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

[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?