He’s so poor that he ONLY has two flat-screen TVs!

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BarryO and his zombie followers like to repeat this mantra about “the rich getting richer, and the poor getting poorer.” The BarryO-ites like to preach about the poverty rate exploding (thanks to those mean Republicans).  We’ve even been hit by reports about an explosion in the poverty rate right here in Moore County.

The D.C.-based Heritage Foundation has released an interesting study on the state of the American economy entitled “Air Conditioning, Cable TV and an Xbox: What is Poverty in the United States Today?”:

Each year for the past two decades, the U.S. Census Bureau has reported that over 30 million Americans were living in “poverty.” In recent years, the Census has reported that one in seven Americans are poor. But what does it mean to be “poor” in America? How poor are America’s poor?

For most Americans, the word “poverty” suggests destitution: an inability to provide a family with nutritious food, clothing, and reasonable shelter. For example, the Poverty Pulse poll taken by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development asked the general public: “How would you describe being poor in the U.S.?” The overwhelming majority of responses focused on homelessness, hunger or not being able to eat properly, and not being able to meet basic needs.[1] That perception is bolstered by news stories about poverty that routinely feature homelessness and hunger.

Yet if poverty means lacking nutritious food, adequate warm housing, and clothing for a family, relatively few of the more than 30 million people identified as being “in poverty” by the Census Bureau could be characterized as poor.[2] While material hardship definitely exists in the United States, it is restricted in scope and severity. The average poor person, as defined by the government, has a living standard far higher than the public imagines. …

  • The typical poor household, as defined by the government, has a car and air conditioning, two color televisions, cable or satellite TV, a DVD player, and a VCR. If there are children, especially boys, the family has a game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation.
  • In the kitchen, the household has a refrigerator, an oven and stove, and a microwave. Other household conveniences include a clothes washer, clothes dryer, ceiling fans, a cordless phone, and a coffee maker.
  •  The home of the typical poor family is in good repair and is not overcrowded. In fact, the typical average poor American has more living space in his home than the average (non-poor) European has.
  • By its own report, the typical poor family was not hungry, was able to obtain medical care when needed, and had sufficient funds during the past year to meet all essential needs.
Gosh.  Those Hondurans living in mud-floor huts with tin-sheet roof and walls must be green with envy.  To them, a life of “poverty” in the U.S. sounds like THE GOOD LIFE.
As scholar James Q. Wilson has stated, “The poorest Americans today live a better life than all but the richest persons a hundred years ago.”[3] In 2005, the typical household defined as poor by the government had a car and air conditioning. For entertainment, the household had two color televisions, cable or satellite TV, a DVD player, and a VCR. If there were children, especially boys, in the home, the family had a game system, such as an Xbox or a PlayStation.[4] In the kitchen, the household had a refrigerator, an oven and stove, and a microwave. Other household conveniences included a clothes washer, clothes dryer, ceiling fans, a cordless phone, and a coffee maker.
After reading this, one might ask: Why does the government do this?  Why do they distort the numbers?  First, you have politicians trying to score political points resulting in increased government spending, more government dependency, and more grateful voters.   Second, you have government agencies expanding their “customer base” in an effort to justify their continued funding and existence.