*********** According to CBS News, “the number of people in the U.S. living in poverty in 2010 rose for the fourth year in a row, representing the largest number of Americans in poverty in the 52 years since such estimates have been published by the U.S. Census Bureau.” MSNBC said, “The U.S. poverty rate remains among the highest in the developed world.” Let’s look at a few poverty facts.
*********** Heritage Foundation researchers Dr. Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield laid out some facts about the poor in their report “Understanding Poverty in the United States: Surprising Facts About America’s Poor” (9/13/2011). Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. Nearly three-fourths have a car or truck, and 31 percent have two or more. Two-thirds have cable or satellite TV. Half have one or more computers. Forty-two percent own their homes. The average poor American has more living space than the typical non-poor person in Sweden, France or the U.K. Ninety-six percent of poor parents stated that their children were never hungry during the year because they couldn’t afford food.
*********** “The Material Well-Being of the Poor and the Middle Class Since 1980” (10/25/2011) is a research paper by professor Bruce D. Meyer of the University of Chicago and The National Bureau of Economic Research and professor James X. Sullivan of the University of Notre Dame. In it they report: “Our results show evidence of considerable improvement in material well-being for both the middle class and the poor over the past three decades. Median income and consumption both rose by more than 50 percent in real terms between 1980 and 2009. In addition, the middle 20 percent of the income distribution experienced noticeable improvements in housing characteristics: living units became bigger and much more likely to have air conditioning and other features. The quality of the cars these families own also improved considerably. Similarly, we find strong evidence of improvement in the material well-being of poor families.”
*********** The grim official measures of poverty or income stagnation reported are the result of a number of biases that understate well-being, such as relying exclusively on narrow income measures that do not reflect all the resources available to the household for consumption. Income measures fail to capture important components of economic well-being, such as wealth and the ownership of durables, e.g., houses and cars. For example, official measures would consider a retired couple who owned their car and mortgage-free $700,000 home and lived on $20,000 savings to be poor. Clearly, their income does not reflect their material well-being.
*********** “Income Mobility in the U.S. from 1996 to 2005” (11/13/2007) is a report by the U.S. Department of the Treasury that shows considerable income mobility of individuals in the U.S. economy. “Roughly half of taxpayers who began in the bottom income quintile in 1996 moved up to a higher income group by 2005. Among those with the very highest incomes in 1996 -- the top 1/100 of 1 percent -- only 25 percent remained in this group in 2005. Moreover, the median real income of these top taxpayers declined over the study period.” These findings confirm previous studies dating back to the 1960s reaching the same conclusion, namely: At different periods of time, different people occupy different income groups, but the overall trend is upward.
*********** What about the concentration of wealth? In 1918, John D. Rockefeller's fortune accounted for more than half of 1 percent of total private wealth. To compile the same half of 1 percent of the total private wealth in the United States today, you'd have to combine the fortunes of Microsoft's Bill Gates ($59 billion) and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ($19 billion), but with 10 other multibillionaires in between.
*********** Our congressionally caused recession has indeed caused needless hardship for many Americans, but the big poverty and income stagnation hype is part and parcel of an agenda to make us more accepting of politicians getting their hands deeper into our pocketbooks in the name of helping the poor.
*********** Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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John Adams “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”
Ronald Reagan: 'Everybody that is for abortion has already been born'
"I never said I was worth it. I only said I wouldn't do it for less " William F. Buckley Jr.
I read this yesterday. Mr.WIlliams is certainly aware. I did not need the piece to be written to know it...my sister in law in a NYC school teacher in a public high school in a crappy part of brooklyn. THe kids there are all poor....95% black is hte demographic...they all got cable/phones/computers/video games and designer clothes (at least footwear). De' po' ain't so po' no mo'
Send some of these parasitic scumbags to the hinterlands of Jamaica...they will see what poor means, and they will come back and kiss the ground in their government subsidized housing.
Those poverty numbers are absurd. You can put millions more into poverty simply by raising the limit or reduce poverty by lowering the limit.
