rewarded for being poor.

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.

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.

[AndChiefs]

Originally Posted by Saul Good

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.

[4th and Long]

Originally Posted by vailpass

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

The tractor is incidental. Could belong to anyone.

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

[Chief Roundup]

Originally Posted by 4th and Long

You can go places like this and get rewarded for being poor.

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.

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.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by 4th and Long

The tractor is incidental. Could belong to anyone.

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

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

Am I dense today?

[Skyy God]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

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

The solution: quit being an enabler.

[MOhillbilly]

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.

[4th and Long]

Originally Posted by vailpass

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

Am I dense today?

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

[Okie_Apparition]

Stop ****ing subsizing kids, problem solved

[MOhillbilly]

**** this government.

[Rain Man]

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.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by 4th and Long

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

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.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

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.

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?

[Dr. Johnny Fever]

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