America’s Poor Not Really All That Poor
Tomorrow the Census Bureau is set to release it’s latest report on those “officially” living in poverty in America and the report is expected to put that number at around 37 million. As always, there is no small amount of controversy as to what does and does not constitute poverty. One argument I’ve always made is that the Census Bureau basis it’s analysis on income, but doesn’t calculate in the varying cost of living rates from around the country. For instance, someone living in Los Angeles, or even Minneapolis, and making $35,000 could probably be considered low-income. But in North Dakota? That’s easily mid-to-upper middle class.
Another problem with the census numbers is that often people with incomes that classify them as poor for the purposes of the study aren’t really living lifestyles that most of us would consider as poor. As Robert Rector points out at National Review:
The following are facts about persons defined as “poor” by the Census Bureau, taken from a variety of government reports:
- 46 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.
- 80 percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
- Only six percent of poor households are overcrowded; two thirds have more than two rooms per person.
- The typical 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; 31 percent own two or more cars.
- 97 percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
- 78 percent have a VCR or DVD player.
- 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
- 89 percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.
Now, obviously, just because you own a microwave or have a DVD player doesn’t in and of itself mean you’re poor. But the Census Bureau has lumped some 37 million people into that “poor” category, and from the numbers above we know that a good chunk of them not only have microwaves and DVD players but also satellite or cable television, two televisions to go along with it, two cars, air conditioning and their own three-bedroom home with 1.5 bathrooms, a garage and a porch or patio.
Plus I’d be willing to wager that most of these households also have multiple cell phones, extensive DVD collections as well as computers and internet access.
The people who have those things aren’t poor. Or, if they are poor, they’re that way because they are living well beyond their means. In which case, whose fault is that? And is it really the responsibility of the government to help them?
The populists and the class warriors among us are quick to paint America’s “poor” as though they were the North American equivalents of starving Africans, yet compared to the poor in the rest of the world America’s “poor” are relatively fat and happy.
Besides, I take a pretty dim view of efforts to combat poverty in general. I don’t like seeing people struggling in life any more than the next guy, but the key to keeping poverty to a bare minimum (because we’ll never get rid of it) is to provide equality of opportunity to every citizen. Not government entitlements. Yet that’s not what most liberals want. Most liberals want equality of out come. Or, more simply, they want wealth redistribution from the rich to the poor so that we can all live in a utopia where everyone is relatively affluent.
Which sounds nice until you realize that a) to accomplish such a thing you have to entrust a terrible amount of power to a central authority so that it can do the redistribution and b) making a significant portion of the population dependent on the government for their needs isn’t a good way to create a thriving society.
Angry Vertebrate
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The Whistler
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