80 percent of poor households have air conditioning. In 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
92 percent of poor households have a microwave.
Nearly three-fourths have a car or truck, and 31 percent have two or more cars or trucks.
Nearly two-thirds have cable or satellite TV.
Two-thirds have at least one DVD player, and 70 percent have a VCR.
Half have a personal computer, and one in seven have two or more computers.
More than half of poor families with children have a video game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation.
43 percent have Internet access.
One-third have a wide-screen plasma or LCD TV.
One-fourth have a digital video recorder system, such as a TiVo.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture collects data on these topics in its household food security survey. For 2009, the survey showed:
96 percent of poor parents stated that their children were never hungry at any time during the year because they could not afford food.
83 percent of poor families reported having enough food to eat.
82 percent of poor adults reported never being hungry at any time in the prior year due to lack of money for food.
Over the course of a year, 4 percent of poor persons become temporarily homeless.
Only 9.5 percent of the poor live in mobile homes or trailers, 49.5 percent live in separate single-family houses or townhouses, and 40 percent live in apartments.
42 percent of poor households actually own their own homes.
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 typical non-poor person in Sweden, France, or the United Kingdom.
The vast majority of the homes or apartments of the poor are in good repair.
If you're interested in a counterpoint to these 'statistics', you might want to read:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/poverty/news/2011/08/05/10063/what-you-need-when-youre-poor/
Or here...
http://mobile.slate.com/articles/ne...tml?original_referrer=https://www.google.com/
I always chuckle when somebody on DP talks about how America is going down hill and the people are always worse off and suffering, yet the standard of living for the poor has never been better in American history.
As you pointed out, poor people today have computers, internet, smartphones, refrigerators, cable tv, cars, etc.
If you're interested in a counterpoint to these 'statistics', you might want to read:
What You Need When You
Or here...
Are Americans living in poverty better off today than they were in 1959?
Especially reading the 'linen shirt argument' in response to the last post.
I believe how the government computes poverty is flawed. They do not include the value of the entitlements (non-cash) such as food stamps, housing and Medicaid in the total income of that person. I believe this to be disingenuous as it allows them to keep the poverty numbers higher by focusing only on cash income. This way the government can justify increases in entitlement spending.
OP hasn't enlightened me any even though I find the air conditioning number a little sketchy considering the poverty in large northern cities where a lot of people do not have AC whether they are rich or poor. For instance, when my businesses get new computers, I usually keep one or two of the old ones for future software conflicts, and then have new hard-drives put into them and donate them to a church that has computer training classes to pass them onto poor people.
A lot of things on the list are available rent to own or used pretty readily. Some of the things also are more likely to be gifts from others like DVD players and video game systems.
Don't forget- the definition of poverty is based upon annual income. So in good times (pre 2007), a lot of people accumulated stuff who now have little income.
Thanks for bringing that up. I did a search on the EITC. It was passed in Congress 1975 and signed into law by G. Ford. Its purpose was to offset the cost of Social Security taxes for low income. But today look what it has grown into...They don't even include actual cash like the EITC.
Nationwide in 2012, over 27 million received nearly $62 billion in EITC for the 2011 tax year.
The average amount of EITC received nationwide was $2,250.
Thanks for bringing that up. I did a search on the EITC. It was passed in Congress 1975 and signed into law by G. Ford. Its purpose was to offset the cost of Social Security taxes for low income. But today look what it has grown into...
Quite a chunk of change the low income earners don't need to claim as income.
Statistics for Tax Returns with EITC
As you pointed out, poor people today have computers, internet, smartphones, refrigerators, cable tv, cars, etc.
Exactly.
It seems what those that want to redistribute wealth want to re-define poor as is: "Not extravagantly rich."
Most don't even understand what real poverty is.
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