The Poor Poor

[dianahsieh]

Originally posted by Diana from NoodleFood,

A fairly good article in the Christian Science Monitor reports on the prevalence of household appliances in American homes. It reports that over 98% of all households today have a television, refrigerator, and stove. Almost 60% of households have computers, compared with less than 20% ten years ago. The article notes that...

...nearly 13 percent of Americans have incomes that place them below the official poverty line. But what does that mean in terms of their daily lives? The fact that 95 percent of them may have a refrigerator tells only part of the story.

The Census report also compares, from 1992 through 1998, people's perceptions of whether basic needs were being met. More than 92 percent of Americans below the poverty line said they had enough food, as of 1998. Some 86 percent said they had no unmet need for a doctor, 89 percent had no roof leaks, and 87 percent said they had no unpaid rent or mortgage... Two-thirds of those in poverty had air conditioners in 1998, up from 50 percent in 1992.

Isn't capitalism great?!? Consider that poverty used to mean not earning enough to buy one's daily bread... and now it means "not enough money to buy the very latest gizmos." (And that's despite all the poverty perpetuated by the welfare state!) The article continues:

"In terms of the items people have ... it amazes me the number of people who are at or near the poverty line that have color TVs, cable, washer, dryer, microwave," says Michael Cosgrove, an economist at the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas. That's not to ignore the hardships of poverty, he adds, "but the conveniences they have are in fact pretty good."

With all the material abundance of poverty in modern America, I have trouble conjuring any feelings concern for those supposed "hardships of poverty." Yet some still manage to do so:

Personal computers have grown increasingly ubiquitous. Where fewer than 20 percent of homes had them in 1992, nearly 60 percent did in 2002 (more than own dishwashers). That doesn't mean all have equal access to PC-enabled economic empowerment. "What good is a computer without Internet access?" asks Paul Saffo, director of the Institute for the Future. In this networked age, he's only exaggerating a bit. While high-speed Internet access is spreading, the potential rise of free wireless networks in cities could help many low-income Americans, he says.

So over the next few years, any reasonably well-off American will be expected to feel guilty about the great new gap between "the haves" and "the have-nots" -- where "the haves" are magically blessed with high speed wireless, while "the have-nots" must suffer with the all the slow pains of dial-up. Please, let me get out my world's smallest violin: I'll play a tune or two.

(Also, Will Wilkinson has some good comments on the discussion of the impact of increased wealth on happiness from the article.)

[AisA]

Here is some additional data from a recent Heritage Foundation study on the "poor".

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- Forty-six percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.

- Seventy-six percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.

- Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.

- The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)

- Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.

- Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.

- Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.

- Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher.

“Overall, the typical American defined as poor by the government has a car, air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave. He has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV reception, a VCR or DVD player, and a stereo. He is able to obtain medical care. His home is in good repair and is not overcrowded. By his own report, his family is not hungry and he had sufficient funds in the past year to meet his family's essential needs.”

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Given how well-off the “poor” are, I guess we should not be surprised at the other major finding of the study:

“ In good economic times or bad , the typical poor family with children is supported by only 800 hours of work during a year. That amounts to 16 hours of work per week.”

In other words, whether jobs are plentiful or scarce, the poor are only working an average of two days a week.

Source: Robert E. Rector and Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D. “Understanding Poverty in America”, The Heritage Foundation, http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/bg1713.cfm

[Mark S.]

Hmmm, a computer with broadband, satellite tv, stereo, fridge, ample food, ac, but yeah I live in poverty.... Americans are just too greedy I guess. Who knew that attaining so many values to enhance our quality of life could still be equated with poverty.

[01503]

I remember someone saying that he'd rather be "poor in America than rich in Africa"

But what the hell does capitalism ever do for us, right? I mean, it NEVER gave us things like

• medicine--so that we don't have to drink some juice made by some witch doctor with a bone shoved through his head, and
  
• cars with air conditioning--so that we don't have to walk to work in all of this "global warming" (You may be more familiar calling this phenomenon summer) or in the winter (when we experience the undisputed concept of "global cooling"), and
  
• refrigerators, canned food, and freezers--so that we have food that doesn't spoil as fast as Paris Hilton's dog, and
  
• the internet--so that we can be connected with someone on the polar opposite region of the Earth and speak to them in a matter of seconds, so that we can buy things that are not available at the markets near us (such as a cardboard cut-out of David Bowie), and so that we can talk to fabulous people in websites like OO.net, and
  
• air planes--so that we have the ability to move cargo very quickly to parts of the earth in a matter of days, whereas it would have taken Marco Polo years to get to.
  
• big, evil, greedy corporations and their dirty, stinking mass production--so that we have all of the above available to us at cheap prices, making it easy for the "American Poor" to have access to things that would have been UNTHINKABLE a hundred years ago!
  

Now, let's take a look at what the Soviet Union... oh wait... that's right! It didn't give us SHIT, did it?

Thank you, pragmatists, socialists, communists, fascists, and the dumbass majority of the world for trying to destroy what made all of these things possible! The only bad thing capitalism ever gave us was the fact that it eliminated "survival of the fittest", leaving the complete morons of the world free to hump each other constantly and procreate!

[Juxtys]

I remember someone saying that he'd rather be "poor in America than rich in Africa"

Now, let's take a look at what the Soviet Union... oh wait... that's right! It didn't give us SHIT, did it?

Thank you, pragmatists, socialists, communists, fascists, and the dumbass majority of the world for trying to destroy what made all of these things possible! The only bad thing capitalism ever gave us was the fact that it eliminated "survival of the fittest", leaving the complete morons of the world free to hump each other constantly and procreate!

In Soviet Union, you could buy bannanas once a year if you was lucky enough to stand in a mile long line for them. Oh that was REALLY GREAT, compared to Capitalism?

[Steve D'Ippolito]

The only bad thing capitalism ever gave us was the fact that it eliminated "survival of the fittest", leaving the complete morons of the world free to hump each other constantly and procreate!

So much for the allegations that Capitalism is "social Darwinism."