Life Air Conditioning, Cable TV, and an Xbox: What is Poverty in the United States Today? - Page 7

Deberg_1990 · 07-19-2011, 07:45 AM

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.

**Iowanian** · 07-19-2011, 04:35 PM

I doubt she gets out of the chair to have the taxpayer funded food produced shit dug out of her ass by the poor, taxpayer funded CNA that is unfortunate enough to draw the short shovel at work, let alone cook.

I'm more pissed off the more I think about it....I was more shocked when she called, now I'm angry.

The harder I try to not judge people and be a decent, charitable, helpful person, the harder people try to make me take a tomahawk to them. I could seriously go roll a hobo for sport right now.

I'm fairly certain by looks that the offspring is "low functioning", but didn't get a good enough look while she laid on the bed, or gossiped with Mrs Grape while I was hefting boxes of books and stuffed animals and sofas and chest of drawers up steep ass, narrow stairways to the hovel where she'll masterb8 with a gold plated dildo.

Fish · 07-19-2011, 04:37 PM

That fat would dull your tomahawk in no time.....

vailpass · 07-19-2011, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chief Roundup

That that list was kind of stupid and pointless.
Because most of those things are requirements before someone receiving HUD or subsidized assistance can even rent a place.

Just because you don't get the point does not mean there isn't a point.

**Iowanian** · 07-19-2011, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KC Fish

That fat would dull your tomahawk in no time.....

I'd sharpen it on my granite hard cock due to the mental images.

**Dave Lane** · 07-19-2011, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChiefaRoo

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.

Are the poor supposed to be homeless or is that just the homeless poor?

Also people in prison have the same creature comforts minus a couple of things.

**Dave Lane** · 07-19-2011, 04:43 PM

There are lazy worthless non-workers that I have no sympathy for but to say if you have a house you rent and an xbox means you are too well off to be considered poor is absurd.

lcarus · 07-19-2011, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

There's actually a guy on a corner near my home that is notorious for being a "fake homeless guy". He really has a home and car, but he makes more money standing on a corner with a cardboard sign than he would working an average daytime job. I always see dumbass old ladies stopping to give him a wad of cash. Idiots. There's another corner in my city where these homeless people (yeah right) go to collect from morons. However it seems like it's a different guy every day. I don't think I've ever seen the same person there more than once.

**Bugeater** · 07-19-2011, 04:58 PM

I'm now doing maintenance work and one of my properties is income-based (translated: lazy asses that don't pay no rent). It's great listening to these people constantly bitch because we can't put brand new everything into the apartments that they're not paying for.

And even better is that I not only get to help pay for the juice and pop and potato chips and candy bars for the kids, I also get to pick up the empty juice packets and pop cans and potato chip bags and candy bar wrappers that they leave all over the grounds since their parents can't seem to find the time to teach them to pick up after themselves.

And then they have the gall to bitch when shit doesn't get fixed fast enough...well gee...if I wasn't spending 2-3 hours every week picking up after your kids and cleaning around the dumpsters that your ignorant lazy asses can't seem to get your trash into, perhaps I could get to these things in a timely manner? Wait, no, I can't say that because they'd slap a fair housing lawsuit on us.

On the flip side, I also take care of another property that is elderly and disabled, mostly poor ones that don't have anywhere else to go. And with a few exceptions, they are truly in need of the help and are very nice people to whom I'd do anything for.

**kysirsoze** · 07-19-2011, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElGringo

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.

Wow. No judgement, but I drink probably way more than I should and probably more than most of my friends, and 3 or 4 cases of beer a week would be way more than I can drink. If I drink more than 6-7 beers in a night, I am officially tying one on. I bet I on average do a case a week and I am starting to cut back.

vailpass · 07-19-2011, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kysirsoze

Wow. No judgement, but I drink probably way more than I should and probably more than most of my friends, and 3 or 4 cases of beer a week would be way more than I can drink. If I drink more than 6-7 beers in a night, I am officially tying one on. I bet I on average do a case a week and I am starting to cut back.

No judgement but you are a soft bitch when it comes to drinking. 6 or 7 beers is a warm up for the real drinking to commence.

KCUnited · 07-19-2011, 05:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lcarus

There's actually a guy on a corner near my home that is notorious for being a "fake homeless guy". He really has a home and car, but he makes more money standing on a corner with a cardboard sign than he would working an average daytime job. I always see dumbass old ladies stopping to give him a wad of cash. Idiots. There's another corner in my city where these homeless people (yeah right) go to collect from morons. However it seems like it's a different guy every day. I don't think I've ever seen the same person there more than once.

Used to be a guy on the Hwy 71 exit/Emanuel Meat Cleaver exit with a "please help" sign. Guy's a ****, but has an apartment, Midtown bars every night. Claims that because his sign doesn't say homeless, he's not deceiving anyone.

I used to live in the River Market and would see the same rotation on the I35/Broadway Bridge stop light. Looked like an Italian wedding with cash being handed out by dumbasses every time the light changed.

WV · 07-19-2011, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iowanian

I wouldn't eat it.

This past summer I've been "Switching weeks" mowing with one of the other neighbors, but I'm thinking very hard right now about being done.