And almost everyone living in "poverty" here would be considered quite well off in many countries.
"Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. Nearly three-fourths have a car or truck, and 31 percent have two or more. Two-thirds have cable or satellite TV. Half have one or more computers. Forty-two percent own their homes. The average poor American has more living space than the typical non-poor person in Sweden, France or the U.K. Ninety-six percent of poor parents stated that their children were never hungry during the year because they couldn’t afford food."
C'mon, air conditioning, cable TV, computers, 31% have two or more cars?
Excuse me, I have to go get a towel, I'm about to shed tears all over my keyboard.
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Proud parents of our own "Daddy's Little Girls"
I heard Jesus He drank wine and I bet we'd get along just fine.
The government never counts all the freebies they get.
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John Adams “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”
Ronald Reagan: 'Everybody that is for abortion has already been born'
"I never said I was worth it. I only said I wouldn't do it for less " William F. Buckley Jr.
Most of the poor people of the world would consider themselves rich beyond their wildest expectations if only they could be counted among the ranks of the American poor....
I'd say bho's brother in Kenya, who lives in a 6' x 9' hut and has a yearly income of around $12 knows what poverty is--both physical (his own) and intellectual (his brother's).
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"We can have no '50-50' allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all."-- Theodore Roosevelt
A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left. Ecclesiasties 10:2
The last four letters in American..........I Can
The last four letters in Republican........I Can
The last four letters in Democrats.........Rats
I understand what you guys are saying..
But with the interest in the debt they are going to accumulate
these poor folks will never get out of it..
I'm Canadian, the Company I work for with the help of me have a 600 million dollar contract from one of your biggest Aluminum and Glass and Installation Companies in the States and one of the bigger ones around the World..We have worked with this company in the past, but with this Contract, we do everything but install..
This Company is hurting huge and so are their employees..
Even in Canada things are tight.. One of my crew who is recently divorced, told me his exwifes house has no heat.. He supports 3 kids and they are living in a house in Winter with no heat..
His kids are freezing and it's going to cost around $9000 to get a new one installed.. He is a loving Dad and one hell of an employee..
He can't afford to replace the furnace with the debt and child support..This guy makes a good living, but between supporting his family and his own life can't get do it.. I am paying it,
the last thing I want to see is any one of my guys, the ones I hand picked, ones that are willing to put in 13 to 14 hours a day 7 days a week for weeks on end at times, suffer finacillay emotionally, physically, in any way shape or form.. Peoplr are in dispare..
They really are.I go to the States regularly, people and places that
were there are gone..
British Columbia, wiped out California's debt.. 10's of millions of dollars, Money this State owed us for Hydro..I'm pissed, but in reality
I know they don't have the money there to pay us..
The sad fact is though, that I highly doubt any of the citizens of California got any type of rebate on their Hydro bill..
In fact they probably pay more with increased interest rates.
Yes I agree the poor have alot of things that the poor in other Countries don't have...But that doesn't make it the least bit acceptable.. Countries like ours are better than that.. We both are suppose to be the land of opportunity forever and ever...
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DONATE BLOOD TODAY.....PLAY HOCKEY
There is no question that there are people who are truly in need. But the numbers show that there are a whole bunch of people, who, although considered to be living in poverty, are actully pretty well off.
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Proud parents of our own "Daddy's Little Girls"
I heard Jesus He drank wine and I bet we'd get along just fine.
I understand what you guys are saying. But with the interest in the debt they are going to accumulate these poor folks will never get out of it...
Is this debt personal ? If so, then there is a personal responsibility factor that's being overlooked. Im not saying that anyone is remiss, only that where there is debt, one must live within their means.
