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.

[Dave Lane]

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!

[Bob Dole]

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.

[MOhillbilly]

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.

[KCUnited]

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.

[ChiefaRoo]

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

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!

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.

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

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!

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

[loochy]

Originally Posted by MOhillbilly

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.

pretty much this

[Skyy God]

DC?

[The Rick]

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.

[Molitoth]

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.

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by Pittsie

DC?

Eventually, I'm sure.

[Rain Man]

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?

[Iowanian]

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...

[JD10367]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

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.

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.