Charity is a good thing, but holy shit the nerve of some people. They are definitely testing every last fiber in my ability to not "go Iowanian" on them.

I think the wrinkled old husband doesn't even know what he's like but deep down is getting by....maybe beaten down by that jabbathehutt, ungreatful bag of bacon grease.

Sonna bitch.

There's absolutely no f'ing way I'd still be mowing their yard. I don't enjoy mowing my own, I'll be damned if I'm going to do it for complete lazy strangers that are impaired simply out of sheer laziness and gluttony.

You've done your good deed for far too long....your best recourse now is to stop or chuck a molotav cocktail on the front porch.

07-19-2011, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WVChiefFan

There's absolutely no f'ing way I'd still be mowing their yard. I don't enjoy mowing my own, I'll be damned if I'm going to do it for complete lazy strangers that are impaired simply out of sheer laziness and gluttony.

You've done your good deed for far too long....your best recourse now is to stop or chuck a molotav cocktail on the front porch.

I wouldn't mow a lawn for anybody but a widow or a disabled (legitimately) neighbor. I have several around me but they pay a service which is a-ok with me. I have a single mother across the street that seems to think I'll do plumbing or anything else for her for free simply because we live near each other. Every time she calls me over the first thing I tell her is the price I charge for those services. I'm all about being charitable and neighborly but I do this stuff 60 hours a week for a living...

Extra Point · 07-19-2011, 06:34 PM

Hand these fuggers at the street corners a business card that reads:

GET A ****ING JOB!

NewChief · 07-19-2011, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phobia

I'm all about being charitable and neighborly but I do this stuff 60 hours a week for a living...

My wife gets that all the time. People are constantly wanting her to do graphic design/art/layout work for charities and shit. She loves to volunteer and help out, but after doing it for 10 hours in a day, the last thing she wants to do is start another project of the same type for free. She prefers to actually go work with people and do stuff that lies outside the normal realm of her career.

07-19-2011, 07:45 AM
Deberg_1990 In Search of a Life Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: San Antonio Tx. Casino cash: $64454	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.
Posts: 68,713

07-19-2011, 04:35 PM	#91
Iowanian Supporter Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Utopia Casino cash: $1658454	I doubt she gets out of the chair to have the taxpayer funded food produced shit dug out of her ass by the poor, taxpayer funded CNA that is unfortunate enough to draw the short shovel at work, let alone cook. I'm more pissed off the more I think about it....I was more shocked when she called, now I'm angry. The harder I try to not judge people and be a decent, charitable, helpful person, the harder people try to make me take a tomahawk to them. I could seriously go roll a hobo for sport right now. I'm fairly certain by looks that the offspring is "low functioning", but didn't get a good enough look while she laid on the bed, or gossiped with Mrs Grape while I was hefting boxes of books and stuffed animals and sofas and chest of drawers up steep ass, narrow stairways to the hovel where she'll masterb8 with a gold plated dildo.
Posts: 62,945

07-19-2011, 04:37 PM	#92
Fish Ain't no relax! Join Date: Sep 2005 Casino cash: $-1481081	That fat would dull your tomahawk in no time..... __________________
Posts: 48,889

07-19-2011, 04:43 PM	#96
Dave Lane Space Cadet and Aczabel Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Kanab, UT, USA Casino cash: $9333275 VARSITY	There are lazy worthless non-workers that I have no sympathy for but to say if you have a house you rent and an xbox means you are too well off to be considered poor is absurd. __________________ Thanks, Trump for the civics lesson. We are learning so much about RICO, espionage, sedition, impeachment, the 25th Amendment, order of succession, nepotism, separation of powers, 1st Amendment, obstruction of justice, the emoluments clause, conflicts of interest, collusion, sanctions, oligarchs, money laundering and so much more.
Posts: 40,584

07-19-2011, 04:58 PM	#98
Bugeater The Maintenance Guy Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Renovated Bugeater Estate Casino cash: $3992680	I'm now doing maintenance work and one of my properties is income-based (translated: lazy asses that don't pay no rent). It's great listening to these people constantly bitch because we can't put brand new everything into the apartments that they're not paying for. And even better is that I not only get to help pay for the juice and pop and potato chips and candy bars for the kids, I also get to pick up the empty juice packets and pop cans and potato chip bags and candy bar wrappers that they leave all over the grounds since their parents can't seem to find the time to teach them to pick up after themselves. And then they have the gall to bitch when shit doesn't get fixed fast enough...well gee...if I wasn't spending 2-3 hours every week picking up after your kids and cleaning around the dumpsters that your ignorant lazy asses can't seem to get your trash into, perhaps I could get to these things in a timely manner? Wait, no, I can't say that because they'd slap a fair housing lawsuit on us. On the flip side, I also take care of another property that is elderly and disabled, mostly poor ones that don't have anywhere else to go. And with a few exceptions, they are truly in need of the help and are very nice people to whom I'd do anything for.
Posts: 70,546

07-19-2011, 06:34 PM	#104
Extra Point MVP Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Prairie Village, KS Casino cash: $10004900	Hand these fuggers at the street corners a business card that reads: GET A ****ING JOB!
Posts: 7,845