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I'm Canadian, the Company I work for with the help of me have a 600 million dollar contract from one of your biggest Aluminum and Glass and Installation Companies in the States and one of the bigger ones around the World..We have worked with this company in the past, but with this Contract, we do everything but install... This Company is hurting huge and so are their employees...
specify: YOUR company is hurting...the U.S. company is hurting ...BOTH hurting ? This is somewhat vague but I'll respond as if EVERYONE is hurting. We have a crisis situation where literally every human being is being affected. For whatever reason (I won't get into the politics or finger pointing of it), millions lost their jobs...the price of gasolene has tripled here in the US under the demokrat 'watch' with not 1 syllable said to fix the situation...the gasolene situation alone is enough to drive people to the poor house because everything....food...beverages...furniture...even people...are delivered by fossil-fuel burning trucks. Alternative fuels are not viable on this scale. So the world has gotten exponentially expensive. People lose jobs...they can't pay mortgages or credit cards or loans....financial institutions falter...credit stops as a risky venture...business cannot get the credit it requires to expand....the economy shrinks. We are seeing a lack of leadership, among people we have voted into office who believe social spending is a solution to national debt. It has never worked before, is not working now, and probably won't work in the future. Yet our 'leaders' fight to spend more. When we are paying out interest that is equal to our national income (GDP), we will fail. ANd bring the rest of the world down with us. It is not understood that 'social spending' is only viable in the best of times, with high employment and a very high GDP. We're broke and still spending. See how it affects you too ?
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Even in Canada things are tight.. One of my crew who is recently divorced, told me his exwifes house has no heat.. He supports 3 kids and they are living in a house in Winter with no heat..His kids are freezing and it's going to cost around $9000 to get a new one installed.. He is a loving Dad and one hell of an employee..
Ex wife and kids need to relocate...sell the house, take the money and buy something smaller and sustainable. Fixes the problem and secures everyone.
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He can't afford to replace the furnace with the debt and child support..This guy makes a good living, but between supporting his family and his own life can't get do it.. I am paying it, the last thing I want to see is any one of my guys, the ones I hand picked, ones that are willing to put in 13 to 14 hours a day 7 days a week for weeks on end at times, suffer finacillay emotionally, physically, in any way shape or form.. Peoplr are in dispare..
then you are an exemplary employer. Most don't care and guys like that end up being unable to support anyone, including themselves. Everyone suffers.
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They really are.I go to the States regularly, people and places that were there are gone..
British Columbia, wiped out California's debt.. 10's of millions of dollars, Money this State owed us for Hydro..I'm pissed, but in realityI know they don't have the money there to pay us..
The sad fact is though, that I highly doubt any of the citizens of California got any type of rebate on their Hydro bill..
In fact they probably pay more with increased interest rates.
Hold on there now. Kalifornia is a pestilence of social waste. They are taxing people exhorbitantly in order to pay for social services for illegal immigrants who do not contribute to the system. Hospitals are closing...schools cannot teach in English...it's a mess and there's no slowing down the slide into the toilet there. The people themselves support that kind of unbridled spending but as things become more and more out of hand financially...as their regulations drive business from the state, as their tax increases drive people from the state, their income base shrinks and then they go to a reliable and dependable business partner and ask for a handout like they did with BC. I'd have let them starve and squeezed blood from a stone. WIth debt forgiveness and bailouts, they just see the lessened responsibility as a license to spend more, now that they don't owe as much. Big mistake.
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Yes I agree the poor have alot of things that the poor in other Countries don't have...But that doesn't make it the least bit acceptable.. Countries like ours are better than that.. We both are suppose to be the land of opportunity forever and ever...
I agree....but what you see in other countries that you do NOT see in the USA, is the poor of other countries DO THINGS TO GET SOME MONEY...they engage in crafts....they open little cookstands, they go out into the jungle to pick gnippa that they sell to the tourists for 2bucks a bag (about 1.5 pounds in a bag)...they make things and sell them to tourists. Hell in Jamaica, I paid $10 for a string of watermelon seeds on monofilament. The guy had nothing but those beads...I throw 'em away but he sure appreciated the dollars. Here, the Amerikan poor sit like a baby who just shat his diaper and demand to be changed. That does not evoke sympathy on any great level....
Here you go sal, poverty in America
