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

heritage ^ | 7/19/11 | Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield

[GeronL]

The big old TV in the nephew’s room is the last old fashion TV in this house.

[djf]

For quite a while I used to take a lot of food to the food banks.

But it didn’t take long for me to see people coming in and hauling away cartfulls of food - people who were driving way better cars than me.
People who mostly weighed in at 100 pounds or more more than me.
People with iJunk and cells phones better than mine.
People who had a LOT MORE bling than me!

So now I go through a church or work with people I know to help those in need.

[ilovesarah2012]

On the one hand we hear how children are going hungry and on the other how childhood obesity is an epidemic.

[ilovesarah2012]

My mother grew up during the Depression. When their shoes wore out, they put cardboard in them.

[JoeFromSidney]

A friend of mine used to say that there was a group in America determined to see that one-third of the population lived in substandard housing, had subnormal nutrition, and had to wear below-average clothing. What was that evil group? The statisticians, who defined things like substandard, subnormal, and below-average. That's what has happened to us. For the most part, the poor in America actually live pretty well. They are defined as "poor" only by comparison with other Americans, but not by comparison with the rest of the world or with how people lived a century or so ago.

[Black Agnes]

We do the same. Extra garden produce goes to family we know won’t accept government handouts but could use the food. Ditto kids clothes, kids toys, and any coupon runs hubby can manage but isn’t stuff we usually eat. It isn’t a ‘handout’ exactly because we’re family but we know the recipients will actually use the stuff and aren’t using government subsidies to finance extraneous stuff like Disney vacation.