“Poor” America

Think back to the 2004 Presidential elections…

Remember our good friend John Edwards and his “Two Americas” speeches? How somehow, some 37 million Americans live in horrid conditions and that 1 in 8 of us lack enough money for food…

There is a new Census Report due out on Wednesday and boy does it paint an opposing picture of the “legally classified” poor in America. Here are some of those pesky “facts” about those of us in the US classified as “poor” by the feds.

• 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.

I’m not TOTALLY discount people that are TRULY destitute… I’m just saying that the numbers pushed by people like Edwards are FAR off base…

• 89 percent of the poor report their families have “enough” food to eat, while only two percent say they “often” do not have enough to eat.

Yes we have poor people that really do need some assistance but stop the BS people.