Air Conditioning, Cable TV, and an Xbox: What is Poverty in the United States Today?

[mandym]

Published on July 18, 2011 by Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield

Abstract: For decades, the U.S. Census Bureau has reported that over 30 million Americans were living in “poverty,” but the bureau’s definition of poverty differs widely from that held by most Americans. In fact, other government surveys show that most of the persons whom the government defines as “in poverty” are not poor in any ordinary sense of the term. The overwhelming majority of the poor have air conditioning, cable TV, and a host of other modern amenities. They are well housed, have an adequate and reasonably steady supply of food, and have met their other basic needs, including medical care. Some poor Americans do experience significant hardships, including temporary food shortages or inadequate housing, but these individuals are a minority within the overall poverty population. Poverty remains an issue of serious social concern, but accurate information about that problem is essential in crafting wise public policy. Exaggeration and misinformation about poverty obscure the nature, extent, and causes of real material deprivation, thereby hampering the development of well-targeted, effective programs to reduce the problem.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2011/07/What-is-Poverty

 

[freeatlast]

It is simply relative to where the bar is set and the bar has to be set in relationship to the area being looked at. It is not possible to set the bar for poverty where it is set in some other country. In fact it is not possible to set the bar at the same level even within the same country as different areas within a country have different standards of living.
So while the article has some value the writer is comparing apples to oranges. The standard that the government is using is simply a standard that covers all of the US without dealing with individual areas. There are those in the US who should and do fall into what is considered poverty within their culture. I would guess it is probably somewhere in the 10 to 15 percent range if an area by area evaluation was done and more if an over all evaluation is done. By the way I believe this is going to grow very fast in the coming months until the scale is tipped to about a 90 to 95 percent poverty level.

 

[billwald]

Agree that the nature of poverty has changed in the civilized countries. Our owners realize that the get more work out of us if we have some small minimum of health and comfort.

Poor people have every sort of consumer goods the rich people do but at a much lower quality. The BIG advantage of being rich is one doesn't have to stand in lines.